Attending Prayer Meetings - Their Importance

Erroll Hulse writes,

You can tell with a fair degree of accuracy what a church is like by the demeanour or substance of the weekly prayer meeting. Is there genuine evangelistic concern? If so, it will be addressed in the prayers. Is there a heartfelt longing for the conversion of unconverted family members? If so, that is sure to surface. Is there a world vision and a fervent desire for revival and the glory of our Redeemer among the nations of the world? Such a burden cannot be suppressed. 

I would add, that for the most part, you can tell with a fair degree of accuracy what a Christian is like by the importance and weightiness they ascribe to the practice of prayer, including of course the corporate prayer meeting. As Solomon wisely wrote, "As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man"(Proverbs 27:19). Or, as Jesus says, you will know a tree by its fruit. Does a person make every effort to pray? Or do they find every excuse under the sun to avoid praying, whether privately or corporately? The fruit reveals the root.

Edwin Hatfield says that those who conscientiously and habitually participate in the church's prayer meetings usually "experience more sweet and pure delight in their very exercise, grow more rapidly and steadily in grace, become the most devotional, active and useful Christians, and become the life and soul, as it were, of the Church." To which Beeke asks the reader,

What about you? Is that not what you want to be? Do you support your church's prayer meetings with secret prayer and with your presence? Have your grasped their purposes and value? Do you believe that God is sovereignly pleased to tie together revival and prayer? Do you understand that the success of your minister and missionaries is intimately bound up in your prayers?

Do you realize the value of attending the prayer meeting together as a family - the value of teaching your children verbally and by example that just as your own family is bonded together by praying together, so the church family grows and stays together by praying together? Teach your children that besides the actual worship services on Sunday, no church activity is so important as the congregational prayer meeting. Train them to know that true Christians - not politicians or worldly powers - hold the key to the future of the family, the church, and the nation through the instrumentality of private and corporate prayer...If every God-fearing family in every God-honoring church around the world took the congregational prayer meeting seriously, what impact would that have around the world? 

Prayer is the normal means that God uses to shower His heavenly blessings on earth. As Beeke insightfully reminds us, though we are apt to miss our congregational prayer meeting, Jesus never does.

Beeke closes his book with the following:

We customarily record our appointments on our calendar. Will you not mark your church prayer meetings on your calendar as engagements of the highest priority for your entire family? Will you not prepare for them, and try to bring a friend or two with you? Make it a solemn duty, a habit, and a privilege to be there.

Dear friends, let us treasure prayer meetings. Let us engage in them with all our heart, remembering that revivals usually begin with prayer meetings. As one divine put it, "the Holy Spirit loves to answer petitions that are appended with many signatures."

Let us simply take God at His Word. Who can tell what He will do? As Beeke wrote, "If every God-fearing family in every God-honoring church around the world took the congregational prayer meeting seriously, what impact would that have around the world?"

In Christ, and for His glory through His [praying] church,
Pastor Ryan

P.S. I truly believe that the pathetic state of the church is due to the pathetic state of her desire to pray together. I would be surprised if even 10% of the evangelical churches in the city I live in even have a prayer meeting. We are a busy society, and we have every excuse of why we can't pray together. Yet, as Spurgeon once said, one of the most condemning verses in the Bible is, "Be it unto you according to your faith." James says, "You have not, because you ask not." Solomon says that our God hears and accepts the prayers of the upright. Paul, writing to the Corinthian church, says, "You [plural] also must help us by prayer, so than many [plural] will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many [plural]."

With so much testimony in the Word of God, do our excuses really hold up to the omniscient scrutiny of our God who "weighs the heart"? If we spent more time offering to God our prayers instead of our excuses of why we don't pray, imagine what Christ's church would look like.

Oh may God stir up the hearts of His people to humble themselves, repent, and return to Him!

For those who would like to purchase Beeke's book, it is a small, easy-to-read, and affordable book I heartily recommend. It can be purchased from most online Christian book stores, and I am certain your local Christian bookstore would be able to obtain a copy for you.

Attending Prayer Meetings, Part 4 - Their Purpose

In this short chapter, Beeke offers 15 purposes that corporate prayer meetings serve. For the sake of brevity, I am only going to highlight some of the ones that stuck out to me, as many of those listed by Beeke could also be listed as 'benefits' of attending a regular corporate church service on Sunday (e.g. fellowship, accountability, etc.).

1. Intentionally gathering together to pray guarantees that Christians engage is this essential means of grace Christ has given His church. On Sundays, we gather to hear the Word proclaimed together, to sing together, and to enjoy Christian 'fellowship.' However, praying for one another is a rarity on Sundays. This is the beauty of the midweek prayer meeting.

2. Praying together is often the means God uses to initiate or increase revival.

3. Praying together provides an important spiritual oasis in a busy week.

4. Praying together increases unity in the church. As Peter Masters put it:

In the prayer gathering, preoccupation with ourselves as individual believers slips away, and we become a group of people longing for the blessing of others, and for the prosperity of the cause. In the prayer gathering we are refined and honed as a united body of people. It cements unions, and promotes respect. To adopt a well-worn phrase, the church that prays together, stays together.

5. Praying together utilizes the spiritual life of the church for the good of all the church's ministries.

6. Praying together increases the Christ-centeredness of believers. If Christ is the answer to all of our prayers, then as we pray together, we point one another to the King of Glory, in whose Name we pray together.

7. Praying together is the best way to teach Christians how to pray. Masters wisely writes,

Believers grow in the gift of prayer as they hear others pray. They learn to appreciate specificity in prayer, passionate pleading, Christ-centered wrestling, and fresh modes of expression. Iron sharpens iron. Young believers learn from older ones, and older believers are encouraged by the sincere petitions of the younger.

8. Praying together enhances private prayer.

For these reasons and many others may we seek to gather together as churches to pray to our great and glorious prayer-answering God.

In Christ's Name, and for His glory through His [praying] church,
Pastor Ryan

Attending Prayer Meetings, Part 3: Their History

Prayer meetings have been a key part of evangelical Christianity throughout church history. It is especially noteworthy to point out that prayer meetings have been particularly influential in times of persecution and times of revival.

Though Beeke mentions many such examples of how persecution, prayer, and revival were inseparably linked (e.g. in Scotland, England, Holland, etc.), I will mention only two.

1. The great New England Revival in the 18th century

This revival was most likely the result of Jonathan Edwards' book entitled, "An Humble Attempt to promote an explicit agreement and visible union of God's people through the world, in extraordinary prayer, for the revival of religion and the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth", written in 1747.

The reason Edwards wrote this treatise was that he realized that the revivals of the mid-1730s and the early 1740s would not reoccur until God's people engaged in earnest prayer for revival.

Edwards was inspired to write this in response to the great revivals that were taking place in Scotland, which was, not surprisingly, in answer to the intentional prayers of gathered Christians for God to revive their nation. This call to united prayer in Scotland, originally seen as a 2 year 'experiment', summoned Christian leaders and churches to unite all prayer groups and praying Christians in their nation to a common 'prayer strategy'.

They called for focused revival prayer on every Saturday evening and Sunday morning, as well as on the first Tuesday of each quarter. By 1746 they were so encouraged by the impact of their 'experiment' that they composed a call to prayer to the church worldwide to conduct a new 'experiment' that would last this time for seven years.

Edwards' chief text was Zechariah 8:20-22, where the prophet tells God's people that God's rich promises are meant to encourage His people to expect great success from corporate prayer. In Edwards' own words, "That which God abundantly makes the subject of His promises, God's people should abundantly make the subject of their prayers." He concluded that when believers persevere in united 'concerts' of prayer, God will grant a fresh revival, which "shall be propagated, till the awakening reaches those that are in the highest stations, and till whole nations be awakened."

As history proves, Edwards' treatise become the major manifesto for the Second Great Awakening in America in the late 1790s, as ministers took seriously the power of united times of corporate believing prayer. Even in subsequent generations, revival would break out in pockets of America as this tiny treatise fell into the hands of ministers willing to implement its subject in their churches.

Oh that this would be repeated in our own generation!

2. Prayer meetings conducted by C.H. Spurgeon

Though regarded as the "Prince of Preachers", anyone who has read C.H. Spurgeon knows that he was first and foremost a great man of prayer.

In the 1860s, Spurgeon organized prayer meetings at the Metropolitan Tabernacle at 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day. On Monday evenings, it is recorded that more than 3000 people would regularly attend. Beeke notes,

One evening a visitor asked Spurgeon what accounted for the success of these meetings. Spurgeon walked his visitor to the sanctuary, opened the door, and let him watch the participants. Nothing more needed to be said.

Though one of the most glorious ministries of the post-Reformation era, we must realize that Spurgeon linked the revival of God's elect not to the preacher's great eloquence, abundant abilities, or winsome character in the pulpit. No. Revival began in the "furnace room", which Spurgeon called the engine of the church. It was here where the seeds of revival sprouted, as the fervent prayers, entreaties, and supplications of God's saints were lifted up to their faithful, covenant keeping God.

It is also interesting to note that prior to Spurgeon's arrival in London, that for many years members in the church were praying for revival. These aromatic prayers were gloriously answered with the coming of Spurgeon, a young, inexperienced country boy, whom God would make His instrument to unleash the power of His preached Word and reap a great harvest of souls.

We could go on and on with examples in church history of how Christians, when gathered together for and united in prayer, saw great movements of God in revival. I hope these two samples will both whet our appetites and encourage us as Christians to make both private and corporate prayer more of a priority in our lives. We can sing and talk about revival all we want. But are we willing to give up our precious time to ask for it in corporate prayer?

As the hymn writer wrote, "Mercy drops round us are falling / But for the showers [of revival] we plead." Revive us O God!

In Christ, and for His glory in His [praying] church,
Pastor Ryan


P.S. Another noteworthy revival that should be read is the great "Business Man Prayer Revival" in 1757-58 in New York City, which would inevitably spread to many other cities in the U.S. Truly, it is amazing what can happen when God's people begin to pray together! For more info, just google it, or, you can read about it in Colin's Hansen's Book, "A God-sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir".