In my readings, I recently finished Andy Stanley’s intriguing book Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend. As usual in reading Stanley’s material, I found myself stretched and challenged. There are insights and ideas I loved. There are also items I have deep disagreement with.
One particular insight I find myself wrestling with came late in this book. “Speaking of prayer, what does your church pray for? What does the staff pray for? What do your elders or deacons pray for? God’s blessings? The presence of God? A pouring out of the Holy Spirit? Safety? As far as the “presence of God” and “a pouring out of the Holy Spirit,” you’re a bit behind. Both of those were covered on the day of Pentecost. Regarding God’s presence, Jesus promised to be with those who were making disciples, not gathering for worship. So besides you, and what you and your congregation want God to do for you, what does your church pray for?” (Andy Stanley, Deep and Wide, p. 312; emphasis in the original).
I want to debate a couple of inferences. For starters, I think there is nothing wrong and everything right about praying for a fresh or renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit. To do so hardly negates or discounts Pentecost. Secondly, I think Jesus did promise to be with those gathering for worship – Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.” But beyond those debating points, I found a deep probing and high challenge in Stanley’s paragraph.
We pray regularly and earnestly as a Cabinet when we meet. We pray for discernment and guidance. We pray for pastors and churches. We pray for hurts of the world. We pray for loved ones. Oh my how we pray. In our prayer life together, we use the common response for a prayer of celebration – “Loving God, we give you thanks,” and an equally common response for prayers of petition – “Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.”
What I’ve noticed is that we seem to have almost 10 prayers of petition and concern for every one prayer of celebration. We appear to focus on healing for loved ones, for the church, for the world and are light on prayers seeking strength, courage and conviction. We pray heavily for discernment and insight but seem almost timid in praying for focus, direction, nerve. We are top heavy on divine intervention and almost quiescent on praise.
There is nothing wrong with our prayers and our praying. They are good and godly. Unfortunately we have limited ourselves. Andy Stanley reflects on the prayers of the early church, a church facing persecution and in desperate need of protection. What did they pray for? He quotes Acts 4:29 – “Now, Lord, take note of their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with complete confidence.” They prayed for boldness! They prayed for God to act mightily – “Stretch out your hand to bring healing and enable signs and wonders to be performed through the name of Jesus, your holy servant” (Acts 4:30). Notice the results in Acts 4:31. “After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking God’s word with confidence.”
Andy Stanley reflects on the prayers of the first Christ followers: “They asked God to do something powerful through them, but not for their sake. They were totally focused on those outside the walls of their gathering place” (Andy Stanley, Deep and Wide, p. 313).
I think I pray too genteelly, too tamely, and am both convicted and blessed by Stanley’s insight. How about you? For me, it is past time to pray for boldness. Praying is an act of trusting God and obediently living out our prayers.
One particular insight I find myself wrestling with came late in this book. “Speaking of prayer, what does your church pray for? What does the staff pray for? What do your elders or deacons pray for? God’s blessings? The presence of God? A pouring out of the Holy Spirit? Safety? As far as the “presence of God” and “a pouring out of the Holy Spirit,” you’re a bit behind. Both of those were covered on the day of Pentecost. Regarding God’s presence, Jesus promised to be with those who were making disciples, not gathering for worship. So besides you, and what you and your congregation want God to do for you, what does your church pray for?” (Andy Stanley, Deep and Wide, p. 312; emphasis in the original).
I want to debate a couple of inferences. For starters, I think there is nothing wrong and everything right about praying for a fresh or renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit. To do so hardly negates or discounts Pentecost. Secondly, I think Jesus did promise to be with those gathering for worship – Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.” But beyond those debating points, I found a deep probing and high challenge in Stanley’s paragraph.
We pray regularly and earnestly as a Cabinet when we meet. We pray for discernment and guidance. We pray for pastors and churches. We pray for hurts of the world. We pray for loved ones. Oh my how we pray. In our prayer life together, we use the common response for a prayer of celebration – “Loving God, we give you thanks,” and an equally common response for prayers of petition – “Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.”
What I’ve noticed is that we seem to have almost 10 prayers of petition and concern for every one prayer of celebration. We appear to focus on healing for loved ones, for the church, for the world and are light on prayers seeking strength, courage and conviction. We pray heavily for discernment and insight but seem almost timid in praying for focus, direction, nerve. We are top heavy on divine intervention and almost quiescent on praise.
There is nothing wrong with our prayers and our praying. They are good and godly. Unfortunately we have limited ourselves. Andy Stanley reflects on the prayers of the early church, a church facing persecution and in desperate need of protection. What did they pray for? He quotes Acts 4:29 – “Now, Lord, take note of their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with complete confidence.” They prayed for boldness! They prayed for God to act mightily – “Stretch out your hand to bring healing and enable signs and wonders to be performed through the name of Jesus, your holy servant” (Acts 4:30). Notice the results in Acts 4:31. “After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking God’s word with confidence.”
Andy Stanley reflects on the prayers of the first Christ followers: “They asked God to do something powerful through them, but not for their sake. They were totally focused on those outside the walls of their gathering place” (Andy Stanley, Deep and Wide, p. 313).
I think I pray too genteelly, too tamely, and am both convicted and blessed by Stanley’s insight. How about you? For me, it is past time to pray for boldness. Praying is an act of trusting God and obediently living out our prayers.