Last week, 40 Days for Life began here in Lander, Wyoming and across the globe. Forty days not to protest, not to engage in political activism, not to write letters to members of Congress or state legislators, but forty days to pray and fast to end abortion. As their website puts it, “40 Days for Life is an internationally coordinated 40-day campaign that aims to end abortion locally through prayer and fasting, community outreach, and a peaceful all-day vigil in front of abortion businesses.”

The Purpose of a Christian Worldview

That brings to mind the group of nuns we met at church this summer while on vacation.

When I first came to a living faith in Christ as a teenager in 1971, friends quickly introduced me to what I’ve been calling “the Christian worldview project.” Now that you’re a Christian, they said, in addition to reading your Bible every day, you’ll want to read C. S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, John Stott, J. I. Packer, Os Guinness, and others to develop a Christian worldview. “Is this what Christians do?” I asked. “Yes,” I was assured, “this is what Christians do.”

That assurance was more wishful thinking than fact, but it got me to read the books and they developed a life-long desire to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2), to “think Christianly.”

Of course, the purpose of a Christian worldview is not to sit around feeling smug. The purpose is to change the world, to transform the culture which even by 1971 needed transformation. When Pope St. John Paul II began talking about “evangelizing the culture,” he was talking my language. Go out and make a positive difference.

Reading books led to conferences, led to study groups, led to advanced degrees, led to writing, speaking, and teaching. I worked for Chuck Colson, managing his daily Christian worldview commentary, BreakPoint. Through BreakPoint, we promoted books that encouraged a Christian worldview and cultural transformation; we provided resources for members of Congress and congressional staff; we sponsored conferences and study programs; we made principled arguments regarding issues such as life, marriage, family, sexuality, economics, war, and justice.

What Did We Miss?

Yet after all those years, after all those books, conferences, lectures, journals, websites, articles, and podcasts, the cultural decay today makes the cultural decay of the 1970s look positively healthy. Who could have guessed the depths to which our culture and cultural institutions have sunk — including far too many churches?

What went wrong? What did we miss?

A Singular Focus: Prayer

That brings me back to the nuns. They were Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará. Their order began in Argentina and has spread across the U.S. and Canada. This group lived in Washington, DC. There were about a dozen, all young, joyful, enthusiastic, and dressed alike in blue habits with blue or white head coverings and crosses around their necks.

We asked about what they did in Washington. Their order, they said, is focused on one thing. According to their constitution, “We want to dedicate ourselves to the evangelization of the culture.”

“The evangelization of the culture”! Someone else talking my language.

“How do you do that?” I asked.

“We pray for everyone we meet.”

When I visited their website, I found that they also teach at schools and churches, work with families, run youth events, serve the poor, and have a philosophical institute. But that didn’t come up in our conversation. For the sisters, the critical work in evangelizing the culture was prayer.

Prayer. Why didn’t I think of that?

Well, of course, I did think of it. Prayer has always been a part of the activities in which I and my worldview comrades in arms engage. But there was something different here. If the sisters meet or even see people on the street, they offer prayers that they will come to know Christ and that He will change their lives and the lives of those around them and, thus, the life of their communities, and the life of the culture.

The Hour is Late. Let Us Pray.

Don’t get me wrong. I have an activist bent. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t write. Articles, conferences, books, websites, podcasts, activism, politics, legislation, lawsuits and all the rest are part of changing minds and hearts and evangelizing the culture (and thus abolishing abortion). I have every intention of staying active and encouraging my students to join me — and eventually replace me.

But I’m convinced that the Servants of Jesus — young, enthusiastic, oddly attired women in the midst of sophisticated, worldly, rich, and powerful Washington — have the right idea.

What would happen if we Christians fasted once a week, using the time to pray for the evangelization of culture? What would happen if we said quick prayers for the salvation of the people we see passing our homes, sitting next to us in traffic, rushing through the supermarket?

St. James assures us (4:2), “You do not have, because you do not ask.”

Friends, the hour is late. Let us pray.

James Tonkowich, a senior contributor to The Stream, is a freelance writer, speaker and commentator on spirituality, religion and public life. He is the author of The Liberty Threat: The Attack on Religious Freedom in America Today and Pears, Grapes, and Dates: A Good Life After Mid-Life. Jim serves as Director of Distance Learning at Wyoming Catholic College and is host of the college’s weekly podcast, “The After Dinner Scholar.”