PRAYER MEETING:

WHY OR WHY NOT?!

Most Christians do not attend the prayer meeting in their church.  I think the figure is about 80%.  Why 80%?  Because from observations, a church with about 100 people at the Worship Service usually has only about 20 people in the weekly prayer meeting.  And maybe this can be considered quite good already.  The Sunday Worship attendance in my home church is usually about 2,000 people… but prayer meeting attendance is definitely not more than 400 people.

Not many Christians actually attend both Worship Services and prayer meetings consistently.  But for me, actually I attend more prayer meetings than Sunday Worship Services in my own home church.  Why?  Because of my ministry work, often I would be away preaching or teaching on weekends.  As such, on a normal month, I usually get to attend Sunday Worship in my home church only about two times.  Sometimes only once.  But usually I would be able to go to prayer meeting about three times.

There was this day when I tried to get my younger daughter to join my wife and I at the prayer meeting.  She asked, “Why must we go to church to pray?  Why can’t we pray at home?”

By the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, I was able to respond spontaneously to her, “As much as closet and individual prayer is important, there is also a need for corporate prayer...”

Indeed, there is the community aspect of prayer that many Christians have not understood, or deliberately choose to ignore.  Worst, perhaps we have used the excuse of “I can pray at home…” to rationalize not going to church prayer meeting; but in actual fact we are doing anything and everything at home, but pray.

Praying in itself is already a very difficult spiritual discipline, what more coming together to pray as the Body of Christ.  Not negating the fact that often our lives are so very busy, or some church prayer meetings are really just boring meaningless routines, or that we absolutely cannot stand all the hypocrisy; we still need to come together to pray…  The practice of the discipline of corporate prayer also helps us learn humility, submission, perseverance and sacrifice.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

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Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this article may not necessarily reflect those of the Christian organization Jason works in, nor the church or denomination he belongs to.