The importance of the prayer meeting - GBC Pastoral Column #73

For a couple of years Grace Baptist Church Wood Green had weekly times of prayer early on Thursday mornings at 7:00 am. As we prepared to enter a new phase of our church’s life with the planting of the church in Angel over seven years ago now, we transitioned to Friday evenings with several days of prayer and fasting. Not at all downplaying the vital place of meeting for worship on the Lord’s Day, this time was often called “the most important meeting in the church” and church members of all ages and stages of maturity were urged to attend and participate.

After a good deal of prayerful and practical consideration, at the close of last year I believed that is might very well be time to rearrange things so sought the input of church members as to which night they would most likely be able to attend our weekly congregational prayer meeting. After weighing up the answers received in the survey and taking into account other factors pertinent to church life, it was decided that we no longer have our Friday evening prayer meeting...But not that we stop meeting for prayer. Instead, Thursday was selected as the optimum night on which to gather for focussed prayer stemming from some Bible reading and brief practical teaching meant to concentrate our petitions to God.

 I understand that as city people our lives are often complex, our schedules inflexible, and our bodies worn out – our spirits may be willing (at least I hope they are!), but our flesh is weak. While I empathise, let me also constructively criticize: time with the church family does not hurt – rather, it helps! As with the Thursday morning and Friday evening meetings before it, our Thursday prayer meeting should be something that church members strive to be at if at all possible. In fact, any opportunity to meet with the local church for prayer should be seized upon.

Why? Simply put: Jesus taught his disciples about “the need for them to pray always and not become discouraged” (Luke 18:1); the teaching of the apostles continues on the same lines: “Rejoice always! Pray constantly. Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). The biblical imperative to pray takes on a specifically congregational application when we see the practice of the early church throughout the book of Acts and read instructions like those of Paul, who said with local churches in mind in 1 Tim. 2:8, “Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument” (there is another lesson here for men: you of all people ought to be present; the prayer meeting is not just for ladies). Added to this is the guidance found in Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Unless you are going to segregate “prayer” from “worship”, the meetings he has in mind surely include those times set aside in church life for congregational communion with God.  Individuals ought to pray, and they ought to meet with fellow believers in the churches to pray together.

I conclude with the thoughts of John Newton, best known for writing the timeless hymn, ‘Amazing Grace’. Once a slave trader, Newton became a strong abolitionist and encouraged the British politician William Wilberforce in his campaign to abolish the slave trade, and ultimately slavery itself, from the British Empire. He was a faithful minister of the gospel for many years in the market town of Olney and later in London. Giving advice to a fellow minister, he wrote

I look upon prayer-meetings as the most profitable exercises (excepting the public preaching) in which Christians can engage. They have a direct tendency to kill a worldly, trifling spirit, to draw down a Divine blessing upon all our concerns, compose differences, and en-kindle (at least maintain) the flames of Divine love amongst brethren...I find in my own case the principal cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owing to an unaccountable backwardness to pray.

So, let’s not view our weekly time of prayer as ‘just’ a prayer meeting. Let’s take it seriously, and enjoy it as the blessing and privilege that it really is. 

This pastoral column was distributed to the congregation of Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green) the week of Sunday, 15 March 2015