Bon Voyage!

Just like every Christian, God has blessed me with talents, gifts and callings.  Sometimes He calls me to something that I don't feel ready to do, but like someone said, "God doesn't call the able, He enables the called". 

Today I want to talk about one of the bigger journeys that God has led me to begin - helping to build a prayer saturated church. 

What is a prayer saturated church, you ask?  Well, first, let me tell you what it isn't.  It isn't a church where prayer is nearly forgotten, where prayer meetings and prayer chains have gone by the wayside and where ministry meetings start with a line or two of prayer, if it is remembered at all. 

In Matthew 21:13, when Jesus was cleansing the temple of the buyers and sellers, He quoted Isaiah 56:7, saying "It is written, My house will be called a House of Prayer".  So, what is a prayer saturated church/House of Prayer?

If you went into a boutique salon called "House of Perfume", what would you find?  Most of the products would be perfume and those that weren't would be saturated with the scent of perfume.  How does this apply?  If you go into a prayer saturated church you would find a church saturated with the sweet perfume of prayer.  People would meet to pray over the service, ministries would spend significant time at the beginning of their meetings praying over their agenda and for those involved in the ministry.  There would be an intercessory prayer group who met together in groups or individually to pray over the needs of the church, its ministries and the prayer requests of its members.  That, of course, is just the beginning, but you get the idea. 

So, back to the journey.  Ours was a church that had let prayer go to the wayside.  That isn't to say that nobody was praying, because they were.  Rather it is to say that there was no  real emphasis on prayer.  What that in turn means is that the Kingdom was not being advanced, because God requires us to pray for this.  Our church was and, frankly, still is, struggling to survive.  (More another time on the effects that prayer has had on our church.)  I believe that one of the reasons that we got to where we are now is because the emphasis on prayer had been lost. 

Because of the state of affairs, God started whispering to me.  He told me that we needed more prayer.  At the time my mind went to an event that we'd had while we were building an addition where we all signed up to pray a certain amount for a certain length of time and on Sundays we would turn in the amount of minutes we'd prayed and those numbers in turn became nails that were used in the building of the addition.  Cool, huh?  This, I thought, was probably what we needed to do again.  (I wasn't getting it yet...)

I talked separately to two different friends on the leadership team, stating what I thought we needed.  "That sounds like a good job for you, Lorrie", they both said.  Wait!  Huh?  Prayer is not something that I consider to be my strong point.  If it was music or something else creative, I'd say "Sign me up!"  But prayer??  Well, I waited for the congregational meeting that was coming soon and stated my case again.  Surely they'd realize that I wasn't the person for the job - me, the undisciplined, procrastinator that they all know and (hopefully) love!  Yeah, not so much so... 

So, a few days later I found myself at Family Christian Stores looking for a bible study for our growth group that might also help me know how to plan this "one time" event that I thought we needed.  (Still not getting it!)  While there, God led me over to the church leadership area where I came upon this book The Prayer Saturated Church by Cheryl Sacks.  I took it to a table to look at and quickly realized that I needed to take this book home with me.  Once home, I became immersed in it and soon realized that God wasn't calling our church to a prayer event, but to become a House of Prayer. 

After reading it, I asked my pastor if I could meet with him and the leadership team at their next meeting.  After getting the go ahead I prepared a presentation that would explain our need for prayer as I saw it.  I met with them and told them that this (a House of Prayer) was what I saw that we needed and that I didn't really think that I possessed the requirements to lead it.  They agreed and disagreed.  You see where I'm going??  Yes, we needed to put prayer as the main focus of our church and no, I was wrong about thinking someone else should lead it.  Really??  You guys know me, right?  Yes, they do, and so does God.  For reasons beyond my comprehension, God wants me to lead this. Our pastor spoke last Sunday about how God uses our weaknesses as well as our strengths. Maybe this has something to do with why He called me to this. Maybe I'll figure it out some day - and then again maybe I won't.  Either way, I'm in it for the long haul. 

Another time I'll tell you about the team of women who work with me and more about the actual journey that we are on.