IT'S TIME TO PRAY

Over the course of my life, particularly in the last 30 years since I left my secular work to go into full-time ministry, I have seen God do amazing miracles. It has left me with a firm belief in the power of prayer. That doesn't mean I am consistently a prayer warrior. That's something I admit with considerable chagrin because I should be, given all that God has done. Still, there is no question in my mind that God moves when His people pray. I've seen it over and over again.

I remember a particular time when I was giving leadership to CEFOntario. We had recently gotten out of a significant deficit, and God had miraculously provided us with a camp facility near Brantford. But in the year following the move the ministry's finances were not looking too good. I was becoming increasingly fearful that we were going to slide into the deficit position we had worked so hard to overcome.

As the leader it was my responsibility to do something, so I considered all kinds of ways we could work to increase the donations which sustained the ministry. God didn't give me any peace with any of them, and I just couldn't proceed. As I fervently prayed for God's direction all I could sense was a need to have a special prayer effort.

So, I set a date and asked all of our staff to come from around the province to the camp for a special day of prayer. Our board was invited to come as well. We had a list of prayer partners (not donors - prayers) who I also invited to come. I shared my concern with our staff, and then by mail with the prayer partners who couldn't attend in person. We committed ourselves to prayer. 

To tell you the truth, I was expecting some kind of divine revelation, some clear sign from God for what we were supposed to do. Nothing like that happened, and we concluded the day only knowing we had been faithful to pray as He commanded us to.

I felt at the time that God did not want me to make a special appeal to our supporters, so beyond the list of those who were committed to pray no one was informed of our financial need. 

This all happened in May. Over the following several months we were able to keep our head above water and we continued to pray that God would do something special. And He did. December was usually a good month for us financially, but nothing like what we experienced that year. We didn't have any special appeals or do any new promotion, but we finished that year with the highest surplus we had ever had. Just seven months prior things were looking desperate.

God continued to bless over the next few years as well, and we were never again in financial danger. And the blessings didn't stop with the finances. He worked in miraculous ways in many other aspects of the ministry as well. What did we do? In obedience to God we prayed, and He did the rest. We gathered together and presented the need to the God of the universe. After all, it was His ministry, not ours.

God has allowed me to have this kind of experience on several occasions throughout my ministry. He has shown me how important it is to truly place things in His hands. rather than desperately trying to figure out plans and schemes that come from our own heads.

We are not facing desperate financial problems at The Mission. But almost every church and ministry these days, including The Mission, faces many challenges. Some of them are spiritual problems we can't fix. Some of them are relationship issues. Some of them are volunteer needs. The list goes on.

It's not about surviving. We can survive as we are. But it's about flourishing, seeing God accomplish the amazing things we know He wants to do. We have scratched our heads on numerous occasions wondering what the solutions are. What are other churches doing? What do the successful pastors and famous Christian authors say? Is there any way to make some headway with the kinds of challenges facing churches in 2016?

The answer has been staring us in the face all along. We need to look to God. Of course we've been praying, but we feel it's time to make prayer a greater emphasis in our congregation than it's been. As God gives us wisdom we intend to do a variety of things designed to mobilize the church to prayer. 

At this point it's not even a matter of having a list of specific prayer requests. The point is simply to turn The Mission, with all of it's programs and people and successes and challenges over to God and implore Him to bless His work. God wants the church to succeed more than we ever could. What we need to do is to trust Him, be obedient, and not get in His way.

If you're from The Mission you're going to be hearing a lot about prayer in the coming months. I don't know yet what it will all look like, but we are hoping to turn our congregation of 200 - 220 people into an army of prayers. Together we want to seek God to have His perfect will accomplished in and through us.

Are you on board? Why don't you pray about it.