The Most Important Meeting in Any Church
Last Sunday night our church assembled for a very important meeting. No, it wasn’t a business meeting, a committee meeting, or a deacons’ meeting. The size of the congregation wouldn’t impress anyone. We didn’t have thousands. We didn’t even hundreds. Just a few dozen joined us. But what happened shaped the ministry of our church more than we might ever realize this side of heaven.
Between evangelism and prayer I’m not sure which practice is considered more ignominous by today’s church. The church of the twenty first century certainly eschews prayer and it shows. Granted, I’ve been to some prayer meetings (and probably led many) that bored the congregation to tears (and probably the Lord as well). Praying for an acquaintance’s third cousin twice-removed neither interests most people nor seems to make much difference in the world. Most prayer meetings are simply poorly planed “organ-recitals,” which consist of an endless litany of ailments followed by a half-hearted prayer for the Lord to “be with those who we mentioned.” Frankly, being on the receiving end of such prayer, while the thought might be touching, is hardly efficacious.
A prayer meeting where God shows up and the congregation really gets hold of God is far different. First of all, there is a spirit of humility and dependence upon the Lord as the congregation seeks His face. No one postures or preens when we see the Lord high and lifted up as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6. Pride has no place. Before the holiness of God, sin also has no place. Second, brokenness comes. We lament over our own sin and repent. We are broken and cry out in pleas for God to save people and heal our nation. We pray for the Gospel to advance and God begins to move. That is what happened in our gathering this past Sunday night. No, our church is not experiencing all that God wants to do, not yet. But, the Spirit of God is stirring. I cannot wait to see where God takes us.
Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of the 19th century, observed that: "Usually when God intends greatly to bless a church, it will begin in this way—two or three persons in it are distressed at the low state of affairs, and become troubled even to anguish. Perhaps they do not speak to one another, or know of their common grief, but they begin to pray with flaming desire and untiring importunity. The passion to see the church revived rules them.” God, give us men and women who are consumed with a desire to see the church revived!
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