Project 938 Sunday
Set the Alarm: What Happens When a Church Prays Matthew 9:38
Somewhere in a meeting room, a phone goes off at 9:38.
It’s mine. It happens Monday through Friday, and it doesn’t care what’s on the agenda. I stop, explain what the alarm is, and invite whoever is in the room to join me. Some have been puzzled. A few have been a little embarrassed for me. And more than once, someone has pulled out a phone after the prayer was over and set an alarm of their own.
That small interruption is Project 938. I’ve come to believe it is one of the simplest and most powerful things a pastor and a church can do for world missions.
Where the Number Comes From
The reference is Matthew 9:38. Jesus had been moving through cities and villages, teaching, preaching, and healing. Then this happened:
“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:36-38)
Look at what Jesus did with that moment. He saw the crowd, was moved by it, and gave His disciples one instruction. He didn’t say to organize or raise funds. He said to pray, and to pray for laborers.
The BBFI’s Project 938 principle is that simple. Set an alarm on your phone for 9:38 — AM, PM, or both. When it sounds, stop and pray that the Lord of the harvest will call and send more laborers to people who still have no Gospel witness. The project also encourages every church to set aside one Sunday each year to call the whole congregation to pray that prayer together.
Prayer Changes the One Who Prays
I can’t tell you everything God does with those prayers. I’ll admit that. But I can tell you what the alarm has done in me.
I am more aware, every single day, of lost people around the world. A reminder that interrupts an ordinary morning keeps the harvest in front of me instead of leaving it to a once-a-year missions conference. I’ve been part of the project since its beginning, and it has shaped how I think, how I pray, and how I lead.
What does God do with those prayers? I believe He answers every prayer prayed in His name that aligns with His will, and this one is as aligned with His will as any prayer can be. Scripture says He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). So while I may never see the result, I’m confident that God is moving, calling, and working in lives of people I will never meet. He loves the people who need the Gospel more than we do.
And there is evidence. Pastors and missionaries tell of stories that come in from Africa, Asia, Latin America and literally from around the world: men and women now on the field who say it began when they started praying the Matthew 9:38 prayer. Others tell of how their church was praying the 938 prayer and God called them to go; they are an answer to the prayer. That shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus gave us this prayer as the way laborers are sent.
What It Looks Like in One Church
At Cherry Street, we send out missionaries from our own congregation. Fifteen families are currently serving, and we support roughly 140 missionaries and projects in all. We have long believed that sending is the work of the local church, and that prayer has to come before everything else in it.
Project 938 fits naturally into the rhythm of our church. Our 938 Sunday falls the week after our annual missions emphasis. The conference opens people’s eyes, and 938 Sunday gives them something to do with what they saw. It seems to be a natural thing that when we ask for a Faith Promise Missions commitment, we then follow that up with prayer that costs nothing but a minute.
This year we also retooled our Sent Teams, groups of members who pray for, encourage, and care for the missionaries sent from our church. With them came a new initiative we call Take 5. On the second Sunday of each month, team members gather at the close of the morning service for five minutes of prayer together for their assigned missionaries. One prayer asks God to send more laborers. The other asks Him to sustain the laborers He has already sent. Both come from the same Savior’s heart.
Our interns and those preparing for missionary approval have been a special focus. We challenge them, and others who have surrendered to missions or are praying about God’s call, to set the alarm. It is meaningful and it matters. It teaches them to pray for the lost and for those who will go, and one day they may find they are praying for themselves.
The Principle Travels
The more I’ve prayed at 9:38, the more I’ve seen that the same principle applies to other needs. A reminder at a set time keeps urgency alive in a way that good intentions don’t.
On November 22, we’ll host our Friends and Family Day, the highest attendance Sunday of our year and the day when more people who need Jesus will be in our building than on any other. So we’re using 11:22, the date itself, as a daily alarm challenge for our people to pray for their friends, neighbors, coworkers, and relatives to be under the sound of the Gospel that Sunday. The 9:38 habit set the table, and we’re simply using it for another kind of harvest.
A Challenge for Pastors, Missionaries, and Christian Workers
If you’re a pastor, here is what I’d ask of you.
Set the alarm yourself. Don’t ask your people to pray something you aren’t praying. Mine has gone off in meetings, in the car, and in the middle of conversations, and each time it has been a good interruption.
Set aside one Sunday this year. Call your church to pray for laborers together. If you hold a missions emphasis, consider the week after, when hearts are tender.
Pass it to those who are close to the call. The young man wondering about missions, the intern, the family who has been hesitating: invite them to pray this prayer every day. It will do something in them before it does anything else.
If you’re a missionary, you know better than anyone what it means to labor in a harvest where workers are few. Tell your supporting churches about Project 938 and ask them to pray it.
Jesus saw the multitudes, was moved with compassion, and told His disciples to pray. I can’t improve on that. The harvest hasn’t changed, and the Lord of the harvest hasn’t either. Set your alarm today. When it sounds, stop and pray.
Written By Dennis W. Jennings, Senior Pastor, Cherry Street Baptist Church, Springfield, Missouri
Here are some pictures of 938 Sunday in different parts of the world.
