First of all, it has been brought to my attention that I skipped “part six” in this series…and for all of you type A’s out there that have had their lives disrupted because of this error…I sincerely apologize. :-) Seriously, I didn’t know I skipped part six and I do appreciate the e-mails letting me know; however, since I am all about going forward we will go ahead with part nine—we just can’t go backwards!
#9 - Never, I MEAN EVER, Underestimate The Importance And Power Of Prayer
Whenever I read Acts chapter one I am amazed at how it ends…a group of 120 people praying and seeking God. (Aren’t you glad they hadn’t read any of the current books that suggests that God wants to keep the church small?) Then, in the next chapter we see 3,000 people (interesting, someone counted) receiving Christ and being baptized. It all began with people praying.
At the end of Acts chapter four (Acts 4:23-31) we see a scene where Peter and John are released from prison, go back to their group & inform them of all that is going on…AND THEY PRAY! What happens during that time…the Holy Spirit enables them to speak God Word with boldness…all because people were willing to pray.
Prayer isn’t just a good idea when we can’t think of anything else to do. It isn’t something to tack on to every Christian meeting to make us feel better about ourselves. It should never take a backseat to anything…it should be THE THING that guides the people in the church on a personal basis.
Prayer works—we’ve seen it over and over here at NewSpring Church. I remember the early days after we had hired Lee; in fact, it was July of 2000 and our secretary at the time came to me and said, “Perry, we just paid the bills for the month and the checking account is low, REALLY low.” She showed me the totals and I freaked out!!!
I went home completely torn up about the situation…our church was seven months old, had hardly ANYONE old enough in it to have a job and tithe…and we were literally weeks from going under financially. I didn’t know what else to do—so I began BEGGING God to intervene. In fact, the next day I called every leader in the church and DID NOT ask them for money…I just asked them to begin praying.
The next week the offering was DOUBLE what it normally was…I’m not kidding. I got together with the leadership and celebrated…and then DEMANDED that they pray harder. The next week the offering was even more…and the week after that it increased again. We had NEVER seen anything like it—AND IT WAS JULY, typically when churched people take their tithe check and give it to people at the beach! :-) EVER since that time I pray for the giving at NewSpring every single day!
There was another time when we received a bill for $1,000 in the mail that we did not have the money for—AT ALL. I called the staff together (this is was in 2001) and asked them to pray. Within three days a man in our church approached me and said, “Perry, I just received a $1,000 bonus at work…is there anywhere it can be used in the church?”
Prayer works! Church planters/pastors—please hear me on this one! One of the most dangerous things I am noticing in the church world is that many leaders are no longer DESPERATE for God. We would rather read blogs, purchase the latest and greatest equipment and talk strategy than get on our faces before God so that HE can instill a WHITE HOT vision inside of us.
I wish someone would have told me how important it is…and, oh yeah…the larger the church has gotten the more amped up my prayer life has become. I beg God every day that He allow me to hear His voice, after all, it IS His church…He knows best…and if I doing what He wants then it is already blessed.