prayer meetings

I have been struggling all week with a sermon topic - which occurs at times but it is finally coming together. I have been a pastor for 17 years in one form or another and, in general, prayer meetings have the lowest attendence of any meeting concerning church. That should not be. I have read materials to learn how to change this, used music, adjusted lighting, etc. in an effort to build it and .... well attendence never changed. THEN IT HIT ME!

IF -- and that is a big word -- we are radically committed to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission we will pray intently and radically and with enthusiam because we will be in the middle of a spiritual conflict and we will need the direction and guidence of the Lord. The lack of attendence at prayer functions is actually a good indicator of the spiritual condition of the church. Most often prayer meetings become organ recititals and those do get to drag on (pray for J. 's kidney, lung etc)

Pray is a direct communication from our King, Lord and commander in this conflict we are in when we are acting and living as disciples -- we would and do seek it when we are following the Commandment and the Commission for we then NEED the presence and comfort of the Lord.

Prayer meetings are a good way to judge the spiritual status of the congregation.

The Heart of God

The triune God is a missionary God and His people are to be a missionary people. The totality of the witness of the Bible indicates that. Our lives are no longer our own once we come to Christ but we are now a part of the Lord's grand mission to redeem the earth. This is the purpose of our existence -- to know Christ and Make Him Known!

Recently, I have been speaking about the Mission's effort I will be involved in to Madrid, Spain in several churches. The vibrant growing congregations have jumped on board, are praying for the effort and seeking to find funding to support it. The decling congregations see the effort as a waste of time, a vacation or a misuse of resources to reach them over there instead of those here. This shows a misunderstanding of the entire efforts - if missions is the heartbeat of God, participating in it brings a blessing from the Lord onto the church.

It is sad that so many American's believe that they are committed Christians when they distance themselves from the very thing that makes us a part of God's mission. Very Sad.

I have included a video from the Christian Missionary Alliance about Europe in this post so the few readers can see the great need of Europe.

Makes you want to help doesn't it? Specific prayer needs for the Madrid effort will be posted this week under the Madrid Missions tab on the Branchville Church website. If you are considering becoming a prayer partner please let me know so that I can begin to send you private updates for prayer needs.