Praying for Every Person in the World -- By Name

Is it possible to pray for every person in the world by name? With the combination of technology, culture, and the combined efforts of Bible-believing churches and ministries around the world, Brian Alarid, an ordained Assemblies of God minister, believes the time has come for every person in the world to be lifted up in prayer by name.

Alarid, an ordained AG minister, founded Passion Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife Mercy. While serving the church, he also began a movement called America Prays, which unites local churches in around-the-clock prayer for their cities and states.

In September 2020, Alarid stepped away from the pulpit in order to move the headquarters of America Prays to Austin, Texas. During this time, he also started to bring together a new worldwide movement called Pray Beyond.

“There are 7.6 billion people in the world,” Alarid explains, “and we know every man, woman, and child needs to hear the gospel. Since we want them all to hear, it makes sense to pray for them so their hearts are open and receptive to the gospel — so when they hear God’s voice [John 10], they’ll respond to it.”

Although a monumental challenge, Alarid already has several organizations backing this effort, including America Prays, Bless Every Home, National Day of Prayer, National Prayer Committee, Every Home for Christ led by Dick Eastman, the Great Commandment Network, Samuel Rodriguez and the National Hispanic Leadership Council, Doug Clay representing the U.S. Assemblies of God, pastor Chris Hodges from Church of the Highlands, GO 2021, All America, and many others.

What Alarid is proposing, however, isn’t a “one-and-done” rote prayer for a person, but that the names of people would be presented to the Lord on a regular basis. He wants Pray Beyond to roughly follow in the footsteps of Bless Every Home, where people at first pray for others, then care for them, followed by sharing the gospel with them, leading them to Christ, and discipling them.

“Technology will certainly help us identify people in places such as the United States,” Alarid says, “but I’ve been questioned about places like Africa . . . and I just explain that you have to understand the culture for many Africans, where genealogy is very important and passed down. People know their extended family lines well beyond a generation or two.”

For other areas of the world, such as northern Asia, Alarid says the message will be spread and people prayed for through a mixture of both high-tech (such as the internet) and low-tech (word of mouth).

The soft launch for Pray Beyond took place on Jan. 27 in Austin with about 120 pastors from the greater Austin area coming together for a time of vision casting. Alarid says the plan is to have a hard launch on April 15. Austin, a city of 2.2 million people in the metro area, will be the pilot project.

“We want to learn what it takes to do this in one city — how long does it take, what resources are needed, who are our partners, and how do churches respond before attempting a national and then global effort,” Alarid says. “It’s not a new idea, but it is an idea whose time has come.”

To learn more about Pray Beyond and its efforts to pray for every person in the world by name and share Christ with them, contact Alarid at [email protected].