What if We Skipped the Budget Meeting and Had a Prayer Meeting?

I was thinking (and that is often dangerous!) that God is pretty amazing. He designed the human body and because most of us take it for granted I wanted to give you a few facts to make my point:

1) There are 100-160 million capillaries in the human body that, if stretched end to end would reach nearly 50,000 miles (nearly twice the length of the equator).

2) Your heart beats about 36 million times a year (all day, every day, hopefully non-stop).

3) Over your lifetime, your brain remembers (although you may have trouble recalling) 150 trillion (that's 150,ooo billion) bits of information.

4) Your eye has nearly 125 million rods and cones (the receptors that process black and white and color respectively)

Now, that would be amazing in itself but he also designed each of the 1.4 million known species in the world and created the universe with its galaxies, stars, planets, nebulae, and black holes.

So, where am I going with this?

Let me describe the usual church council meeting:

First, there is the cursory opening prayer. Now I know that we all mean what we pray but let's be honest that if we actually used a stopwatch we would find that our prayer lasted one to two minutes max. If you don't believe me, take a stopwatch to the next meeting and give it a whirl. Then, there might be a wrap up or ratification of last week's agenda followed by this week's agenda. We devise programs, budgets, and marketing plans, design worship, design the bulletin, design the new stain glass window that was donated by aunt Gertrude, and design the layout of the new cafe which will "appeal to seekers". We try to find ways to increase the Sunday collection and to get more people in the pews. The meeting usually lasts a couple hours and then we close with prayer. Get out the stopwatch because I bet the closing prayer is less than a minute.

Don't get me wrong, all of these might be done with good intention and much of it is fine in and of themselves, but let's get something straight. God is GOD! The Bible tells us that God is omnipotent (all powerful).

Jeremiah 32:17,27 says, "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."

Is it possible that God already knows how to grow his Church, how to bless his Church, how to provide for his Church, and how to lead his Church? Maybe, just maybe, we are trying too hard. Maybe we've been a bit too proud, thinking that we can figure it out and use our wisdom to do what God is just waiting to do already. The Church is becoming a big business and is often being run like a Fortune 5o0 company with consultants and marketing people. Have they made churches bigger? Sometimes. But is "big" the desire? Not if "big" is also shallow or if it is at the expense of truth.

Let me throw something out there that might just be too crazy. It might be sound so ridiculous that you stop reading and begin laughing so hard you pop a vein in your forehead. But I think I'm going to do it anyway (caution if you have vascular disease!).

What if.... I mean, what if we just gathered together, fell prostrate (that means laying on your belly, face down) before the Lord, confessed our sins to Him, called on him to reveal to us his will, stood and worshiped Him with all of our passion (the same amount we give on SuperBowl Sunday), fast, and then waited on Him? I wonder what would happen. I wonder if God would be pleased with the humility and the surrender that he saw. I wonder if he would say, "Now, I can do what I want to do through you." I don't know because I'm not God but He does tell us in his Word:

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place." 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

Is it possible God's eyes and ears aren't attentive to our prayers now? These were his words not mine! I have been shown over and over that God is SO much bigger than I am and SO much more capable than I give him credit for. He doesn't need my money (although he expects us to reveal our love for Him and faith in Him through the giving of our "first fruits"). He uses us in his plan of salvation because he loves us. I think that we need to look into the Bible and see the times that God ROCKED people's worlds; Moses, Elijah, David, and the Apostles. Did the awesome power of God they saw when the Red Sea divided, fire came down from heaven, Goliath fell, or when 5,000 people were fed with a couple fish and a few loaves of bread, come from strategic planning, marketing, and the wisdom of man, or did they come by faith?

Friends, now is the time for us to do what God asks; humble ourselves, turn from our wicked ways, pray, and seek his face. I think we will see a move of God like we have not seen in our lifetimes... Hmmmm, just maybe.

Peace,

David