It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! My family and I just returned from a trip to New York. This was our Christmas present to the kids. We thought that it would be better to create a memory than just buy a bunch of stuff. The family had a blast.
Some of the highlights:
A Broadway Play
Times Square
Statue of Liberty
Rockefeller Center
Empire State Building
World Trade Center Site
Yankees Stadium Tour
Etc., Etc., Etc.
I could take up an entire blog sharing the sites and sounds of New York but I would rather tell you about one of the places that we visited: The Brooklyn Tabernacle.
It has been a desire of mine for some time to visit The Brooklyn Tabernacle. For years I have enjoyed the choir music, the books from Pastor Cymbala, and the overall ministry of this congregation. This fellowship of believers ministers to the homeless, addicts, and many other "hopeless" people in Brooklyn. Our time of worship with this church body was incredible.
The "worship" portion of their service was an hour long. I told my wife that we tend to have the setup of our services backwards. We tend to think that you need a lot more time for the preaching. However, I have discovered that if you get the worship right then you don't have to preach for an hour. Hearts will be sensitive to the Word of God and lives will be changed. This is the impact of the presence of God!
The preaching wasn't anything out of the ordinary for Pastor Cymbala. He preached a simple message that was powerful. It was amazing to me how he was preaching a lot of the things that I have been sharing with our church family. A message about the heart of God, the impact of our relationship with Him, and allowing His work to be complete in us!
One of the reasons that I have longed to visit with The Brooklyn Tabernacle is because their approach to ministry is what impacted our church body to do Wednesday Night Prayer Meetings. That may sound odd to some of you but you have to understand that many churches have "prayer meetings" but they include Bible studies, etc. We simply PRAY!!! And what we have discovered is that prayer works!
Prayerless churches lead to powerless churches. If we do not invoke the help of Almighty God then we might as well call it a social club. Without the power of prayer we will be doing ministry in the energy and power of the flesh. Any ministry that is started in the energy of the flesh has to be maintained through the energy of the flesh. And to be quite honest with you: I don't have that kind of time or energy.
Our church has been able to witness healing, provision, and amazing results because we stopped activity and entered into an attitude of going before God. We are learning the beauty of being still before Him. Too many churches have fallen into the idea that activity is what God is looking for from us. But we must remind ourselves that unless the Lord builds the house then we labor in vain.
This holiday season I want to remind you of the importance of waiting upon God. Take some time to get into His presence and bring all of your requests unto Him.
1 comment:
Prayer over "programs" works everytime - a good word brother...I remember when prayer meetings started it was the three of us and then Laura and Clay. It's so great to see that persistence is paying off and really overwhelming to see what God has been doing as of late in these prayer meetings. I love to see God moving and growing His church through prayer.
Looking back Neal hasn't it been just an incredible journey in ministry over the last several years? It's beyond all that I could have ever hoped for or imagined (think I've heard that before!LOL!)
In reality, I believe the journey is only just beginning as we grow closer and deeper to His heart! Thanks for leading us in this journey brother.
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