Phil, good thoughts on prayer and discipleship.

earlier, Phil Scovell, wrote:
>Measuring Dead Churches
>
>
>By Phil Scovell
>
>
>      Is your church spiritually dead?  Some say, "It can't be
>because more people are coming than ever before.  We are having
>spine tingling worship services and the music has never been more
>uplifting.  We have even had to go to more than one morning
>service because of the attendance.  The offerings have tripled.
>The preaching has never been more stimulating.  I feel better when
>leaving a service than when I came.  Our church is growing.  The
>youth ministry has never been as dynamic, the Sunday school has
>never been as large, and the parking lot is full."
>
>      How can you tell if your church is growing?  What biblical
>measurements can you use to make this determination?  Do you count
>the number of those in attendance for the morning service?  Do you
>count those coming to Sunday school services?  Do you count the
>offerings?  If they are steadily growing, then does this mean the
>church is growing?  Do you consider the length of your music
>worship service as the indicator of the level of spirituality your
>church has obtained?  Do you count how many people come to the
>alter for prayer following the sermon?  Do you consider the length
>of the alter call itself?  Are you certain your church is growing
>just because you feel better when you leave for home?  How can you
>really tell if your church is growing spiritually?  Is there any
>biblical way of calculating the degree of spirituality of a given
>church?
>
>      If we examine Scripture carefully, there are only two basic
>rules we can use to judge the level of spirituality of our
>church.  Jesus said, "It is written, My house shall be called the
>house of prayer," (Matthew 21:13).  First and for most, if your
>church isn't praying; it isn't growing.  I don't care how many you
>have in attendance; it isn't growing.  In every church I've been
>in over the years as I've traveled, I've only seen one church that
>really believed in praying.  All churches pray to one degree or
>another but that's all it is; prayer.  They thank God for the
>blessings, they pray God would touch the sick, they pray God's
>blessings on the offerings, they ask the Lord to save the lost,
>and they ask for His blessings upon the Word as it is taught or
>preached.  When a special speaker is announced, we pray that God
>would bless him when he comes and that revival would break out in
>our church.  Although it never does, we never seem to notice
>because the services are so wonderful.  Lots of people came, too,
>and the alter calls were good so we must have had revival.
>
>      do we really pray?  Oh, sure, we have a prayer meeting.  In
>some cases, we meet in someone's home and a few pray together.
>Sometimes a few of us meet at church each week and pray and call
>it a prayer meeting.  Is it?  I ask again, do we really pray and
>has the church become known as the house of prayer?  Unless
>everyone in the body of believers is praying, can we honestly say
>we are the house of prayer?
>
>      What is prayer?  Jesus said we would be known as the "House
>of Prayer."  Are we known for this?  Do other churches know we
>pray?  Do others in the neighborhood know we pray?  Oh, sure, they
>know we have long and loud services.  They know we have church a
>lot because of all the cars coming and going.  They know we have a
>food bank once a week where we give away free food.  They know we
>have special singing groups in from time to time because we invite
>them to come and hear them.  they know we have after service
>dinners on the ground and Sunday school contests and that we
>sometimes give away free gifts to all who attend.  Do they know,
>however, we pray so much and with such authority that they can
>come over and be prayed for with the assurance that God will bring
>about an answer?  Do other churches come to our prayer meetings
>just to see how we do it?  Are we praying collectively has a
>church or do we have a special prayer group set aside to do all
>our praying for us once a week?  Maybe we have even established a
>so called intercessory prayer group that does all of the praying
>for us once or twice a week.
>
>      A few years ago, I was a member of a small church of about
>forty people.  The pastor said he had been called by God to our
>area to win Denver to Christ.  A few months later, after hearing
>about this special calling, I asked the pastor just exactly what
>he meant by reaching Denver for Christ.  He said that he believed
>he had been called to Denver to become the pastor of Denver and
>that eventually all pastors, or most of them, would come under his
>leadership and we would become a super church.  He'd already
>picked out a huge building he wanted to use for this super church.
>Later, he admitted that this meant he would become the apostle of
>Denver.
>
>      One morning, in this small church, as I sat and listened to
>the worship team practicing their songs for that morning, the Holy
>Spirit began speaking to me about the true nature of this
>particular church.  In a few seconds of time, he gave me a
>complete message for this church to hear.  As a New Testament
>prophet, I knew I had to give this message.  What really
>confirmed it to me was the promise God would give this church if
>we would do what He said.
>
>      The pastor was walking around listening to the worship team
>practicing and I called him over and told him I had a message
>from the Lord for this body of Believers.  He said, "That's
>wonderful."  Furthermore, he said, "I have tried all week to get
>up a sermon but the Lord never gave me anything.  This has to be
>of the Lord because I came with absolutely nothing prepared to
>speak."  He instructed me to speak up whenever I wanted to talk
>and he would turn the microphone over to me.  during the worship
>time, I was overpowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit and
>could hardly stand.  Finally the Lord said it was time to speak.
>
>      Taking the microphone, I was only vaguely aware of the
>message the Lord had given me but as I talked, I not only knew the
>exact message but I had a vision of what He wanted us to do which
>came with a promise.
>
>      the message was simple overall.  the Lord showed me that we
>would be moving to even a smaller building and I saw a small store
>front that would probably only hold fifty people.  the Lord told
>me to tell these people that we would begin to pray as a body of
>Believers and that we would pray so much, we would find it more
>desirable to be at church than at home.  Furthermore, the Lord
>showed me that our prayers would be heard and the pastors and
>youth pastors and assistant pastors of the city would eventually
>come to us and request we teach them how to pray and request that
>we lay hands on them so they could take what we had back to their
>own churches.  Also, the Lord showed me that day that we would
>become so close to Him through our corporate church prayers that
>the sick and infirmed would hear of us and would come for prayer.
>They would not come to us for prayer because we had invited them
>but because the church that prayed was being made known by the
>hand of the Lord.  they would come, we would lay hands upon them,
>and pray for them and they would recover.  The Lord also revealed
>to me that many would come to Christ as a result of our prayers.
>It suddenly dawned on me what the Lord was saying.  He was telling
>us that our little church was going to take Denver for Christ.  We
>would never become a big church but we would be the Lord's church
>and we would be known for our spiritual authority and power
>through our corporate church prayers and that we would literally
>reach all of Denver through our intercession and petitionary
>prayers.
>
>      When I sat down, after over thirty minutes of speaking, the
>pastor got up and the first thing he said was, "Well, I don't
>agree with everything Phil said."  He then preceded to spend the
>next thirty minutes ripping apart everything I had just said.
>You see, the word the Lord had given to this body of Believers
>did not match what he thought God meant about him taking Denver
>for Christ.  Plus, he did not appreciate the idea that his church
>might be small in number but big in spiritual authority and
>powerful prayers.  In his mind, big meant in size and number.  Yet
>the bible is filled with stories of the mightiness of God through
>one or by the small in number.  Later this pastor began to drift
>doctrinally and began allow sin in the church in such a way that
>the church was devastated.  He still pastors about a dozen people
>but he has never taken Denver for Christ and, unless he sees the
>glory of God, he never will.
>
>PRAYER
>
>      The first, and foremost, test of a growing church, is a
>praying church.  We need to learn what it means to pray together
>and we need to learn the ways of intercessory prayer and spiritual
>warfare.  We likewise need to learn how to conduct spiritual
>warfare through our prayers and prayer needs to become our vital
>link to the throne of God in behalf of others.  If you have no
>prier instruction or training on how this is done, simply get your
>church together, and as their pastor, begin to pray together.
>Yes, it is that simple.  The Holy Spirit will begin to teach you
>how to pray.  In most cases, unfortunately, you will discover, if
>you are a church member recommending this to your pastor, he will
>not be receptive to the idea.  You may, therefore, have to meet
>quietly alone with one or two others in your home.  If this is the
>case, begin praying that God would teach you how to pray and as He
>does, pray for your pastor and the church that they, too, may
>become burden to become a church of prayer.
>
>GO
>
>      Another test of church growth is salvation and changed lives.
>The church I have recently been in for the last four years has had
>no one saved and stay in the church nor have we discipled anyone.
>Matthew 28:18-20 clearly instructs us to lead people to Christ,
>baptize them, and disciple them.  this means personal time is a
>necessary part of discipling a new convert.  We generally, in
>today's modern church, aren't interested in spending personal time
>with our new converts.  We want them to simply come to church and
>learn from the pulpit.  The problem with this philosophy, however,
>is that the new converts never really get to see how others live
>on a daily bases because no personal and regular contact is ever
>made with them.  In other words, no friendships and personal
>relationships are established.  Eventually, they drift away and
>try and find some place where they belong.  If your church is not
>actively winning the lost and discipling them, your church is not
>growing regardless of how many are in attendance.
>
>      This method of church growth requires "going."  Literally, we
>are command to go after the lost and if we know Christians who
>have not been discipled, they need someone to "go after" them.
>Yes, once again this requires personal involved and time.  Most of
>us, pastors include, think we are busy enough the way it is and
>besides, we rationalized, I'm not very good at it anyhow.  So we
>allow others to do it for us and in many cases, our churches are
>small and don't have enough people in the first place.  Thus, it
>never gets down.  If you are not willing to go after others, be
>they lost or Christians out of fellowship with God or Christians
>who have never been discipled, then you are living your life out
>of the will of God.  If you physically incapable of going, that is
>a different matter but physical disabilities does not exempt you
>from praying.
>
>In most cases, this is not the message a pastor wants to hear.  So
>don't be surprised if you try and suggest these two things to him
>and he disagrees strongly with your suggestions.  Most pastors
>have been train in seminary and Bible colleges to administrate a
>body of Believers.  I had one class, a single semester, of
>personal evangelism (this school was afraid to call it soul
>winning) and I had literally no classes, nor were none offered in
>the curriculum by the bible college, on prayer.  I wonder why and
>that isn't a question.
>
>Phil.
>
>
>I Flew Kites With Jesus
>www.SafePlaceFellowship.com

John

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