Dick Eastman Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at Influence Conference

“The degree to which prayer is mobilized is the degree to which the world will be evangelized.” – Dick Eastman

In a moment hallmarked by spiritual legacy and celebration, Dick Eastman received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 Influence Conference in Orlando, Florida. The prestigious award, presented by General Superintendent Doug Clay, is given to individuals whose life and ministry have had significant influence within the AG fellowship.

While presenting the award, Clay described Eastman as “a catalyst for bringing the Assemblies of God into a mature season of prayer.”

Eastman, a leader in global evangelism and prayer mobilization, has spent decades winning souls for Christ across the globe. During his years of ministry, Eastman’s efforts have led to the gospel being presented in 2.5 billion homes, which has resulted in nearly 250 million documented decisions for Christ.

Born and raised in Wisconsin where he attended an Assemblies of God church, Eastman’s intent was to graduate high school and study law at a local university. Yet at a church camp during his senior year, a profound encounter with the Holy Spirit dramatically shifted his plans. Just 90 days before the start of the school year, Eastman enrolled at North Central University where his call to ministry was ignited.

While at North Central, Eastman met his wife, Dee, who became his partner in ministry. After three years of youth ministry in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the two moved to Sacramento, California, where their youth ministry flourished during the Jesus Movement. From the beginning, Eastman built his work with youth on a foundation of prayer, a practice he intentionally passed on to those under his leadership.

After a weekend prayer retreat with his youth group, Eastman felt the Lord leading him to start the Prayer Corps, a program for high school graduates modeled after the Peace Corps. The Prayer Corps was a one-year experience in which young adults committed themselves to 12-months of prayer, “spending their days and nights in prayer for the souls of a generation,” according to his biography.

Out of his desire to equip the greater body of Christ to make prayer a daily practice, Eastman founded the Change the World School of Prayer, a multi-hour training seminar that has impacted over 3 million believers globally on the practices of prayer and intercession, especially for the nations of the world. These 3 million intercessors represent 150 countries and 120 different denominations.

In 1988, Eastman was asked to serve as the international president for Every Home for Christ, a global evangelistic organization aimed at helping every person in every home hear the gospel and experience the goodness of Jesus. Each year, Every Home for Christ goes into cities, towns, and villages around the world, systematically going block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood, visiting every home and offering entire families a chance to hear the gospel message. Many villages visited have never had any previous gospel witness.

“We may have anywhere from 15 to 40 positive responses from those in a village, indicating they have prayed to receive Christ into their lives, and Every Home sends a team back into those villages to form groups of new believers that we call Christ Groups. These groups, essentially baby churches, are formed and mobilized so they can encourage each other and grow in their new-found faith,” Eastman says.

“Back in the 1980’s we averaged two or three new groups every day, while last year that number increased to more than 80 new Christ Groups being formed daily. In fact,” he adds, “from 2010 to 2020, not a single year went by where we didn’t average more than 20,000 new Christ Groups annually.”

Eastman served in his role as international president for 34 years until, in 2022, he passed the baton. However, he continues representing the ministry as president emeritus while serving on the board of directors as chief prayer officer.

But his impact extends even further.

In the mid-1970s Eastman was a founding member of the National Prayer Committee, a diverse group of national prayer leaders, which later gave birth to the National Day of Prayer Task Force. They lobbied congress during the Reagan years for an official and permanent National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday of May annually, which became a reality on May 5, 1988, when President Reagan signed the bill into law. Eastman continues to serve as president of the National Prayer Committee, a role he has held for more than 20 years.

Eastman recalls early observances of the National Day of Prayer event in which small groups of 20 to 30 gathered to pray for the nation in a Washington D.C. congressional caucus room.

“In recent years,” Eastman reports, “there is standing room only for the DC event, which is televised globally, and there are consistently more than 50,000 separate prayer gatherings across the United States related to the National Day of Prayer.”

A prolific oral and written communicator, Eastman has authored 24 books, with more than 10 million copies in print, and numerous articles on evangelism and prayer. He is a global speaker for conferences and events. Eastman has also provided leadership to numerous prayer and evangelism movements, including The Global Day of Prayer, World Prays, Billion Soul Harvest Campaign, the Go Movement, Finishing the Task, and Empowered21. He holds his PhD in Social Psychology and an honorary Doctor of Prayer from College of Prayer in Phoenix, Arizona.

Clay remarks, “Dick has mentored thousands of pastors and churches in prayer and evangelism. He practices the presence of Jesus. He has helped the body of Christ to see the direct correlation between prayer and evangelism.”

Throughout his life, Eastman recalls bearing witness to this truth: “Every time we increased prayer, the harvest increased dramatically. It’s been astonishing.” Even today, he goes on to remind all those he encounters that, “Something happens when I pray that does not happen if I don’t. Therefore, if I have not prayed today, something has gone undone in God’s kingdom plans for my life, and for the lives for whom I might have prayed.”