Church Planting Series, Part fifteen
A number of years ago I stood in my little mission church waiting for wedding rehearsal participants to arrive. A groomsman arrived early. He looked like a football player—tall, strong, and a bit menacing. I was surprised when he asked me this question: “Do you mind if I pray?” I told him that I didn’t mind at all. He immediately walked to the front of the worship area, knelt down, bowed his head, and began to pray in earnest.
This was unusual. Strangely enough, not many people used our little church to pray during “off” hours.
After about 20 minutes, he got up and joined some other members of the wedding party. I told him that I really admired the fact that he took time to pray. He replied, “My pastor is a man of prayer. That’s the kind of man I want to be, too. He says that prayer is the foundation of our lives. I want that in my life.”
How many times do you talk about prayer, teach about prayer, assure people of your prayers, laud the power of prayer, create prayer strategies and prayer chains, and add items to your prayer list, but never really get around to praying?
I heard a speaker say recently, “We have lots of strategic planning meetings for mission, but how many prayer meetings do we have?”
The praying man who walked into my church inspired me. I wanted to be a man of prayer—-an example for people I served. I also wanted our church to be a church of prayer—-using the gracious gift God gave us. You can’t read the Bible and not see the precious gift of prayer—and its powerful impact. Pray is the way Jesus started His day. Prayer is what Jesus did before His most intense life and ministry challenges. Do you want workers for the Kingdom harvest? Jesus said to pray for it!
After the wedding rehearsal, I prayed. I asked God to lead us to a foundational and priority ministry of prayer. He answered. He sent eager and dedicated pray-ers to saturate the church with prayer and to lift up an active prayer life to all. Our mission became founded on and laced with prayer. People routinely filled our worship area in “off hours” to pray.
The result? Many were reached with the life-saving message of Christ. Many, many lives were transformed.
I learned to pray first.
You know how it goes. People say, “When all else fails, pray.” “I tried everything I could think of; then I finally prayed.”
What if you practiced and taught a “prayer reflex”? What if prayer was the first action, the default, the automatic response to every mission idea and ministry effort? What if prayer came first? What if prayer happened immediately? What if prayer gatherings and prayers prayed consumed more time than planning meetings? What if you helped cultivate a vibrant ongoing dialog with God that shaped your actions and your decisions?
What if you did this first—-right now—-before anything else? What might God change?
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Knee Factor
Church Planting Series, Part three
A couple of weeks ago I watched and listened to President Obama’s talk at the Presidential Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. It was a good talk. But it wasn’t the main event at, or the main point of, the prayer breakfast.
Most of the focus of the prayer breakfast happens behind the scenes. I got a chance to attend the National Prayer Breakfast a few years ago. The great uncle of a friend of mine is one of the people who, with Doug Coe, helped form “the fellowship,” the organizing “non-organization” that makes the Presidential Prayer Breakfast happen. They insist it isn’t an organization because it’s all about personal relationships and small groups.
What they say is true. I got a chance to sit with Doug Coe and some of his colleagues as they spoke with the president of a Caribbean nation about Jesus Christ. I sat with congressmen and judges as they shared Jesus with invited guests from all over the United States and world. I witnessed citizens and leaders working to bring the blessing of the Savior to others—-including our nation’s President. I saw rooms full of prayer breakfast organizers from every state of the Union praying for the Holy Spirit’s work at this event.
Prayer FOR the president and others is the bedrock of the sound bites you hear on the evening news. There is so much more to the story.
The same should be true of every church plant.
In my ministry experience I’ve found that there is a lot of talk ABOUT prayer. Getting down to business and PRAYING is another story.
I’ll never forget the man who entered the small sanctuary of our mission church to attend a wedding rehearsal. He was early, so he asked me if he could kneel at the front of the church and pray. He said, “My pastor is a man of prayer; my church is a church of prayer; and I want to be a person of prayer, too.” I said yes—-and I learned something.
Starting that day, I contacted a couple of people who were prayer leaders. We talked about how we could make sure our church was a church of prayer. The main takeaway of the meeting was that we needed to stop simply talking around the issue. We needed to start praying.
Many types of prayer efforts followed, but the common thread was that in all prayer events and other gatherings as a church, we took time to pray. Let me emphasize that: we took TIME to pray. In addition to teaching about prayer—-which is very important, we actually prayed.
When there was silence for prayer in a worship service, I made sure there was enough time for people to really pray. I supplied “prayer starters” to people for daily prayer and for leaders at meetings. We grew a team of prayer leaders who kept prayer running through the veins of our life together. We had people on their knees in prayer. We invited people to pray. We modeled prayer. I read John Maxwell’s book “Partners in Prayer,” and I resolved to grow as a man of prayer.
The first New Testament church plant was immersed in the gift of prayer—-the gracious open door of communication with the Lord (Acts 1:14). What's happening behind the scenes as you venture into ministry?
A couple of weeks ago I watched and listened to President Obama’s talk at the Presidential Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. It was a good talk. But it wasn’t the main event at, or the main point of, the prayer breakfast.
Most of the focus of the prayer breakfast happens behind the scenes. I got a chance to attend the National Prayer Breakfast a few years ago. The great uncle of a friend of mine is one of the people who, with Doug Coe, helped form “the fellowship,” the organizing “non-organization” that makes the Presidential Prayer Breakfast happen. They insist it isn’t an organization because it’s all about personal relationships and small groups.
What they say is true. I got a chance to sit with Doug Coe and some of his colleagues as they spoke with the president of a Caribbean nation about Jesus Christ. I sat with congressmen and judges as they shared Jesus with invited guests from all over the United States and world. I witnessed citizens and leaders working to bring the blessing of the Savior to others—-including our nation’s President. I saw rooms full of prayer breakfast organizers from every state of the Union praying for the Holy Spirit’s work at this event.
Prayer FOR the president and others is the bedrock of the sound bites you hear on the evening news. There is so much more to the story.
The same should be true of every church plant.
In my ministry experience I’ve found that there is a lot of talk ABOUT prayer. Getting down to business and PRAYING is another story.
I’ll never forget the man who entered the small sanctuary of our mission church to attend a wedding rehearsal. He was early, so he asked me if he could kneel at the front of the church and pray. He said, “My pastor is a man of prayer; my church is a church of prayer; and I want to be a person of prayer, too.” I said yes—-and I learned something.
Starting that day, I contacted a couple of people who were prayer leaders. We talked about how we could make sure our church was a church of prayer. The main takeaway of the meeting was that we needed to stop simply talking around the issue. We needed to start praying.
Many types of prayer efforts followed, but the common thread was that in all prayer events and other gatherings as a church, we took time to pray. Let me emphasize that: we took TIME to pray. In addition to teaching about prayer—-which is very important, we actually prayed.
When there was silence for prayer in a worship service, I made sure there was enough time for people to really pray. I supplied “prayer starters” to people for daily prayer and for leaders at meetings. We grew a team of prayer leaders who kept prayer running through the veins of our life together. We had people on their knees in prayer. We invited people to pray. We modeled prayer. I read John Maxwell’s book “Partners in Prayer,” and I resolved to grow as a man of prayer.
The first New Testament church plant was immersed in the gift of prayer—-the gracious open door of communication with the Lord (Acts 1:14). What's happening behind the scenes as you venture into ministry?
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