Prayer

Sometimes the answer is so simple we overlook it.

How can we become a church that is alive?

A few months ago I felt led to ask the deacons to meet for prayer before our meetings - 15 minutes before. I also asked our pastors to meet for prayer before our staff meetings on Tuesday - 15 minutes before.

We meet for prayer on Saturdays at 8:00 A.M. for one hour. Recently, we have begun walking through the rows of chairs, asking God to move during our Sunday services.

I have also asked our ushers to meet at 8:30 A.M. for prayer on Sunday mornings. I further challenged the choir to spent time before each service, asking God to fill our worship times with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Tonight, I am changing the order of our Bible Study a little bit. I am going to teach for an hour with discussion - and then we are going to pray.

God always does great things in answer to our prayers.

Pray, pray, pray. God calls us to pray. We don't do great things for God and then pray, we pray and then expect God to act. We don't plan and then pray, we pray and then plan. We don't become a leader in the church and then participate in prayer times, we participate in prayer times and then become a leader in the church.

I deeply appreciate people who pray. Not for my sake, but for our church family's sake, and for their sake.

Robert Benson writes,

"I am increasingly convinced that if the Church is to live, and actually be alive, one of the reasons, maybe the most important and maybe the only reason, will be because we have taken up our place in the line of the generations of the faithful who came before us. It will be because we pray the prayer that Christ himself prayed when he walked among us and now longs to pray through us.

It will be because we choose to no longer be among the ones who silence the prayer that Christ, through his body, prays to the Father.

It will be because we make sure that the wave of prayer that sustained the Church for all time does not stop when it is our turn to say it each day. It will be because we answer the ancient call to pray without ceasing."

May you join our increasing burden and challenge to pray.