Prayer and Outreach

Sorry I've been away from blogging for awhile. I've been blogging out of my status updates on Facebook. It's not quite the same, I know. I apologize.

Today, I'm exploring the connection between prayer and outreach (or "going" as I prefer to call it and will call it in this post).

First, let me give you some very simple definitions. What is prayer? Basically, it's communing with God. What is outreach, i.e. "going"? It is serving people. Those are drastic oversimplifications, but sufficient for our purposes today. (If you're the kind of person who can't stand simplicity like that, then feel free to expand on those definitions in the comments section below!)

Let me ask two other questions that get to the point of this post. Can you have prayer without "going"? Can you "go" without prayer? The answer to both questions are yes, respectively. Both prayer and outreach are good by themselves. But, by themselves, neither is best.

The idea of prayer without "going" immediately reminded me of the question that God asked Isaiah. "Whom should I send?" he asked the wannabe prophet. That was God's idea of a rhetorical question. The answer God desired was obvious. Isaiah was standing right there, available, and invested in the situation already. He was God's man for the job. Isaiah didn't just intercede on behalf of his people. He was sent to (i.e. "go") to God's people.

Consider what happens when we pray for others. God, help this man who is sick! God, provide for this person and their need! God send your angels to clear the way for this person to find help!
During our prayers, I can easily imagine God in heaven asking, rehtorically, "Whom should I send?" Like with Isaiah, I think the answer is fairly obvious. Me. You. Us. We took the time to pray, to stand in the gap for others. We're invested in the situation already. Here I am, Lord, send me!

On to the second question. What is "going" or outreach without prayer? What are we really doing when we go help someone, serve someone, feed someone, or teach someone, but we leave God out of it? There's value in that activity. But it's not Great Commission "going". It's volunteerism. It's charity, maybe. It's philanthropy. It's probably not ministry.

I'm a pastor. Imagine me going to the hospital to visit someone who was about to have a critical and dangerous surgery. I say hi. I shake their hand. I tell a joke. I excuse myself without praying for them. Would I be blessing that person in that situation? Maybe a little, but I'm certainly not giving them what they need at that moment -- the power of God!

Going without praying reminds me of something Paul told his young protege Timothy: they have a form of godliness but deny its power. This passage doesn't speak directly to outreach ministry, but the warning Paul gives Timothy is applicable anyway. Godliness without God? Its oxymoronic. It's not real. It doesn't work. Service without the Spirit? It's not real. It doesn't work. It's positive, but it's not powerful.

The power of God comes when we choose to both pray and go. Prayer and outreach. Touching heaven while we touch the earth. It's a simple formula and one followed by most every Biblical example I can think of. It seems, though, that it's lost on many of us in the ministry. I know too many churches that pray but don't go. I know others that go but don't pray. I've been part of both and witnessed firsthand the lack of power in both siutations. Cape Naz won't be one of those churches.

You want a good example of this in action? Valparaiso Nazarene is a church that prays and a church that goes. And they've had a powerful impact on their community. Watch the video called Cecilia from the recent M11 conference in Louisville, KY. Just follow this link and click on the video called "Resurrection - Cecilia": http://www.graceandpeacemagazine.org/en/resurrection-stories

We'll be talking a great deal more about this topic on Sunday at Cape Naz. See you then!