Prayerwalking

Mere Marketing Misses the Mark

/ Dennis Griffith / 2 Comments

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This had to be one of the more irritating telemarketing calls I can recall. 

Some guy cold-called me at my church office yesterday and wanted me to give him a blow-by-blow of our Outreach strategy.  He had a service to sell that would “enhance” our attractiveness to the community.  To listen to him it sounded like a can’t miss thing.  One problem with that ‘can’t miss program’… I had used similar services in past churches, and my present church had used it prior to my arrival.  All previous tries were whiffs. We attracted ZERO.  And we blessed no one – except, maybe, the sellers of the service.

But the “selling” of the church is not the only thing that gauled me.

One thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the pretense of selling this service, not for the money but for the benefit of the Church.  What c-#-@-p!; err, what a joke.  Who did he think he’s kidding? (Or, is he kidding himself?)  I have no objection to people being in business to make money.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Even in the church supply business there is nothing wrong with profit.  Scripture speaks against dishonest gain, not against  legitimate gains.  So this guy had no reason to hide the fact that he is in business. Just own up to it. To deny it leads me to mistrust him even more.

A second thing, and what probably bugged me most, was that he had the audacity to demand that I explain to him about our Outreach program.  He really insisted. Ordinarily I am happy to share our vision. But this was a cold-call telemarketer.  I don’t have time for that.  Trying to get off the phone, I simply expressed: “We’re doing fine.”  Yet, he kept pushing, even asking sarcasitcally: “Doesn’t your church want new people to come?”  Since when did I, or our church, become accountable to this guy?

Finally, in retrospect, I am also a little disappointed.  I finally gave the guy a brief synopsis of our Outreach strategy. Our plan is simply:  “To Bless the community where God has sovereignly placed us.”  Though we are happy our church has grown significantly in both members and attendance over the past two years, that’s not what we want to be about. It is not about us. It is about God’s glory & grace. It is about loving our neighbors. We are intentionally becoming more Incarnational than Attractional. In other words we are measuring our health more-and-more by the way we go out into the community to serve those around us than by the number of people we put on our rolls.  Therefore we are engaging in things like Prayerwalking, Servant Evangelism, and equipping and unleashing our members to serve in a number of ways throughout the Mountain Empire.  We are learning to express the love of Christ in practical ways to our neighbors.  Eventually we hope to be able to express the love of Christ in significant ways…

But marketing, while it may have a place for the church, will never of itself help us meet those objectives.  Marketing by it’s very nature is about selling of self.  Marketing is about “US”.

What was disappointing is that this guy didn’t comprehend what I was telling him.  Not at all.  His paradigm only allowed him to digest the work of the church in one way – mere numbers attending our church.

What is more disappointing is that I suspect this guy reflects the majority understanding of mission permeating American Evangelicalism: “It’s All About Us.”   And with that perspective – even when we sincerely think we are doing God a favor when our churches grow – our influence has steadily diminished throughout our society. 

We have ignored the covenant mandate made with Abram in Genesis 12, that the Lord’s plan is to bless all Peoples through us; we have neglected Christ’s madate to love our neighbors (Mark 12); and have have forgotten the example of the early church (Acts 2).  How else can we explain this narcissistic myopia in Evangleicalism?

Let me finish with this: I’m not opposed to church growth.  I agree that healthy churches do grow; and that ‘non-growth’ is nothing to take pride in.  But I have learned that not all growth is healthy; and that sometimes a period of stagnation or even decline may in reality be an opportunity for a chrysalis period.  Again, I have the privilege to pastor a church that is showing growth.  But either way, when our focus is primarily on ourselves it is not where it needs to be: first, on God; and second, significantly on blessing our neighbors.  (Mark 12.28-31)

When we learn to effectively place the emphasis in the proper order, God is glorified, our neighbors are blessed, and we are all better off.

Becoming a House of Prayer

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Jesus said:

“My house shall be called a House of Prayer for all Nations.”

It is my dream for our church, Walnut Hill Presbyterian, to become a House of Prayer.  That dream is shared by the Elders of the church, and by several members. 

Don’t get me wrong. Walnut Hill is, in many respects, a praying church.  We have a number of faithful & powerful prayer warriors among our number.  Wednesday evenings were set apart for a service of prayer long before I arrived on the scene a little over a year ago.  And each Saturday morning the Elders meet at the church at 7:30am to pray for our members and our community. (This is another practice that was already in place before I returned to Tennessee.) 

I don’t know how one would gauge such a thing, but I suspect that Walnut Hill would rank among the upper percentiles for prayer among churches in the USA.

But still, that is not what I am hoping for.  It is not the same thing.  There is a difference between a praying church and a House of Prayer. In fact, Cheryl Sacks, in her book The Prayer Saturated Church, lists several differences:

1. A church that prays may have a limited number of people involved in a prayer ministry; A House of Prayer involves the entire congregation.

2. In a praying church there may be little, or even no, regular emphasis from the pulpit about the ministry of prayer; A House of Prayer regualarly teaches and emphasizes the priority of prayer from the pulpit.

3. In a praying church very little training is offered to people to prepare them for prayer. It may be assumed that prayer is easy, and people already know how to pray.  In a House of Prayer it is recognized that prayer can be hard work, and many people feel inadequate about their prayer life. Therefore classes, seminars, and other opportunities for prayer and training in prayer are offered.

4. In a praying church it may be that only a few leaders attend prayer meetings, with no regular commitment. In a House of Prayer ALL leaders, and staff, have a burden for prayer, and have made it a priority in their lives to participate in the prayer meetings.

5. In praying churches groups or committees open with prayer as an item on the docket or agenda. In a House of Prayer groups spend time praying together, pray at regular or spontanious times throughout the meeting, and set times of prayer in addition to regular meetings. 

6. In a church that has a prayer ministry, there may still be something that is lacking in the atmosphere because prayer may be feeble. In a House of Prayer there is a fresh flowing of the presence of the Holy Spirit that permeates the atmosphere of the church. 

7. In churches that pray members have the freedom to pray; In a House of Prayer there is a natural flow of prayer going on throughout the church.

8 In a church that prays, having a ministry staff person is not recognized as a viable part of the church staff. In a House of Prayer a prayer coordinator is an essential member of the staff, and may even be a paid staff member.

These are just some of the distinctions. Some are subtle, while others are glaring, differences.  (Click to read Slacks actual and complete list: God’s Standard.)

Another difference between a church that prays and a House of Prayer is the focus and substance of the prayers offered.  Jack Miller, in his book Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, makes the distinction between two types of prayer meetings: Maintenance or Frontline. Miller confesses to having led both kinds in churches he had pastored.  I will offer more insight about what Miller says about these in another post, but here is the essence of each: 

Maintenace prayer meetings focus on perpetuating the status quo. Prayers are offered with little expectancy, and usually from the hosptial list and for some generic ‘blessing’ on the ministries and programs of the church.

Particiapnts in the Frontline prayer meetings expect to encounter God, and to be changed as a result of that encounter.  The prayers offered are specific expressions of “Thy Kingdom come. They Will be done…”  In other words, the purpose is, by God’s grace and power, to advance Christ’s Kingdom. 

There are a number of reasons why many churches are not as effecive in prayer as they might hope to be.  Chief among these reasons are probably:

1. Prayer is hard work.

2. People don’t know how to pray.

You might be surprised that I suggest people don’t know how to pray.  But you shouldn’t be.  This disciples, who were mentored by Jesus, didn’t know how. That’s why thay asked: “Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11.1)   Apparently effective prayer is something that needs to be learned. It takes work.

We want to take some steps toward becoming a House of Prayer. 

Beginning Sunday October 5, Walnut Hill Church will participate in 40 Days of Prayer. During these next eight weeks we will coordinate our Sunday School classes with our morning messages; and we will encourage one another to make prayer a more focused part of our daily lives.

While effective prayer will always be hard work, to alleviate some of the practical difficulties that often hinder people from getting started we will: 1) supply church members with some tools to assist them in prayer; 2) introduce new opportunites to pray for our neighbors and community through PrayerWalking. (If this is a new concept to you, click: Practical PrayerWalking, to read a brief introduction by WayMakers.  Also click on What is PrayerWalking? and How to PrayerWalk on the WayMakers page.)  

If you are a part of the Walnut HIll family, we ask that you join us on this journey.  Whether you are part of Walnut Hill or just someone who stumbled on this page, we ask that you pray for us: that God, by his grace, and for his glory, would transform us into a House of Prayer.