When it comes to missionary support-raising, your prayer card is the star of the show. When people think about you and your ministry, your prayer card will be one of the first visuals that comes to mind, and while you’re out on the field, your prayer card will help maintain connection with your support base of prayer and financial partners. With such a relatively small piece of paper carrying so much weight, it’s vital to put some careful thought and planning into what you want to include. Fortunately, we’ve designed thousands of prayer cards over the past two decades and have learned a thing or two about best practices.
Start with a strong photo
We won’t go into too much detail in this post because we’ve already written multiple posts about how to get the perfect prayer card photo (both using a professional photographer or doing it yourself), but we cannot overemphasize the importance of a good quality photo. We know you have so many things on your to-do list and it’s tempting to just scroll through your camera roll and find a “good enough” photo, but your prayer card will be the visual representation of your ministry for YEARS to come. Trust us, it’s worth putting in the extra time and money if at all possible to get a photo taken specifically for your prayer card.
Plan your content
So you’ve got a great photo, now what else goes on a prayer card? You’ll definitely want to include your name and the location where you’re serving (or general region if you’re in a secure area), but after that, there are quite a few options to choose from. We’ve compiled a couple of lists for you of primary and secondary pieces of content to choose from, but don’t think of primary and secondary as in terms of importance, but rather in terms of visual weight and how much space they usually take up on a card.
7 primary content options
- A meaningful Scripture verse (1-2 sentences max)
- Don’t feel pressure to use a filler or stock verse if there’s not a specific Scripture the Lord has used in your calling or as a vision for your ministry (or if the passage is too long).
- A mission statement, vision, or tagline for your ministry
- Could be 1-2 sentences or a group of key words.
- Evergreen prayer requests for the coming term
- Think through 2-3 prayer items that you want people praying throughout the next few years.
- Map of your location
- Going somewhere people might not be familiar with? A map or country outline can be a great tool!
- Relevant fact(s) about the country or people group you are reaching
- Your prayer card is probably not the place for a paragraph about your particular context, but if there’s a unique or significant statistic relevant to your ministry, it can be helpful to highlight.
- Brief thank you message to partners
- Write a note of appreciation to your supporters reminding them the significant role they play in your ministry.
- A short verse or key word in language of your people group
- We don’t see this too often, but it can be a powerful visual to include the language of the people you’re serving as part of your prayer card.
7 secondary content options
- Your contact info
- Provide one or two ways to contact you (eg: phone number, email address).
- Giving info
- Provide a link, QR code, or mailing information.
- Ministry update information
- How can people follow along or learn more about your ministry? Include website, social media, newsletter sign up, or all of the above using a QR code and link sharing service.
- Sending Org/Church info
- Requirements vary between organizations, but often you’ll be need to include a logo, website, and/or contact information.
- Birthday or Anniversary dates
- Some missionaries like to share birthdays or anniversaries with supporters.
- Different areas or types of ministries
- If you are involved in a range of different ministry avenues, you can list the different ways you are serving on your prayer card.
- Photos of your context or ministry in action
- You can include a photo or two of your location or ministry. If you don’t have high quality photos available, we can find something great in our stock photo library!
Pick the right size
We know every missionary has different needs and different budget constraints, so we offer five different prayer card sizes as well as three specialty options (like reply cards and bookmarks). Here are the maximum number of content pieces we recommend for each of our five sizes (in addition to your primary photo, name(s), and location):
- Small prayer card
- 2 primary pieces, 3 secondary pieces
- Medium prayer card
- 3 primary pieces, 3 secondary pieces
- Square prayer card
- 3 primary pieces, 3 secondary pieces
- 3.5×5 prayer card
- 3 primary pieces, 4 secondary pieces
- Large prayer card
- 4 primary pieces, 4 secondary pieces
Your prayer card is the star, not a solo-performer
If there is one thing we’d like to emphasize for missionaries about their support-raising strategy, it would be that not every piece you create needs to have all the information you want to share. You need to narrow down one or two primary goals for each communication piece you create and let those shine. Have more information you want to communicate than will fit on a prayer card? Consider a Case for Support Doc or Brochure to go along with it. Can’t decide if you want to highlight your awesome family photo or include more photos of your ministry? Make a magnet featuring your family photo to give to financial supporters and use more but smaller photos on your more widely distributed prayer card.
We hope this guide has helped you think through your prayer card and you’re ready to add to cart. But if you have more questions, we’re here to help even before you submit an order!