Recently I traveled down memory lane to my days at Hillsdale. IVCF was in turmoil and Campus Crusade was on its last legs. there was no affective campus witness. I asked to be the prayer co-ordinator because "I wanted to be in the position of power on campus." The summer between my junior year I prayed three prayers:
- That Kent, Chris and Ed would join me in helping facilitate the daily prayer meeting (DPM).
- That Campus Crusade would leave campus (that is a story in and of itself - ask me sometime.)
- That the leadership of IV would resign allowing our staff freedom to work and one of our women leaders to step in as Chapter president.
God heard and answered all of those prayers. Soon DPM's that had been attended by 2-3 people became attended by 10-20. As students started praying the fellowship started growing.
The old reconstructionist leadership walked away quietly Lynn took over gently and all of a sudden meetings went from 10-15 students at our Large Group gatherings to 30. The next year, the dpms went to 30 - 40 every day and the large group meetings bumped up to 100+, and soon thereafter, DPMs were running 50+ and the fellowship had an active membership of 400 plus. This was all on a campus of just over 1000 students.
I believe that the health of any body of believers is seen in two areas:
- The quality of their relationships to one another
- The quality of their relationship to their creator normally manifesting itself through corporate prayer.
Show me a body of believers that are praying together and I will show you a body of believers that are committed one to another and to their Lord.
In recent years there has been a reaction against (and perhaps a corrective against the pray a lot do nothing mentality of much of our forebears. We tend to be a people of action and activity, my fear is that this was also a mark of the social gospelites of the 30's and forties the forebears of the mainline churches who are finding themselves at death's door in 2007 America.
The trouble is that no one can make prayer happen. Our only recourse is to pray that people will want to pray. That is oft times a frustrating posture because it demonstrates our dependency and we don't like that. But maybe that is what we need.
Recent Comments