A while back I came across a statement that posed a very relevant challenge for the church. I do not quite remember where I read it, or who wrote it. Neither do I remember the exact wording. But the Lord recently unpacked the thought from my memory. In essence, here’s what the statement asserted: We often decry the fact that prayer has been removed from our schools. We express our dismay and make known our “demand” that prayer be brought back to our schools. But we overlook the fact that there is one “place” where prayer seems to have also become quite rare, where prayer needs to be brought back. That place is none other than the church! (By “church,” of course, I mean Christians, especially as a community of worshipers.)
Honestly, prayer as it should be is somehow lacking in many churches. Sure we still have those “routine” prayers before and after certain events or activities. We occasionally have prayer sessions. And we bring our personal concerns before the Lord. Yet it still is a long way from what real prayer is about.
What the Lord seeks from his temple (which, in the New Testament, is the church) is that it should be a “house of prayer” (Luke 19.46). The basic idea is that it is in the church where true worship happens, where God’s people seek to know God’s will and to submit to God’s will. Prayer is not just seeking solutions to personal problems but entrusting everything to the wise leadership of the Lord.
One sorry indicator of an unhealthy attitude toward prayer in many churches is the lack of motivation of church people to gather for prayer. Church members somehow consider praying together as an optional activity … maybe even an inconvenient distraction from “more important matters.”
But prayer is, for the church, an essential element for its healthy existence. When the followers of Christ first came together as a church after the Spirit descended on them, the book of Acts testifies that they “devoted themselves … to prayer” (Acts 2.42). And throughout the book are recorded many instances of the church gathering together for prayer—in times of rejoicing, in circumstances of suffering and persecution, when choosing and commissioning workers for the gospel. Prayer was consistently part of the church because through prayer the church affirms its absolute dependence on the Lord for its life and ministry.
Bring back prayer … to the church!
–Keith Y. Jainga