Why Prayer is Central to Ministry
Over this past year, we have seen some amazing provisions from God in the life of our little church. The leadership team has done a wonderful job of organizing and developing our ministries. The majority of people are contributing their finances, their time and their labor to make The Bridge a warm and well organized church. For this and the dear brothers and sisters of this church, I could not be more grateful. There is a spirit of adventure and risk-taking that has made this last year of pastoral ministry the best I have experienced so far. But the Holy Spirit reminded me last week through the sermon series I have been working on, that there is still something missing; the priority of prayer in our personal and congregational life and courage to share the gospel with the people God sends us to. I simply want to address prayer in this letter.
Why is prayer so central to ministry? To answer that question, I believe there are three other questions we have to answer first.
Firstly, what are we up against? Is it other churches that are larger, more organized, better known and who possess more talents and money? Is it a bad location that keeps our visibility from the public? Is it a lack of human resources? Or is it ignorance of the gospel in this community? If we think any of these are the church’s greatest challenge, then we have hopelessly underestimated the problem. The condition of our culture and neighbors is one that is blind to God’s truth, dead towards God’s love, and rebellious towards God’s law. And beyond the hardness of the human heart there’s a whole world of spiritual darkness. There's way more going on behind the scenes of your family, your work and your ministry than you see. . Our battle is not against flesh & blood but against principalities & demonic forces that want to keep our culture in spiritual darkness and the church distracted. At times you may feel discouraged but remember that there's more going on than you can see and when you know that you'll want to pray.
Secondly, what do we want to see happen? Do we want to help people? Yes, but gospel ministry is more than that. Jesus didn’t come to help humanity but to SAVE humanity. To many in our culture, this statement is an affront but to those who have been and are being saved by the gospel, it is the aroma of life. A gospel-centered church then is not just about lending a helping hand but seeing the lives of people being recreated from the inside-out. This new birth (John 3) is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit; it happens when he moves in a person’s life. It is not the product of our programming, organization, preaching, singing or small groups but the result of a divine initiative. And when we recognize the limitation of our efforts to truly transform lives, we’ll want to pray.
We're looking for more than behavior modification, we're looking for new life from above that makes us the kind of people who are joyful always, pray continually and who give thanks in all circumstances. This only happens through divine power. You have the privilege of knowing the One who holds that power, and He invites you to talk to Him.
Thirdly, what do we depend on? "Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction." (1 Thess 1:5) When Paul went to Thessalonica, amazing things happened. Then he moved on to Athens and to Corinth. You'd think that after his great success in Thessalonica, Paul would have arrived in Corinth full of confidence, but he says the opposite: "I came to you, in weakness and fear and with much trembling."(1 Cor 2:3)
Why does Paul say that? Because the power does not reside in him. He knows that it comes from above, and every time he stands up to speak, he's absolutely dependent on God. When the Holy Spirit moves, the word Paul preaches is the means of bringing blessing and transformation to many lives. But apart from the Spirit of God, he knows that he's only a man talking, and nobody's life is changed by that. Not to diminish the appropriate role and place of our ministries but nobody’s life is changed by our organizational abilities, by our singing, or even by our serving. Surely God uses these as means of grace but life transformation is the work of God alone. So Paul prays. And so we must pray.
If you think one life can be set free from the power of darkness by my preaching or by your serving, we’re greatly mistaken. It is God who opens blind eyes, and softens hard hearts. It is God who drives back the dark powers that keep people bound. It is God who brings new birth, sends new power and grows new fruit. When we see that we will pray-not out of duty, but out of sheer gratitude and joy that we have the privilege.
Please join me on Sundays at 9:15am @The Bridge to pray.
