Let's Pray

What do you normally pray about? Think about it, what are the things that seem to always show up in your prayer time? Are your prayers marked by some of the things that my prayers are marked by?

"Thank You for the day..."
"Lord bless me..."
"Lord keep me..."
"Lord give me..."
"Lord protect me..."

You get the picture right? Do you notice something about most of our "prayer cliches"? The word "me" tends to find its way in there a whole lot, maybe even to the point of a really unhealthy obsession with me & mine. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with thanking God for the day or asking God to bless you or protect you. However, if that's the extent of your prayer life, maybe there's a reason why so many of us complain of a dry, uninspiring prayer life. When we look back at how the early church prayed in the book of Acts, it becomes even more convicting. In Acts 4 the actual words of a prayer of the early church is recorded, & sadly, it doesn't sound like my prayers or the prayers I often hear offered up in our congregations.

The background of the passage is that the Gospel is spreading. Peter & John have healed a man & preached the Gospel in the name of Jesus. That attracted the attention of the Sanhedrin, the political & religious elite of Israel, & oh by the way, big opponents of Jesus. The arrest Peter & John, throw them in jail overnight, interrogate them, & threaten them before releasing them. When Peter & John reunite with the other Christ followers, they pray. However, they don't pray like many of us would. They don't pray for wisdom as they formulate a security plan for the apostles. They don't pray for funding so that they bail the apostles out of jail & keep a defense attorney on retainer. Instead in Acts 4:29 they ask God to enable them to speak boldly the name of Jesus. Wait a minute. Don't they already have boldness? Isn't boldness the very thing that landed them in trouble to begin with? Yes, but they pray for even more boldness. However, they're not praying for boldness simply for boldness' sake. They want to be bold so that those who are far from God may be reconciled to God through the Gospel of Jesus. Their prayers were intensely outwardly focused. Their prayers weren't for their own good but for the good of the lost. That's how the early church prayed, & the result was radical unity &  an explosive advancing of the Gospel. Is that how we pray? I know for me, the answer is usually a resounding "No". Yet there is a powerful & convicting truth that we should note here:

"How We Pray Indicates Whether We've Strayed."

The early church paved the way for all of us who were to come after. We don't have to emulate every little thing they did, but we should walk in their footsteps of faithfulness. And the way they prayed exposes the weak, timid, & self centered faith that many of us have. Do we pray with intensity & urgency that God would use us mightily so that the lost may be saved? Do we pray that God would enable us to be speak & live boldly in the name of Jesus? Or our are prayers focused on what we want or think we need. What if our prayers for protection are in someway in opposition to God using us for His glory & the salvation of the lost? What if the lost can only be reached by Christ followers living & speaking boldly & therefore risking their material comfort & security? 

What do your prayers say about whether or not you've strayed or how far you've strayed?

More Leaders Please

As we continue looking at the early days of the Church in the book of Acts, we see an important & probably awkward conversation take place in Acts 1. Peter stood up & pointed out an important issue that needed to be dealt with as they prepared for what God was going to do. They had to deal with a leadership vacancy created by that guy Judas that nobody really wanted to talk about. Judas was sort of the black eye of the group. He was the colossal failure that nobody in the church really wanted to bring up, but it had to be deal with. Peter understood that this created a leadership need that had to be dealt with, & the way Peter led the Church through that issue is amazing, especially when you consider that it was Peter. He used godly, scriptural based wisdom to lay out the need to replace Judas, the qualifications for the replacement, & the process by which the replacement would be chosen.

Coincidentally, this seems to be the last piece of the preparation puzzle for the Church before the Holy Spirit comes in Acts 2. However, this wasn't the last leadership issue that the Church would deal with. In Acts 6 the Church faces its first big controversy. The amazing thing is that the problem that arose came about because of the radical growth of new believers & disciples. The Church simply couldn't keep up organizationally. Therefore, there were people in need who weren't being ministered to because the Church was simply overwhelmed. Again Peter & the apostles masterfully lead God's people to a solution. And the solution wasn't for the leaders to do more; it was to have more leaders. Peter & the apostles had a specific call & ministry, & it wouldn't have been appropriate for them to neglect that calling in order to directly deal with this issue. Instead, more leaders needed to be set aside to handle this particular ministry. The result of this is seen in Acts 6:7 as even more people came to faith in Jesus, even Jewish priests serving at the Temple. These events teach us an important truth about the movement called Christianity.

"Growing Godly Leadership Is Vital To 

The Continued Growth Of The Movement Of Jesus."

No congregation on earth is exempt from this truth. In order for the Gospel to continue advancing & for more & more people to grow as disciples, more & more people must step up & lead. We all have influence. Therefore, we are all leaders, & as followers of Jesus we're called to use that influence to continually lead people to Jesus. Whether we're leading them toward saving faith or deepening faith, we're called to point people toward faith in Jesus. The only question is whether we are or not. For some of us this leadership will mean taking on an official role in your local congregation. For others it simply means taking advantage of the opportunities you have to lead people toward Jesus. Ask yourself these questions, "Who can I lead?" & "How can I lead them?" What can you begin to do to sow the Gospel into the lives of those you influence everyday? How you leverage that influence is absolutely essential & vital to the continued growth of this movement that Jesus launched 2000 years ago.

The Waiting

A long time ago Tom Petty said that "the waiting is the hardest part," & he's right. When we have a good idea, especially if we sense that God is guiding us, our inclination is to take off & get to work. However, many a good idea has met with its untimely demise due to the excitement that comes with the idea. We get caught up in the excitement & immediately try to get it done, but in the process we forget that many times the difference between success & failure is found in the waiting. Waiting & preparing gives us the opportunity to refine an idea, prepare ourselves & those we need to accomplish it, & to make sure our timing is as good as it can be. We understand this when it comes to business, financial planning, & other areas, but we often overlook this principle in the spiritual realm. However, Scripture is filled with references to the value of waiting on God. In fact, waiting was crucial to the launch of the Church in Acts 1 & 2.

Just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gives His disciples the stirring mission found in Acts 1:8. He lays out that they've been called to reach the entire world with the good news of salvation through Him. Like anybody who would have experienced that, I'm sure the disciples were excited & ready to get to work & to tell people all that they had witnessed. However, just before He gives them this exciting mission, Jesus instructs them to go back to Jerusalem & simply wait. Remember, this group was led by a guy named Peter who was a pretty self-motivated doer. I don't think Peter liked waiting. I'm guessing he would have been miserable in a doctor's office or at the DMV, but when Jesus ascended into heaven, Peter led that small group of believers back into Jerusalem, & they waited. The gathered together & waited. Why wait? The simple answer is that they waited because they weren't quite ready to actually accomplish the mission that Jesus had given them because that mission hinged on something: the Holy Spirit. They had to wait for God to move before they could move, but they needed to be ready when He moved. This teaches us a valuable truth:

"We Can't Produce A Movement Of God, But We Can Prepare For One."

Neither Peter & those early disciples nor can we today produce a genuine movement of God. It is totally dependent upon His sovereignty & providence. However, we can be prepared to join Him when He does move. Notice what the disciples did when they returned to Jerusalem. They got away from the hustle & bustle & prayed. What did they pray? We don't know for sure, but I'm pretty confident there was some powerful, worshipful prayers, some deeply repentant confession, & some passionate prayers for the boldness that would be needed when the time came. Perhaps today we need to stop trying to manufacture a movement of God & simply create more opportunities for God's people to prepare themselves to join with God when He decides to pour out His Spirit in a fresh way. Finally, think about this for a moment. Will God move in a powerful & might way in our midst if we haven't prepared ourselves to be a part of that movement? Or will He choose to move among those who have done the work of preparing themselves to be used by God to advance the Gospel & make disciples? 

This episode of the early church's history ends with the disciples gathered to pray. Then the Holy Spirit shows up. They preach the Gospel & 3000 lives are changed as they repent & turn in faith to Christ. How will our little chapter of church history end? Who knows, but perhaps our willingness to prepare will determine how, when, & if God moves among us. We may not like waiting but perhaps waiting isn't just the hardest part, but it's also one of the most important parts.

Your Church Is Not The Church

Yes, you read that title correctly. Your church & my church is not The Church, that is if you define your church as that building you go to every Sunday to sing songs & study God's Word. However, I find myself automatically responding to the word "church" by thinking of a building or location. I envision the church I grew up in, the sanctuary, the Sunday School classes, my youth pastor's office, & the slide I fell off of when I was like 5. But that's not the church, & neither is that place you go to every week.

The truth is that while that building is used for a very holy thing, it's still bricks & mortar, wood & nails, wiring & plumbing. That building, that property is not the church. You are The Church & I am The Church. In the New Testament the word translated as "church" is the little Greek word "ekklesia" & it simply means the gathering. Throughout Scripture God's people are the key, not a place or a location. The Old Testament speaks of the "assembly" & the New Testament speaks of The Church, but the core truth is the same.

"The Church Is God's People Not The Location Of A Building."

If you think this is not a big deal, you couldn't be more wrong. Jesus launched the movement of Christianity & The Church when there was no building for them to meet in, & it grew faster than they could keep up with properties & facilities. In fact, it grew so quickly that it drew the not so nice attention of people who wanted to stamp it out, so gathering in a central location actually became a very dangerous thing. In fact, in many places in the world things haven't changed that much. The Church is the gathering of God's people around Jesus, His resurrection, & our mission. If you have a building, that's great, but it's not The Church. You are & that means you have a mission that can't be contained by the walls of your buildings or the boundaries of your property. You & I have a mission that is global in scope & eternal in significance. 

So remember church doesn't just happen when we gather on Sunday. It happens when you take the mission with you to work. It happens when you live out the transforming power of the Gospel in front of your family. It happens when you go to another believers home for small group or when you pray for a friend in their hospital room. When you & I, The Church, embraces our mission, we reconnect to the movement Jesus launched 2000 years ago when He said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, & you will be my witnesses...to the ends of the earth." But when we reduce church to a place, we'll limit our ability to really fulfill our call as God's people.

People Over Structures

Structure is great. Anybody with a newborn gets that. You need that routine sometimes just to keep your sanity. And when that structure gets interrupted, look out. Structures are important, but structures have to reflect your current reality. You may feed a newborn every 2 to 3 hours & rock them to sleep afterward, but you don't do that with your teenager (hopefully). Why? Because the structure that was once beneficial to the child can actually become harmful as the situation changes.

The same is true in churches, businesses, schools, & other organizations. We need structure. It helps us organize what we do & keep people on the same page. However, those structures have to align with our context, & those structures should lead people toward fulfilling the mission & purpose of your ministry or organization.

"When People Serve Structures, The People Suffer.

   When Structures Serve People, The People Succeed."

Whenever a structure supersedes people, we as leaders are no longer leading our people to grow. We are crushing them under the weight of our structure. This usually occurs slowly over time. A structure is implemented, almost always an effective one, but then as time passes, the context changes & perhaps the structure isn't as effective as it once was. This is where leaders have a choice to make: change the structure to fit reality or force the people to fit the structure. As leaders we have to remember that first & foremost we lead people not structures, but when we prioritize a structure above a group of people, we've forgotten what we've really been called to do. The structures we implement & utilize have to serve the people we lead. Structures that serve the people lead the people to grow, serve others, & fulfill the mission of your ministry, team, or organization. However, when the people have to serve a structure it often drains them of the energy & passion necessary to fulfill the mission. 

Structures are necessary. Structures facilitate the progress & momentum of whatever group you lead. However, when considering structures, we have to start with our people & our context so that we implement structures that serve the people & set them up for success.