8/12/2019 2000 Issue 2 - Corporate Prayer: A Key to Your Church's Health and Ministry - Counsel of Chalcedon

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One

of

the most often

neglected church activities is a

weekly prayer meeting; This

is a tragic omission, one which

actually impedes the health

and mission

of

the local

church. In comparison to

preaching services and Bible

studies, a weekly prayer

meeting's attendance is signifi

cantly less in many churches.

In truly Reformed churches,

emphasis is placed upon the

preaching and teaching

of

God's Word. While this is

proper, corporate prayer

meetings should likewise be

given a place fprominence in

the church's overall

ministry. ,Unfortunately,

this is often not the case.

t is imperative, therefore,

for church leadership to

encourage its congrega-

tion to attend weekly

prayer meetings. The

congregation must be taught

the vital importance that

corporate prayer has in the life

ofthe Christian.

Reformed theology cor

rectly recognizes that prayer is

, a means

of

grace just like

preaching and the sacraments.

Moreover, Reformed theology

has always emphasized the

practicality

of

God's sover

eignty for daily Christian

living. t has repudiated the

prevalent cultural attitude

of

self-sufficiency, Reformed

churches should therefore

realize that

failUre

to make

weekly prayer meetings a

congregational priority en

courages an attitude ofself-

sufficiency among God's

people. Prayer, by its very

nature, recognizes that we are

inadequate in many areas and

totally dependent upon the

power and grace of God.

Prayer is

Oile

of the vital

means by which the church

communes with her head,

Jesus Christ.

t

is an way in

which the power

of

God

operates and his will is ac

complished in our lives. So

why

don t

many church mem

bers see the value ofprayer?

Onereason may be that they

simply do not understand the

real purpose and value

of

C:orporate Prayer:

A

Key To Your

C:hUl ch 's

J

Iealtb and

Ministry

John M. Otis

prayer. We have been taught

that hearing God' s Word is

essential to growth in the

Christian life. Yes, we must

know what God has revealed

to us in order for us to obey

Him in all areas

oflife

. At the

same time we must realize that

we have no inherent strength

to believe and obey God s

Word. The Holy Spirit is the

agent of sanctification for

Christian living, and prayer is

one way in which the Holy

Spirit works His grace in our

lives. Jesus said,

But when

He,

the Spirit

of

truth

comes, He will guide you

into all the truth;

fOl

' He will

not speak on His own initia-

tive,

but whatever

He hears,

He will speak; and He will

disclose to you what

is

to '

come

(John 16:13).

Priorto

His ascension, Jesus told His

dillciples to

wait in

Jerusalem

until the promised Holy Spirit

would

be sent

to

them

(Acts

1 4,5). As the disciples

waited in Jerusalem, they were

devoting themselves to prayer

(Acts 1:14), and on tlie day of

Pentecost the Holy Spirit

came upon them with great

power.

The apostle Paul under

stood the vital relationship of

prayer

I;lnd

the application of

God'sWord in our h r i s ~

tian lives. Note how Paul

prayed for the EpheSian

Christians:

For this

reason I too; having'

heard

of

the faith

n

the

Lord

Jesus which ex isis

among you, and your

love

for

all the saints, do

not cease

giving

'thanks

for

you, while making

i n e ~ t i o n

of

you

in

my prayers; that

the God

of our Lord

Jesus

Christ, the Father

of

glory,

may give you

1

spirit

of

wisdom and revelation in the

knowledge

of

Him, pray

that

th

e eyes

ofyour

heart

may be enlightened so that

you may know what

is

the

hope

of

His calling, what are

the riches

of

the glory

of

His

inheritance in the saints and

what

is

the surpassing

gret;1t-

ness

of

His power toward

tiS

who believe. These are

n

accordt;1nce with the working

of the strength

of

His

might

(Eph,1:15;19).

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For the Colossians Paul

prayed, For

this reason

also,

since

the day we heard

of

it,

we

have not ceased to

pray for

you

and to ask that

you

may be

filled

with the .

knowledge of his will in all

spiritual

wisdom and under-

standing, so that you may

walk

in a manner worthy of

the Lord, to please Him in

ll

r espects.

, bearing

fruit

in

every good work and in-

creasing in the knowledge of

God; strengthened with all

power, according to His

glorious might, for the

attaining of

all

steadfastness

andpatience

, joyously

giving thanks to the Father

who has qualified us to

share

in

the inheritance of

the saints in light (Col. 9 .

12).

The

Scripture is abundantly

clear Prayer is a God or

dained means by which the

Holy Spirit sanctifies His

church.

In

the above pas

sages, note that Paul did not

cease to pray for the church's

spiritual'growth.

To

sum up,

we must be faithful to hear the

preached word. We must be

equally faithful to pray for that

word to bear fruit in our lives.

There are many places in the

New Testament where church

members and church leaders

are commanded to

devote

themselves to prayer, to

persevere in prayer, and to

pray wit out ceasing (Acts 1;

14; Acts 2:42; Acts 6:4; Rom.

12; 12; Col. 4:2; Eph. 6:18;

Lk. 18:

1;

Col. 1 3,9; Eph.

1:16; I Thess. 5:17). The

Greek word for "devote" in its

various contexts conveys the

idea

of

"tarrying, continuing

steadfastly, cleaving faithfully

to." t should be obvious that

prayer is a major emphasis in

Scripture in the life

of

the

church. The duty

of

prayer,

then, should be viewed as one

ofthe foremost responsibilities

of

every church member.

n

Acts 2:42 the church of

Jerusalem was said to be

"continually devoted to

prayer." In Acts 6:4, the

apostles, as elders of Christ's

church who are to shepherd

the church, said: But we will

devote ourselves

to

prayer

and

to the ministry of the

word. " In light of the clear

Scriptural command to church

members and to church elders

to be devoted to prayer, we

must ask several painful

questions: Why do so many

church members neglect

weekly prayer meetiiIgs? And

does church leadership devote

itself

to corporate prayer and

strongly encourage its congre-

gation to be faithful in prayer?

We are terribly mistaken ifwe

think that the spiritual health

and mission of the church can

be carried out without a

devotion to prayer. God said

in James 4:2 that we do not

have because we do not ask.

We

cannot expect church

members to grow in sanctifi

cation

if

we are not constantly

praying for one another and

if

church elders are not laboring

in prayer for the congregation.

We

cannot expect world

missions to expand and bear .

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COUNSEL ofChalcedoD

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2000

fruit without constant prayer.

Jesus stated it qUite simply in

Matthew 9:36 - andseeing

the multitudes, He felt

compassion

for/hem,

be-

cause they were distressed

and downcast like sheep

without a shepherd. Then

He said to His disciples,

'The harvest is plentiful, but

the workers are few, There-

fore beseech the Lord

of

the

harvest to send out workers

into His harvest. '

One

of

the undeniable keys to the

success ofworld missions is

prayer

For the nations

of

the earth

to be discipled, there S an .

urgent need for preachers who

will fearlessly declare the

.

whole counsel of God. Who

can make such men? Only

God can. TQ that end, God .

says that we must petition Him

in prayer: What happens ifwe

fail to pray? The clear m p l ~

cation is that He doesn' t send

them out. Someone might

argue, " A sovereignGod

doesn t need us to accomplish

His will; therefore, we cannot

say that our lack

of

prayer

hinders world missions." God

doesn t need any ofus to

accomplish his eternal coun

sels. He is orrmipotent and

sovereign, in need

of

nothing

he has created. However, the

Scripture is clear that God has

chosen to use human activity

as an ordained means to

accomplish His sovereign

decree. Prayer is one such

means. Divine sovereignty

and human responsibility

should always be conceived as

8/12/2019 2000 Issue 2 - Corporate Prayer: A Key to Your Church's Health and Ministry - Counsel of Chalcedon

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complementary doctrinal

truths.

t

is not the responsi

bility of the creature to know

and understand how these two

work together. The fact that

God says that we do not have

certain things because we fail

to ask for them is clear evi

dence that human responsibil

ity does impact a world under

God s sovereign control. God

commands uS to pray fOr

godly preachers. A lack of

prayer does impede world

missions. In fact, Paul pled

with the Roman Christians to

strive together with him in

their prayers for him (Rom.

15:30,31). Paul asked the .

Ephesian church to persevere

in prayer for him so that he

might boldly speak the gospel

(Eph. 6:18). The prayers of

the church are used by the

Holy Spirit to empower God s

heralds to preach faithfully and

boldly.

Postmilleunialists, of all

people, should be the greatest

prayer warriors. As

postmilJennialists, we ac

knowledge that the Great

Commission will be accom

plished in history. The na

tions of the earth one day will

be discipled; the ealih will be

filled with the knowledge

of

the Lord as the waters cover

the sea. King Jesus will strike

the earth with the rod

of

His

mouth, and with the breath

of

Bis lips, He will slay the

wicked (Isa. 11:4). This

means that the gospel will be

victorious. Let s not be naIve

to think that this mission can

be accomplished apart from

prayer. Those churches that

claim to be thoroughly re

formed and po stmillenni

al

must place a strong emphasis

upon the ministry of prayer;

otherwise, they are greatly

deceived.

If

these churches

are not encouraging their

members to make corporate

prayer a priority, then, in all

honesty, they are failing in a

vital part of their ministry.

Church elders need to be

reminded that their ministry is

essentially two fold as Acts

6:4 states. Elders are to be

devoted to prayer and to the

ministry ofthe word.

Now that we have admon

ished the church to see the

necessity

of

corporate prayer,

how can the church practically

implement weekly prayer

meetings? Here are some

suggestions:

(I )The pulpit periodically

needs to encourage the con

gregation to participate n

corporate prayer

by

preaching

sermons pertaining to prayer

and by encouraging weekly

attendance at prayer meetings.

(2)Church leadership

should encourage a church

wide corporate prayer meet

ing, or encourage various

prayer groups in the homes of

church members.

3

)Church elders

need

to

provide leadership to the .

congregation by participatiJlg

n such weekly meetings.

(4)Churches which have

their congregation assigned to

various elders for oversight

purposes should encourage

the elders to have those

families assigned to them to

submit prayer requests to the

elder so that he can faithfully

perform one ofhis God given

responsibilities as an elder.

In conclusion, to neglect

corporate

prayer

is a terrible .

mistake for the continumg

welfare ofChrist s church. f

our churches are not growing

in

grace and having the impact

in the community that they

should, the church leadership

needs to determine whether

prayer is the priori ty in the

congregation hat it must

be

or

if it is a neglected aspect of

church life that is weakening

the body of Christ and limiting

her victory over

the

world

**For a more in depth

study of the natu/ e ' .

p r a y e the reader is

e n c o u r ~

aged

to order John Otis

. booklet e

ntitled

, The Pray-

ing Christian: God's War-

rior.

It

can be ordered

for

$1.25 from Triumphant

Publications at 6070Surrliy

CT Cumming, Ga 30040**

February/Marcb, 2000 -

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COUNSELofCba\cedon.,

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