{"id":633,"date":"2023-05-31T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-prayer\/"},"modified":"2023-05-30T13:59:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T17:59:14","slug":"dont-underestimate-the-power-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t underestimate the power of prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the inside of my favorite Bible, I have taped a half-sheet of paper with Mark Clifton\u2019s six imperatives for replanting a church from his book,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Reclaiming-Glory-Revitalizing-Dying-Churches\/dp\/1433643227\"><em>Reclaiming Glory<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em>\u00a0The first of those imperatives is \u201cPray without ceasing,\u201d which comes directly from 1 Thessalonians 5:17.<\/p>\n<p>I remember reading that phrase almost four years ago and thinking, \u201cWell, yah, of course prayer is important.\u201d Then I remember quickly scanning the other five imperatives for the real \u201cmeat\u201d of church revitalization. Now, don\u2019t get me wrong. The other five are really good too. But when I began the journey of replanting First Baptist Church of Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 2016, I vastly underestimated the powerful role prayer would play.<\/p>\n<p>You and I are completely powerless to replant anything on our own. I\u2019m definitely not that great a pastor, and I\u2019m willing to go out on a limb and say you aren\u2019t either.<\/p>\n<p>In Colossians 1, Paul makes clear that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. As the head, He alone has the power to bring back to life a church that is on the brink of death. The good news is, of course, that He loves to bring things, which were once dead, back to life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>George M\u00fcller\u2019s example<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I was reading\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Autobiography-George-Muller\/dp\/0883681595\/\">George M\u00fcller\u2019s autobiography<\/a>, one of the things that struck me was how often he talked about spending time in prayer. If you\u2019re not familiar with M\u00fcller, he had a remarkable life and ministry in which he completely depended upon God\u2019s provision. He ran an orphanage in England in the mid-1800s that housed thousands of children during his lifetime, and yet he never asked for a single donation from anyone. Despite never asking for money, M\u00fcller discovered the depths of God\u2019s faithfulness as seemingly random people donated money, bread or milk \u2013 in just the nick of time to meet a need.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not to say that things weren\u2019t difficult or that there was never a significant need. M\u00fcller records many times when there was no money to buy bread and, when he was at the point of desperation, there would be a knock at the door with just the right amount of money to provide for that day\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The power of praying without ceasing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I hope you see the parallel between M\u00fcller\u2019s life and church replanting. There may be many times when it seems there is simply not enough money to pay the electricity bill or, perhaps, even your salary. There may very well be Sunday mornings when the number of people absent outnumbers the number of people in the pews.<\/p>\n<p>In such moments, do not despair. You and I serve the same God that George M\u00fcller knew so well. And the God who took such good care of him will take care of you as well. That doesn\u2019t mean there won\u2019t be nights that you go to bed wondering if you\u2019ll get paid that week. George M\u00fcller did that many a night.<\/p>\n<p>And yet God never failed to come through for him. And I can attest that, in just over five years of being in the middle of church revitalization, God never failed to come through for our church as well. It didn\u2019t always look the way I would have liked for it to look, and it didn\u2019t always happen according to my timetable. But I can honestly say there was never a single need that was not met.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I lost some sleep and some hair in the process, but I also learned to trust the Lord more deeply than I could have imagined. And that experience led me to understand just a bit more about what it means to pray without ceasing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the inside of my favorite Bible, I have taped a half-sheet of paper with Mark &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-prayer\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Don&#8217;t underestimate the power of prayer<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":634,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[53],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-633","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article","topics-replanting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.0 (Yoast SEO v24.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t underestimate the power of prayer - Church Replanting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/church-replanting\/resource\/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don&#039;t underestimate the power of prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the inside of my favorite Bible, I have taped a half-sheet of paper with Mark &hellip; 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