God desires that His Church be a praying Church. Prayer should not just be one of the many ministries of local churches, but every church should have a culture of prayer that permeates the community. This has always been God’s desire, but there’s reason to believe that the Holy Spirit is highlighting this truth to us at this time, especially in America.
A Prophetic Word in Herrnhut
While in Herrnhut Germany, I met a lady named Maren Winter who helped establish the Jesus Haus, a house of prayer & local church that has been working in Herrnhut since the 1970s to reawaken the spirit of the Moravians — a passion for non-stop prayer, unity and missions. (If you don’t know the story of the Moravians’ 100-year prayer meeting, you can check out this podcast episode or read the book The Moravian Miracle by Jason Hubbard.) One evening during a service there, Maren recounted a story of James Goll visiting Herrnhut in the early 1990s. It was at this time that he prophesied about 120 houses of non-stop prayer around the world that would carry the “spirit of the Moravians” (you can read about this in Goll’s book The Lost Art of Intercession). Within a few years of this prophetic word, the house of prayer movement, as we know it, was born and spread like wildfire around the world.
Maren shared with us that at the Jesus Haus, they are installing an old bell tower from Herrnhut that had almost been lost through a fire. It will be installed and dedicated in July of this year. She prophesied to us that God used Herrnhut to inspire houses of prayer over the last twenty years, but that now He is not just wanting to inspire houses of prayer. In the next season God is going to “ring the bell” to awaken His Church. It wasn’t just going to be for prayer ministries anymore. I believe God is desiring that the spirit of the Moravians permeate the entire body of Christ as we are awakened to the reality of Jesus. In other words, the same values carried by the Moravians would fill the global Church — day & night prayer, humility, brotherly love, beholding the the Lamb of God and a radical zeal for missions.
A Major Shift in the Global Prayer Movement
For the last 20+ years, there has been an unprecedented prayer movement across the earth. This movement has had many expressions, but much of what has been called the “prayer movement” in the western world has been parachurch ministries with an emphasis on prayer — citywide houses of prayer, campus prayer ministries, regional prayer events, strategic prayer networks, etc. This “prayer movement” has been seen as a stream within the larger river of the body of Christ.
Things are now shifting. The prayer movement is becoming the praying Church.
God’s desire was never that prayer would be a “stream” within the Church. Jesus said His house would be a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13). Jesus is building one house — the Church. The Church is to be a house of prayer. To be clear, this doesn’t mean that every church is supposed to look like IHOPKC. It does mean that prayer (in the spirit of David’s Tabernacle) is to be a central activity of every congregation.
The clear trend within recent years is towards the establishment of full-blown local churches that carry biblical “prayer movement” values — such as the primacy of God’s manifest presence, the priority of intimacy with God, the necessity of intercession, the power of prophetic worship and a zeal for global missions. God is raising up apostolic leaders to plant & reform local churches that embrace extravagant worship, prayer and missions. And I believe even more is coming.
A few examples of this trend:
- Revive Church in Fredericksburg, VA, the base of Awaken the Dawn
- Gatecity Church in Atlanta with Billy Humphrey (formerly IHOP-Atlanta which merged with another local church).
- Upperroom in Dallas with Michael Miller and Corey Russell
- Church of the City in NYC with Jon Tyson
- Radiant Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan with Lee Cummings and the broader Radiant church network
- The World Prays / America Prays movement where pastors of local churches are uniting in cities to for collaborative 24/7 prayer
This is just a small sampling. There are many other local churches starting prayer meetings and prayer rooms. Many parachurch houses of prayer have morphed into local, praying churches. Many intercessory missionaries are taking staff roles at churches to serve in worship & prayer ministries within their local church context (by the way, this is one of the ways that finances and resources are coming to the prayer movement).
The Church of Jesus is a House of Prayer
It is vital that our end goal is the same as Jesus — that the Church would become a house of prayer for all the nations. God is not building a stream or movement, He’s building His Church. If our efforts are not moving towards the long-term vision of planting and reforming local, presence-centered, praying churches in every place (Malachi 1:11), then we need to reconsider our strategy.
Some of you reading this may need to plant a praying local church.
Some pastors reading this may need to reform their churches in major ways.
Some reading this may need to go to a plant or serve praying churches in the nations.
Some of you will be led by God to relocate in order to be a part of a praying church.
Most of you reading this probably just need to plant yourself in a local church right where you currently live and (humbly) bring the influence of a culture of prayer there.
If you’ve ever felt stirred to lead a house of prayer or see 24/7 prayer in your city, here’s a word of wisdom: start in your local church. If your church is small, talk to your pastors/elders about your desire for prayer meetings at your church. Humbly submit to their leadership, but also be bold about what God’s stirring in your heart. If your church is larger, maybe you can lead a small group focused on prayer. Maybe there’s already prayer meetings at your church. If so, I urge you to attend them faithfully.
And yes, I know it’s hard. I know that churchgoers don’t easily get excited about prayer. But that is exactly why it’s time to contend for an awakening of the Church. Jesus hasn’t abandoned His bride in America and the western world. Revival is possible. We must pray. We must humbly build relationships. We must serve the body of Chris with joy. We must not quit. And we must do it in the context of real local churches.
I am not saying that parachurch ministries are wrong. I am not saying that there won’t be citywide prayer rooms in the future. However, I am saying that God’s intention was never that prayer would be delegated to separate prayer ministries. The entire body of Christ needs to pray and worship extravagantly. I am saying that the 21st-century “prayer movement” orchestrated by the Holy Spirit is not just for the groups that use the term “house of prayer.” It is ultimately a renewal of the importance of prayer within the global Church. And it is therefore an awakening to all of us about the importance of God Himself being in the midst of His people.
I do believe this is where things are going. Let’s ring the bell of awakening and become a praying Church that is totally abandoned to Jesus!