Two days ago I was wrestling with some real issues in ministry and starting to worry about what path of direction I could identify for resolution. And then it hit me...I need to pray.
And I did.
Yesterday I sent out e-mails to about 30-40 church families inviting them to join me at noon today for a time of prayer at the church for these issues that are confronting our church family. Several responded that they would pray at work, or, at home, and a handfull showed up for the prayer time today. I felt that corporately as a body we needed to pray.
And we did.
But there was just a few of us. When it comes to prayer, that is how it usually is--just a few. There are probably some excellent reasons why at short notice people could not clear their schedules to join us for prayer at ther lunch break, but even when it is on the calendar for weeks, the response is pretty much the same.
Why is it that prayer meetings draw such a small crowd?
My experience is that prayer is most intensively pursued in a crisis, but even then, as a last resort. Once other alternatives have been exhausted, we think to pray. Maybe it is because of what we think--or don't think--about prayer.
I am convinced as we face the issues before us at our local church that the ONLY answer is prayer..and that prayer should be the first resort when we face challenges such as we are.
It may taken an even graver crsis for us to learn that.
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