Where The Church Got Prayer Meetings Wrong

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At any time, about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. So today on Encouraging Prayer, we're going to talk about where the church got prayer meetings wrong. So James, where are we going with this?

Well, this is a topic that is really important, more important than many of us may know. And Robby, I sincerely believe that God's Word places a higher priority on people getting together to pray than the church actually practices today. And it's not that churches don't pray, but how many of them have the prayer meeting as one of the most important services of the week? And after all, Jesus said, quoting Isaiah, my house shall be called a house of prayer. And while he was talking about the temple in part with that, I think it's entirely safe to say the same holds true for what he wants for the church. You know, you're right, but this is something that just seems foreign to us, right?

And I think one of the reasons for that is that really, we're just so busy. Yeah, you know, and it does seem foreign to us because often when churches have prayer meetings, they're just, you know, kind of a few people in the corner of the library. And, you know, there was a time when prayer meetings were more important.

You saw them happening through World War Two into the 1950s and some places in the early 1960s. But in the post-war US, more and more people went back to church, and we felt that we needed to accommodate them more with programs and stuff to do. But what has happened in that time since is that we've stepped away from prayer meetings, and as we have, our influence on the culture has increased. I mean, as it has decreased, you know, we're not seeing more people one to Jesus, and it's sad because we're working in our strength instead of in God's. So, James, maybe I should mention to our listeners that you did your doctoral work in this area, the role of united prayer and revival and reform in the church.

So, you really, really, really do have a passion for it, right? Yeah, I do, Robby, because if we don't pray together, we are missing out on some vital things. And the first is we miss on seeing what only God can do. God loves it when we're dependent on him and we have no other place to turn than to him for help. But what often happens in the church today is we are running our programs and then asking God to bless them. We're putting the cart before the horse, stepping aside from the first and true main source of power. And what happens is that we miss being in that place where we could say, wow, God really did this. It wasn't our cleverness or our hard work or our dynamic preacher or our great people.

No, it was God in answer to prayer. So what else do we miss? Well, the second thing is related to the first. We miss out on a sense of Jesus actually being with us. Remember that he promised where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I with them. And that's a very real thing. The other day I was meeting with our leadership team at Peace Church and as part of our meeting, we take extended time to pray for our church and over the decisions that we're making.

And we haven't met a while. And as we sat there, I realized, you know, as we're praying, I'm sitting there thinking, whoa, something is really happening here. God's spirit is moving in us as we're letting Jesus in together. And it's wonderful.

And oh, I've missed this. And after the meeting, I asked to our elders separately if they had noticed what I did, if they had felt that way. And both of them had, you know, it was that sense of Jesus, it's your church, you do with it what you will. And of course, he's promised to be with us always. But when we take the time to pray together and put him first together for the life of the church, it's like he makes our hearts more sensitive to him. He's been with us all along. But the question is, are we with him? And when we pray together, he helps us recognize his presence and enjoy it. And we don't want to be anywhere else.

No, that's so true. And it makes me think about how whenever there's a national tragedy or a time of crisis, you know, people's first response is to get together and pray. You know, for example, after 9-11, spontaneous prayer groups were cropping up everywhere in our neighborhood when COVID hit, the first time our neighborhood ever got together to pray. So after a tragedy, you know, then we, right, you know, that's when a lot of people go that way.

Yeah, yeah, but then it goes away, right? And that's what the human heart is like. If you think about it, we often live that way, as if we're in control of our circumstances when we're really not. And, you know, we depend on God for every breath.

But when crises come, suddenly we're reminded. And that has to make you wonder, what are we missing if we went to God at other times? You know, what are the gifts that he still wants to give us that he would if we really saw his face together? Think of what James wrote.

You do not have because you do not ask. And we tend to put that only in kind of a singular sense, but he's writing in the plural. And better still, think about Jesus teaching. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

You know, ask, you receive, seek, you'll find, knock, door will be open. When he said that, he also said that in the plural. He was speaking to his followers as a group. I know you're not the only one who feels this way about the importance of churches praying together.

No, I'm not. There are some who really advocate this. I love Jim Simpel's book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. And Daniel Henderson has written some great books on this, and so has Paul Miller. Yeah, I know you've been talking to Paul Miller about this recently, right? And your book, Praying Together, has some real practical help for this.

Thank you for the plug, yeah. Yeah, I should mention that there are a lot of people in history who really believe that the church needs to pray together more than we do. Of course, Jonathan Edwards influences or organized this effort on both sides of the Atlantic that really influenced the Second Great Awakening.

And he did this because of his experience in the First Great Awakening. Yeah, James, I'm afraid our time is short, so I think there's one more thing we need to do. We need to pray together. So, Lord, thank you so much for the passion that you've given James in this. And I pray that you would open our eyes to not only how wonderful it is to be in a house of prayer with you alone together, but also in our churches, if we could renew that passion with each other and find ways to make that a place that you want to come, and be with us so that we can sense your presence in unity with the church seeking your face like we never have before.

Lord, help us because we can't do it on our own. You're our only hope, and so we pray that you would come for us in this. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.