Earlier this month, I spent a few days at the International House of Prayer to attend their annual Leadership Summit. One of the speakers at the Summit was Billy Humphrey from the International House of Prayer – Atlanta. He spoke on the subject of building a culture of praying in the local church. It was one of those messages where you find someone giving clarity and language to a bunch of thoughts that had been jumbled up in your own mind for a while. Billy shared about the importance and necessity for the church to become reoriented around the place of prayer – and practically what that might look like for a church to take this step. More specifically, he shared with us that he and other leaders are becoming convinced that one of the Lord’s primary strategies for raising up the prayer movement at the end of the age will not be in “Houses of Prayer” (like IHOP, etc) but to call local churches back to the place of prayer and to rediscover their identity “as a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7, Matt. 21:13). That has led many different prayer networks to come together and introduce something called “The Praying Church Initiative” – to help raise this banner, connect those seeking to make this transition, and to provide practical tips and resources to help. While it is still in its infancy and the site is still being developed, there are already several great blog posts on their website that I’d encourage you to take a look at. You can find that website here.

We at Bethany Church have heard this call and are asking the Lord what it means for us to become radically committed to the place of prayer. By and large, the Church in the West is graciously being confronted with our barrenness by the Lord. We have the best resources, technology, techniques, and methodology – and yet we are seeing a church that is producing very little true spiritual fruit. The Lord is mercifully allowing us to come face-to-face with our barrenness, as painful as it is, to bring us to a place where we return to Him and cry out to Him for His presence. There is rather well-known story of a group of American pastors who were visiting Dr. Cho’s church in South Korea – the largest church in the world. As good Americans generally do (with pens and notepads ready), they asked “What is the secret of this church’s growth?” The Koreans responded by saying that it was fasting and prayer. After a brief pause, the Americans asked again… “Yes, but besides that what are you doing to make this church grow?” Of course, there has to be something else? There is an offense to prayer. There is a huge mental obstacle to fasting. It seems too simple and unsophisticated for our culture and for our generation. But that is the very nature of the Mustard Seed Kingdom. The mustard seed seems so small and insignificant, easily over-looked. Prayer is easily overlooked. It seems insignificant. But it is the primary means by which the Lord is going to establish His purposes in and through His people. Men and women who are deeply rooted in a place of intimacy with the Lord, who truly operate at the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and who have learned what it means to lean on His strength and His anointing. Praying is the means by which the Lord is going to enable His Church to both thrive and survive in the last days. That is why we are seeking to see the Lord bring about this transition in our midst… to make us a Praying Church.

In his book “Why Revival Tarries,” Leonard Ravenhill says, “The man who can get believers to praying would, under God, usher in the greatest revival that the world has ever known.”

Amen. Make it so.