OPINION (Charisma) – I have been a pastor for almost 34 years and have been involved in initiating or participated in many local, citywide and national prayer gatherings. God has made it very clear that our first priority as leaders is to spend time with Him before we are sent out to minister (Mark 3:14). The apostle Paul also implores all believers to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). In spite of all this, there are many denominational and nondenominational churches that do not have a regular prayer meeting. Consequently, there is a huge gap in the church—in spite of the many good programs churches have. The following are 10 huge problems prayerless churches have:
1. A prayerless church demonstrates that the leaders are prayerless.
Churches reflect the priorities and lifestyle of the founder/visionary and its support leadership. If seeking God’s face is the top priority of the lead pastor—then corporate and private congregational prayer will be the top priority in the church. When you have a prayerless (I consider praying a few minutes a day “prayerless”) lead pastor, then the church will be structured to operate with strategies that lack the aid and unction of the Holy Spirit. When faced with a choice between having a personal focus on meeting human needs or prayer, the apostle Peter chose prayer (Acts 6:4-6). Like Moses, he knew that his first call was “upward” and not horizontal (Ex. 18:19; 33:13,18). How can we be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) and make Him known if we don’t have deep, personal knowledge of Him?
2. They don’t hear what the Spirit is saying.
When a church is prayerless, the people miss the day of their visitation regarding kairos moments, as Jesus said in Luke 19:44. Churches and leaders who do not regularly wait upon the Lord miss what God has to say to them. If it weren’t for a corporate prayer meeting involving the leaders of the church of Antioch, they would have never heard the Spirit of God commission Paul and Barnabas to their apostolic mission (Acts 13:1, 2).
3. There is a lack of true oneness.
The power of the early church was the fact that they experienced oneness among their core disciples (Acts 2:44, 4:32-33). How did this oneness occur? Acts 1 shows how the 120 disciples prayed and waited on God together for 10 days in the upper room. Consequently, the power of Pentecost could not take place without this protracted period of prayer that resulted in oneness (Luke 24:49). Jesus stated emphatically that the world will not believe He was sent without the church walking in oneness (John 17:20-23). CONTINUE
