When I started as Faith Church’s Youth/Associate Pastor in 2002, Faith Church held weekly Sunday morning worship, Sunday evening worship and Wednesday prayer meeting. A few years later the Sunday evening service had dwindled to the point where maybe a handful of people attended, and we canceled it. At that time Wednesday prayer meeting was very similar to a worship service, including singing, a devotional from the pastor, and frankly, not much prayer time. We met in the Fellowship Hall and many of the tables were filled.
When I became pastor in 2008, concerned that Wednesday prayer meeting didn’t involve much praying, I decided to change the format, hoping that the gathering would be truer to its name and purpose. Prayer meeting attendance, which had been declining, continued to do so. We 8-10 regulars decided to move prayer meeting to the conference room because it felt more intimate.
From July 2008 until March 2020, we had prayer most every Wednesday evening, 7-8pm. Remember what happened in March 2020? The Covid shutdown! In place of in-person meetings, I wrote a weekly prayer guide and devotional, which I continue to this day, available here on my Substack. After the Covid shutdown lifted, I received requests to restart prayer meeting. I decided that anyone could restart prayer meeting, but it didn’t need to be me. At least one person believed that since I was the pastor I was duty-bound to restart prayer meeting. I disagreed. I referred them to Ephesians 4:11-12, where Paul writes about leaders in the church raising others up to do the work on ministry. Having attended prayer meetings for most of their lives, I suggested they were quite ready to take the lead. I was thankful when they stepped up and decided to start it again, with a new format, and importantly, emphasizing prayer.
I often thought about how attendance at prayer meeting over the years has averaged 8-10 people, while Faith Church’s Community Nights, which include a meal and a program, have 30-40 people in attendance. Should more people attend prayer meeting? As a church family, we can and do pray in many ways. Think about how much your church family prays together. Here are some of the ways Faith Church includes prayer in our gatherings: During Sunday worship and classes. During home based care groups and Bible studies. Our Leadership Team and Serve Team meetings all begin with times of prayer.
So do we have to have a prayer meeting on Wednesdays at 7pm? No. But before we get ahead of ourselves, it is important to learn what the Bible says about Christians praying together.
This week I continue the blog series on relationships in the church, and our focus is praying together. What does the Bible say about praying together? It actually says quite a bit about the amazing vitality of praying together. Check back tomorrow!
Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 