Have you noticed the moral deterioration of our country? 

That people have become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God?  That sin is no longer a concern?

That the persecution of Christians is expanding in our country and in the world? 

Nevertheless, the Lord is calling His people to fight the spiritual battle for our country and the world through prayer and intercession.  This is the reason for The 5y80 Objective.

5y80^TM stands for 80% of the Christians in America having or developing a “Good Prayer Life” and maintaining it for five years.  This is not an unreasonable goal in light of the fact that research indicates that 96% of Christians believe God wants them to have a good prayer life, as long as it is acknowledged that these “Good” prayer lives will look different for different individuals.

       Is our nation in trouble?    Can prayer change a nation?    If it is not too difficult, will you help?

The Strategic Prayer Initiative^TM (SPI^TM) began 1984 in the underground Cabinet War Rooms in London, England.  SPI’s first real pilot (pre-internet) was created in 1988 at the Moody Bible Institute located in Chicago, IL.   After the Moody pilot, the work had to be put on hold for 14 years.  God made a way for SPI to be picked back up in 2003 and it has been refined over and over and over again ever since.  We have worked hard and prayed sincerely to learn how to actually help the average American Christian to grow in ever increasing prayer effectiveness, as well as becoming more victorious in spiritual warfare.  SPI cut its R and D (Research and Development) teeth by working with churches and will always continue to work with churches.  However, it is with individuals (like you), starting from a grassroots level, where the best opportunity for rapid and large scale prayer growth exists.  Contrary to institutions, believers on a grassroots level can move quickly if there is desire, motivation, and a need.

The independent research has given us strong indications that the majority of average American Christians are currently finding it difficult to achieve the prayer lives they personally believe God would like them to have, but they want to try and get better.  It appears that the Strategic Prayer Initiative (SPI) may have been birthed for such a time as this.  However, only the Lord knows how intimately and comprehensively He has been involved in the work of SPI and The 5y80 Objective, but we do know this, “prayer is powerful” and “the Scriptures tell us to pray.”

Here is what we are asking you to do: 

• Make a commitment to form a PrayerCord^TM with two other people of your gender (Ecclesiastes 4:12), or bring the PrayerCord tools into your already existing small group. If you do not already have a “Good Prayer Life,” being in a PrayerCord or SPI Small Group will truly help you grow.  If you already have a “Good Prayer Life” all the better, because your success will help the others in your Cord or small group.
• Once in a Cord or SPI Small Group, we are asking you to pray for two minutes a day (guides will be provided). This is so easy, it can literally be done by muting one television commercial break.  Due to time always being two of the three major hindrances to prayer, we have purposely started with a very manageable level of time commitment.
• If not already in the Scriptures daily, commit to reading “two verses” a day (takes less than one minute). The Word is critical to developing your relationship with God and winning spiritual battles. (Mt: 4:1-11, 2 Cor. 10:3-5, Psalm 119:9-11)
• Meet at least once a month with your PrayerCord for prayer, encouragement, and accountability. [One reason you need to be in a Cord is so that you will fully understand how this powerful growth tool works.]
• You track the progress of your people, as they become part of at least five (5) million new individuals who are empowered to begin practicing a “Good Prayer Life,” essentially for the first time in their lives as Christians.

Think of how mighty the Lord’s hand is, and how much more of the Lord’s power could be released.  All you have to do is help two other people, but TOGETHER WE CAN BE MILLIONS (see back side of this document).  If you think our country is in decline, wouldn’t you agree that a strategy of large scale growth in fervent, righteous, strategic, and persistent prayer, from untapped multitudes in our Bible believing churches could prove immensely helpful?

Following is A Mathematical Interpretation for The 5y80^TM Objective:

The Current Population of the United States is approximately 320 million people.

We are estimating the number of genuine Christians to be approximately 3%* of the country.  Hopefully there are a lot more than that, but even if our number is too low, it still can give us incrementally five (5) million more people developing and maintaining GPLs then we already have.  Only God knows how many true believers there are in the U.S., but we do know that Jesus Christ said it would be the few, not the many (Matthew 7:13-14).

320,000,000  x  3% = *9.6 million – a conservative estimation of committed Christians in the U.S.

We know that approximately 96% of Christians we have asked believe that as long as you don’t force everyone into the same mold, that the Lord wants all of His followers to have a good prayer life.

9,600,000  x  96% = 9.216 million – feel the Lord wants them to have a “Good Prayer Life” (GPL^TM).

Next, we are allowing for 20% who are just not able to pursue a good prayer life right now (even though they believe God wants them to), because they are temporarily in some type of very difficult season in life (e.g. burned out, have been deeply hurt, have suffered some kind of tragedy, etc.) and are unable to pursue a deeper and better prayer life at this time.  We know some of these problems can move one closer to God, but let’s assume that for whatever reason, this 20% just cannot go there for now

9,216,000  x  80% = 7.373 million – Make up the 80% of the self-professed Christians sitting in the pews.

The SPI Diagnostic Survey work has indicated that approximately 28% of those in surveyed churches or groups have told us that at the time of the survey they had either a “Good Prayer Life” or a “mature prayer life” This means we have approximately  7,373,000 x 28% (a little over 2 million) who currently have a “Good” or a “Mature” prayer life, and over five (5) million who can only classify their prayer lives as “Fair” or “Poor.”

7,373,000  x  28% = 2.06 million – Who already have a good or mature prayer life.

7,373,000  x  72% = 5.309 million – Who are working towards developing a good or mature prayer life.

*[If there are actually say 6% or 9% true Christians in the U.S. vs. 3%, these two numbers could actually be much higher.] 

It is very important to let you know that the SPI Diagnostic Survey work we have done indicated that 40% to 55% of those surveyed (on Sunday mornings) said they had never had a “Good Prayer Life” (GPL^TM) or had had a good prayer life only a small portion of their total life as a Christian.  Additionally, since past performance is the greatest predictor of future performance, it is a fairly safe bet that unless a new approach is tried with this huge portion of the church, most will never get to “Good” prayer lives based on all of the methodologies that have been tried up until now.  We believe that is one of the main reasons the Lord has been birthing the Strategic Prayer Initiative (SPI).  [See SPI background Workshop Video at PrayerCords.org]

If you are a Christian, will you pray and ask the Lord if He would like you to be part of The 5y80 Objective, by helping yourself, and/or two others, who do not currently have a “Good Prayer Life” to develop one?  Our nation desperately needs prayerful intervention.   And by saying yes to this three (3) minute a day strategy, you will be part of something much greater than yourself.  You will be part of a possibly divine plan, that holds the true potential to wake a sleeping giant, a giant that can help our country (and possibly even have ripples go out into the world), by helping move the hand of God.

To receive free materials pertinent to The 5y80 Objective and SPI, email [email protected] or call 708.673.5998

We also make a weekly conference call available on Thursday nights at / 9:30 pm Eastern Time / 8:30 pm Central / 7:30 pm Mountain / 6:30 pm Pacific.  Someone will be available on these calls for at least 10 minutes. If no one has called in by then, the call will end at that time (until the following week).  These calls are available to anyone.  The purpose of the calls is so that individuals, or prayer teams, can ask general and/or specific questions concerning getting into a PrayerCord, or launching a PrayerCords Ministry, or SPI Small Group’s Ministry, or becoming part of The 5y80 Objective. To participate in the weekly conference call use the following phone number 641.715.3580 and access code 478951.    [Some may have a small one (1) penny per minute charge.]