I was recently asked if I would be interested in reading a book titled, “The Rabbit and the Elephant” as part of a virtual book tour. I am always interested in books about church growth and church planting, so I agreed to take part in the process and write a review that I would post on my blog.
I have chosen my Church Growth Consulting site because I feel that the book has some great insights into church growth and church planting issues. I started the book with a little skepticism, because I pastor what the book might call a “legacy church”. However, as I dug into the book, the author’s (Tony and Felicity Dale) painted a picture of what “simple church” looked like and I felt as though it opened up a lot of new avenues for me to ponder. I don’t personally see the “simple church” idea as a complete replacement for “legacy churches”, but I can see a lot of potential for them to work side by side in the harvest field.
Chapter 13 provides a great discussion on Luke 10 principles. When Luke 10 is looked at in light if the “simple church” process it seems to really fit well. I also enjoyed reading the chapter called “Stories From the Harvest”. The story about the “Church at Table Number Two” reminded me of some of my own missionary/church planting experiences. We had started churches that met in funny places and we gave them names to match. One of them was called “Light Bulb Church” because we started that church by stringing an electric cord with a light bulb in the center of it between two apartment buildings that were about fifteen feet apart. We had another church we started we called “Garage Church” because they met in a garage.
One of the biggest advantages I found in reading the book was the challenge to not get stuck in our definitions of what a church “is”. I have gotten used to starting small groups and home groups and affinity groups in my area with the idea of gradually assimilating the people gathered into our existing church. I am now thinking that the goal doesn’t need to include those people ever stepping foot in our church building. The goal is just to meet people where they are and get them o step into the Kingdom.
“The Rabbit and The Elephant” by Tony and Felicity Dale is a worthwhile addition to your reading list. It is a quick read and flows well. It also includes some interesting statistics from George Barna. One of the statistics that jumped out at me was that “the average Protestant church probably sees no converts in any given year”. That really shocked me! I hope you will read the book and I would be interested in having you comment about your thoughts as well. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book, you can use the link below.
Another part of the process of establishing an effective prayer meeting is to identify those people who are gifted for intercession. These intercessors need to be raised up and trained to take their place in the prayer ministry. People who are gifted for intercession are able to press through in difficult situation where many would just give up. It may be helpful to encourage the entire local church body to participate in some sort of Spiritual Assessment Inventory. There are many of these assessments available for free on the Internet. These simple tests can help determine who is moving in the gift of intercession.
A great starting point for many people might be establishing a prayer card ministry. These can be printed and distributed to those who show an interest in prayer to help them develop their gifting. Prayer cards can be used to instruct people on how to prayer for the church, the pastors, their families, political leaders, missionaries, etc. People that have trouble staying focused during prayer will find prayer cards very helpful for staying on task. Another important prayer ministry function needs to be the ability to respond quickly to a situation. To manage this need for speed a prayer chain should be set up. This can be done by telephone where from a central location the top of list is called and then each person has one phone call to make to the next person on the chain. Because it is true that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, it is sometimes a good idea to start the request from both ends of the chain. When someone receives a call from the person they are supposed to call every link in the chain has been reached. An email prayer is another effective method of getting urgent prayer requests responded to.
As the prayer ministry develops there are some other important prayer ministries to consider adding. A team of people who are willing to pray for the Pastor while he is preaching is a powerful ministry. Charles Spurgeon had large groups of intercessors praying in a basement room under his pulpit in each service while he preached. He called it his divine ‘furnace room’. The intercessors pray for people to be open to hear, receive, and respond to the message. A team of people who serve as a prayer shield for the Pastor is another important prayer ministry to get started. C. Peter Wagner speaks of three basic levels of intercessors for leaders:
- “Level Three intercessors have a distant relationship with the leader. In some cases, these intercessors have never met the person(s) they are praying for. For example, many people have prayed for Billy Graham on a daily basis and yet have never met him; many others pray for missionaries they have never met.
- Level Two intercessors have a casual relationship with the leader. There is some regular two-way contact, although it may not be one-on-one, intensive, or sustained over any length of time. This may include, for example, Sunday morning worship attendees who pray for their Pastor.
- Level One intercessors have a very close relationship with the person they are praying for, which allows them to pray for items that are personal and possibly confidential. These people have personal contact on a regular basis.”
The people involved in this ministry need to have a love for their pastor, a willingness to be used by God, and have a passion for prayer. At Church Growth Consulting we are confident that following these simple guidelines and seeking the Lord in prayer should be a big help in establishing an effective prayer ministry at your church.
We hope you are finding this series of articles about prayer on Church Growth Consulting helpful. A designated place for prayer is another way of demonstrating the importance of a Prayer Ministry. Churches routinely have rooms for children, youth, fellowship, etc. It makes sense to have a Prayer Room as well. The prayer room needs to be comfortable and allow for not only sitting, but also for kneeling and even for times of being prostrate on the floor.
The prayer room should be set up to be informative as well. A bulletin board with the latest prayer requests posted is a good way to keep prayer focused. It is sometimes helpful to provide soft background music. You may want to consider adding some computer terminals hooked to the Internet to provide a world perspective for prayer. There is a great prayer site located at www.worldprayerteam.org that provides current worldwide prayer requests and even offers free online prayer journals. Establishing a prayer room and talking about it from the pulpit will help to gain people’s interest in participating in the prayer ministry.
