Becoming a Praying Church

In January, our church leaders set a vision to become a more prayerful church, and I have greatly appreciated this focus. I often find my prayer life lacking because I tend to prioritize most everything else over prayer. And, since this tendency seems to be pretty common, it affects how the church approaches prayer. Many churches cut out prayer during the worship service if they’re short on time. Or, prayer is used as a mere transition time to get the band on or off stage. In short, prayer tends to take a backseat.

That’s why my church’s emphasis on prayer has been so encouraging and convicting. We’ve distributed notebooks to write down prayer requests; we’ve committed to follow-up on those requests from both believers and non-believers; we create a prayer calendar each month that directs us and helps us as a church to be unified through prayer.

Now that we’re halfway through the year, I’m reflecting on how the Lord has used this focus to teach me about prayer. Read More