Developing a Prayer Culture

 Do our churches have a culture that depends on God? Prayer is depending on God. We say prayer is important. If we really value prayer in our churches, it will be built into our schedules. The church schedule will reflect that commitment. Does your church reflect a culture of prayer?

Here in the small community of Fritch, TX, at First Southern Baptist Church we are trying to develop a prayer culture. One of the things we did was to institute a Sunday night service divided into two halves. We do Bible study, and then we break into huddles to pray out loud around the sanctuary. It is such a powerful time. I love the sound of the saints praying out loud in different huddles. 

Please do not misunderstand. I do not want to falsely portray mass crowds showing up to pray. We have less than two dozen people in attendance. I determined from the beginning of our ministry that we would have a prayer meeting. A meeting devoted to prayer. Not a meeting where we would spend all of our time taking prayer requests and then offering a small prayer at the end. We determine a kingdom focus for our prayer time, and direct our attention praying on that. 

We have a small band gather on Sunday morning before our connection classes to pray. It rarely has over half a dozen people. We still pray. I exhort our committees to pray over their meetings. It is in infancy trying to shape the culture around seeking God. Prayer is important, but I cannot say at this point that the culture here is saturated in prayer  yet. We are heading in that direction. It will take time. 

To be completely transparent, the intense spiritual warfare rages in this body of believers. I have seldom felt it more intense in decades of ministry. I'm talking about physical ailments, mechanical breakdowns, mental battles, relational conflicts, and other trials. The enemy is stirred. I think it is because we committed as a body of believers to pray for our community. Once we started doing that, it felt like we became a target for the enemy. The fight is real. We cannot back down now. 

In fact, we are hosting a community wide prayer meeting this Sunday evening where other churches will join us. The desire is to develop a prayer culture far beyond this church. A prayer culture catching on fire in all the churches and across the community. Why? The reason is because God can do more in days than we can do in decades. WE NEED THAT! 

Our communities have seen what we as churches can do through our programs, organizations, and strategic efforts. The results are paltry. What could happen if God's people united in prayer for our communities and God blessed. Transformation could happen. Transformation that would infiltrate families, schools, businesses, city governments, and the churches. None of that will happen without a culture of prayer. May that spread all over this nation and the world.