In my book, The Potential and Power of Prayer, I tell the story of the first church I served as pastor. Perhaps these words* will challenge and encourage you as you think about your church today:
I STARTED MY FIRST pastorate when I was twenty years old. As you might imagine, I had no idea what I was doing. That small country church knew me through one of their previous pastors, and I suspect I was the best they could afford at the time. The nineteen people who made up the congregation that first Sunday could hardly pay anything close to a full-time salary, but I was willing to take anything for the opportunity to preach.
I had become a believer at the age of thirteen, and I faithfully attended church. But attendance didn’t mean I was strongly or intentionally discipled. I did the best I could to walk with Christ, but with very little equipping for the task. Still, I was certain that God was calling me to preach, and the invitation from that little church in southwestern Ohio lit my fire for ministry.
I wish I could say that the lay leaders in that church were thoroughly equipped and ready to help their young, rookie pastor do his job, but that was not the case. They were great people who loved the Lord, but no one had intentionally discipled most of them, either. In many respects, I was a baby believer leading other baby believers. And though most of the congregation was older than I was, they didn’t know much more than I did about following Jesus.
However, there were three things we knew we had to do: preach the Bible, tell others about Jesus, and pray. I cringe to think about my sermons in those days; in fact, I’m glad I preached them at a time when cassette tapes were state of the art rather than internet streaming. Still, I was convinced I needed to preach the Word, and I did the best I could. The church members were gracious enough to affirm my preaching even as they prayed for me to improve.
Those same members, despite their own lack of training, loved telling others about Jesus. They told their family members, their coworkers, their neighbors, their classmates, and anyone else who would listen (and, I’m certain, some folks who did not want to listen). Every Sunday, they told me stories about evangelizing people in our community, and our church began to grow. Week after week, we had the privilege of baptizing new believers.
Within two years, our little church of nineteen saw more than one hundred baptisms of new Christ-followers. I found it especially exciting that many of these new believers were parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, and cousins of our church members. So productive were our evangelism efforts that we grieved as a congregation if a week passed without someone coming to Christ.
How did we get there? We prayed. A lot. Together and individually. Passionately and persistently. Faithfully and fiercely. We prayed because we didn’t know what else to do. And God blessed our efforts.
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*Chuck Lawless, The Potential and Power of Prayer: How to Unleash the Praying Church (Church Answers Resources) (pp. 1-2). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
