Prayer Power, Bible Power And Small Group Dynamics
Church Growth
It Works for Us!
The Clergy's Church Growth Handbook
Object:
Arthur Caliandro (Pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City) made the rather bold public statement that, "No church can grow and remain vital over the long haul unless its people are serious about prayer."1 Responsible Christians who are interested in revitalized churches add a quick "Amen" to his statement. If we want church growth, the best place to start is on our knees.
Some years ago in a lecture he delivered, the late Dr. Harry Denman said: "Prayer is essentially listening to God."2 In his wonderful book With Open Hands, Henri Nouwen resonates with Dr. Denman's thesis that prayer positions us to receive what God wants to give. Unfortunately we are ordinarily so busy placing our orders, talking to God or about God, that we forget to be silent -- to listen for "the still small voice" -- and thus to receive what God has to offer.
Churches that are serious about growth and revitalization must start by listening to God -- by asking in prayer: "What would you have us do? What would you have us be? To whom would you send us?" Having asked, they listen for God's reply.
Paula D'Arcy (the author of Song For Sarah) is an exceptional Christian motivator. She tells of belonging to a small church in New England. There were approximately 200 members on roll, with about 50 in church on any given Sunday. Usually there were about four in the choir. All was dull and dead: no new faces, no children, no laughter, no spirit to speak of. In time she and a friend began discussing the merits of looking for a new church home. However, they decided to remain until the end of the calendar year. In the autumn came the time for the annual women's banquet. Every year the same 12 or 15 ladies attended, nothing new, nothing inspiring. That particular year, though, Paula and her friend decided to experiment. They phoned every woman on the church roll and asked, "Would you come next Thursday night? We know you have other obligations and don't ordinarily participate in this group, but just this once it's very important that you're here. Would you come?" On Thursday night, instead of the usual 12 or 15, 60 women attended. At the close of the dinner, Paula and her friend pointed out to those women a table near the door. On that table were 200 slips of white paper. On each slip was the name of a member of the church. Every person on the roll (whether active or inactive) had his or her name written on one of the pieces of paper. Paula said to the women, "On your way out, I want each of you to pick up three or four of these pieces of paper. Then, for the coming year, I just want to ask you to do one thing: Pray for the persons whose names you picked up. You don't have to talk to them, socialize with them or even like them. Just pray for them, that's all." The women responded positively (with Paula and her friend taking whatever slips of paper that remained on the table as their prayer projects). "At the end of six months," she said, "things were different in our church. The choir was better. The preaching was better (proving either that sermons grow stronger in response to prayer or that people become better listeners when they pray for the preacher). People weren't in such a rush to leave after worship. Attendance was up. Young families were beginning to bring their children back. Occasionally a new member would be received. Folks were smiling and chatting in the halls. After a year," she said, "my friend and I didn't have to go looking for a new church. We were in one!" It all happened simply because of the power of prayer. People began to relate to one another differently, to feel better about themselves and others, and that spilled over into the fabric of the entire church.3
Psychologically it has been proven to be impossible to hate someone for whom you are praying. This author made the statement some time ago in a sermon that if we pray seriously for another person every day for two weeks, no matter what sort of grudge we feel it will subside. A church member decided to put the statement to a test. Later he reported: "I tried it, and it works. After two weeks, I wasn't mad at that other guy any more. But you failed to make another important point, that this principle has a snowball effect. The next time I became angry with someone," he continued, "I prayed, and it didn't take two weeks to resolve the anger. The time after that it was even quicker. It's easy to feel differently about people if you're willing to pray for them."
There is the formula for beginning to develop a new, awake, alive congregation. Develop a method by which church people begin praying for one another.
A Methodist congregation in South Korea has 60,000 members with an average weekly Sunday school attendance of 25,000 (worship figures are considerably larger than that). The pastor attests that the secret of their phenomenal success is prayer. In the church building are 21 separate rooms used for nothing but prayer. A new prayer retreat has just been opened. Every morning at 5 a.m. more than 500 church members gather to begin the day with corporate prayer. When asked why daily prayer meetings were set at so early an hour, the pastor replied: "Because there are no conflicts. No one can say he has another something else to do at 5 a.m.!" The church is exploding with growth, and it all started (and is maintained) with prayer.
Numerous growing churches have established prayer groups as part of their regular church administrative team. The members are selected and asked to serve 12- to 24-month terms, just as others are selected to be trustees or members of the finance committee. The prayer group members meet every Sunday before worship and pray for the preacher, choir, all worship participants and for every person who comes through the church doors with some hidden need. Church rolls are divided alphabetically with names assigned to group members on a rotating basis, so that every week every member of the congregation is being prayed for by name. Every week someone is praying for Bob Allen: his health, his work, his family life and his soul. Someone else is praying for Susan Bishop and Fred Fox and Sherry Dunn -- all the way down to the Zs. There is something about a program like that which pumps life and Spirit into a congregation. There is power in knowing (as a member of a church): "I matter to someone. Somebody is praying for me!"
A second indispensable for church growth and revitalization is The Bible. We are a people of the Word. Wherever and whenever that truth slips out of focus, our churches simultaneously slip out of gear.
John Wesley wrote in 1730: "I began to be 'homo unius libri' (a man of one book). I began to study (comparatively) no book but the Bible." In his preface to Sermons On Several Occasions (1746), he proclaimed again his intention to be "a man of just one book." This, of course, does not mean Wesley decided to become illiterate or uninformed where other writings were concerned. His personal records indicate that he had read from at least 1,400 different authors (with nearly 3,000 separate titles among them). What it did mean (as Albert Outler put it) was that "Wesley lived in the Scriptures and his mind ranged over the Bible's length and breadth and depth like a radar tuned into the pertinent data on every point he cared to make." Or, as Evelyn Laycock and James Holsinger state: "The Bible was his first and final norm for the validation of any theological discussion. His religion was a religion of the Bible."4
Those who have read Leader Keck's wonderful book The Bible In The Pulpit or have heard Fred Cradock lecture about remaining in The Word understand the intent of this thesis. Christians genuinely are (or should be) a people of The Book. Statistics consistently indicate that near the top of most visitors' checklists is not: "What will this church teach me about current issues or popular psychology or church history?" but rather, "Will this church share with me the truths of scripture?" Growing churches positively address that question from the pulpit, in the Sunday school classroom, in mid-week study groups, in cottage prayer meetings, in Disciples or Trinity Bible study courses. Growing churches place a high priority on teaching the Bible. As Elton Trueblood used to say, "We cannot have fruits without roots!"5 The Christian's roots have always been securely fastened to the Word.
Ecumenical Bible study groups are sources of rich life and spirit within a local church. Often invitations extended to individuals at work or in the neighborhood to join such a group that meets one night per week renders unexpected and exciting dividends. Varied personal and theological perspectives are brought to a group when its membership is not limited to members of one congregation. Also, it is proven that persons who do not attend worship and are not officially affiliated with any particular local church are frequently interested in joining a group simply to study scripture. After a sufficient period of time meeting with a small group in such study, the church building itself begins to feel like home. Many a person who has agreed to attend a Thursday night informal Bible study in "your church" simply as a seeker of truth, given enough time, begins to think of the place as "my church." Frequently those persons go on to become committed and active members of the congregation, already having been effectively assimilated even prior to joining.
Prayer and The Bible: If we are serious about those things, our churches will feel "the wind of the Spirit" breathing life into the dry bones!
Another matter that is of singular importance is developing a good, solid small group structure in the local church.
Lyle Schaller has told us for years that within every congregation there are mini-churches (circles within the circle), and the people who stick with a church are the ones who find their needs being met in the smaller circle.
In the sanctuary one is part of a "congregation." In the Sunday school class, choir, youth group, men's or women's fellowship or a small Bible study class, for example, one becomes part of a "fellowship." In the larger circle one is relatively anonymous. In the smaller circle, somebody knows your name. One of the best means of evangelism at our disposal is the development and use of small groups that draw people into the fellowship.
In addition to such things as the Bible study groups already mentioned, other well-organized programs that address human needs and personal interests are excellent avenues for persons to follow into a church. Many families eventually join a church because a son or daughter had become positively involved with a scouting program. Preschool (or Mom's Day Out) programs bring young families into contact with the church and help them learn to feel "at home" with a particular congregation. Sometimes it's an adult softball team that is the port of entry. Specific music programs for youth or children, special classes or other opportunities for persons with handicapping conditions, singles or single again groups or Parents Without Partners all become means of belonging to a small circle that is embraced by and part of the larger circle. Few things make people feel so warmly received as having a small group where someone knows their name, where they share a common interest and where they feel that they belong and matter. Those groups, if intelligently planned, become wonderful instruments of evangelism and church growth.
Intelligent planning is, of course, the key. It is never wise to answer questions people are not asking nor to offer food for which they are not hungry. About 20 miles outside a bustling southern city was a small, rural, white frame church with a new pastor fresh out of seminary. He was enthusiastic, if not altogether realistic. In short order, dreaming loftily, he convinced his church members that the city 20 miles away was growing in their direction and they should aggressively meet it. He convinced them of the urgent need to evangelize America's business and corporate community (a point at which he is no doubt correct). In any event, this young pastor talked his members into sponsoring a "Saturday Morning CEO Breakfast." Letters were sent out to 100 leaders in the business community. The letters explained the breakfast program and invited the execs to become participants. The women's group prepared breakfast on Saturday morning for 100 hungry businessmen. Saturday came, but they didn't. Not a single one of them showed up. Why not? Because leading CEOs in a large city are not going to drive 20 miles out in the country to a little white frame church to eat pancakes and be preached to. The program was self-defeating from the very outset. However, another small church down the road heard about the idea and developed a reasonable variation. They sent letters and made phone calls to all the farmers in the area (hog farmers, dairy farmers, horse breeders, whomever). They offered a 6:30 a.m. breakfast on Thursdays with a brief program prepared by a representative of the county's Agricultural Extension Department. On the inaugural Thursday, 14 men attended. Now they have in excess of 20 per week (several of whom have become members of their church).
Small groups, intelligently planned, which address needs that people actually experience can become inexpressibly valuable tools not simply for offering authentic ministry to the community but also for building the spirit and size of a local congregation.
Mechanically, there is more or less a "Trinity" of indispensable foundations on which any local church can successfully build. Those foundations are prayer, The Bible and wisely planned small groups where people can nurture one another, where they can bond and be known.
________
1. Arthur Caliandro, lecture at the FCL School of Practical Christianity (Pawling, New York, October, 1989).
2. Harry Denman, speech delivered to Durham District Evangelism Rally (Durham, North Carolina, District of The United Methodist Church, 1972).
3. Paula D'Arcy, lecture at the FCL School of Practical Christianity (Pawling, New York, October, 1989).
4. Information on Wesley and the Bible taken from Evelyn Laycock and James Holsinger, Awaken The Giant (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), p. 65.
5. Op. Cit., Miller, Evangelism's Open Secrets, p. 45.
Some years ago in a lecture he delivered, the late Dr. Harry Denman said: "Prayer is essentially listening to God."2 In his wonderful book With Open Hands, Henri Nouwen resonates with Dr. Denman's thesis that prayer positions us to receive what God wants to give. Unfortunately we are ordinarily so busy placing our orders, talking to God or about God, that we forget to be silent -- to listen for "the still small voice" -- and thus to receive what God has to offer.
Churches that are serious about growth and revitalization must start by listening to God -- by asking in prayer: "What would you have us do? What would you have us be? To whom would you send us?" Having asked, they listen for God's reply.
Paula D'Arcy (the author of Song For Sarah) is an exceptional Christian motivator. She tells of belonging to a small church in New England. There were approximately 200 members on roll, with about 50 in church on any given Sunday. Usually there were about four in the choir. All was dull and dead: no new faces, no children, no laughter, no spirit to speak of. In time she and a friend began discussing the merits of looking for a new church home. However, they decided to remain until the end of the calendar year. In the autumn came the time for the annual women's banquet. Every year the same 12 or 15 ladies attended, nothing new, nothing inspiring. That particular year, though, Paula and her friend decided to experiment. They phoned every woman on the church roll and asked, "Would you come next Thursday night? We know you have other obligations and don't ordinarily participate in this group, but just this once it's very important that you're here. Would you come?" On Thursday night, instead of the usual 12 or 15, 60 women attended. At the close of the dinner, Paula and her friend pointed out to those women a table near the door. On that table were 200 slips of white paper. On each slip was the name of a member of the church. Every person on the roll (whether active or inactive) had his or her name written on one of the pieces of paper. Paula said to the women, "On your way out, I want each of you to pick up three or four of these pieces of paper. Then, for the coming year, I just want to ask you to do one thing: Pray for the persons whose names you picked up. You don't have to talk to them, socialize with them or even like them. Just pray for them, that's all." The women responded positively (with Paula and her friend taking whatever slips of paper that remained on the table as their prayer projects). "At the end of six months," she said, "things were different in our church. The choir was better. The preaching was better (proving either that sermons grow stronger in response to prayer or that people become better listeners when they pray for the preacher). People weren't in such a rush to leave after worship. Attendance was up. Young families were beginning to bring their children back. Occasionally a new member would be received. Folks were smiling and chatting in the halls. After a year," she said, "my friend and I didn't have to go looking for a new church. We were in one!" It all happened simply because of the power of prayer. People began to relate to one another differently, to feel better about themselves and others, and that spilled over into the fabric of the entire church.3
Psychologically it has been proven to be impossible to hate someone for whom you are praying. This author made the statement some time ago in a sermon that if we pray seriously for another person every day for two weeks, no matter what sort of grudge we feel it will subside. A church member decided to put the statement to a test. Later he reported: "I tried it, and it works. After two weeks, I wasn't mad at that other guy any more. But you failed to make another important point, that this principle has a snowball effect. The next time I became angry with someone," he continued, "I prayed, and it didn't take two weeks to resolve the anger. The time after that it was even quicker. It's easy to feel differently about people if you're willing to pray for them."
There is the formula for beginning to develop a new, awake, alive congregation. Develop a method by which church people begin praying for one another.
A Methodist congregation in South Korea has 60,000 members with an average weekly Sunday school attendance of 25,000 (worship figures are considerably larger than that). The pastor attests that the secret of their phenomenal success is prayer. In the church building are 21 separate rooms used for nothing but prayer. A new prayer retreat has just been opened. Every morning at 5 a.m. more than 500 church members gather to begin the day with corporate prayer. When asked why daily prayer meetings were set at so early an hour, the pastor replied: "Because there are no conflicts. No one can say he has another something else to do at 5 a.m.!" The church is exploding with growth, and it all started (and is maintained) with prayer.
Numerous growing churches have established prayer groups as part of their regular church administrative team. The members are selected and asked to serve 12- to 24-month terms, just as others are selected to be trustees or members of the finance committee. The prayer group members meet every Sunday before worship and pray for the preacher, choir, all worship participants and for every person who comes through the church doors with some hidden need. Church rolls are divided alphabetically with names assigned to group members on a rotating basis, so that every week every member of the congregation is being prayed for by name. Every week someone is praying for Bob Allen: his health, his work, his family life and his soul. Someone else is praying for Susan Bishop and Fred Fox and Sherry Dunn -- all the way down to the Zs. There is something about a program like that which pumps life and Spirit into a congregation. There is power in knowing (as a member of a church): "I matter to someone. Somebody is praying for me!"
A second indispensable for church growth and revitalization is The Bible. We are a people of the Word. Wherever and whenever that truth slips out of focus, our churches simultaneously slip out of gear.
John Wesley wrote in 1730: "I began to be 'homo unius libri' (a man of one book). I began to study (comparatively) no book but the Bible." In his preface to Sermons On Several Occasions (1746), he proclaimed again his intention to be "a man of just one book." This, of course, does not mean Wesley decided to become illiterate or uninformed where other writings were concerned. His personal records indicate that he had read from at least 1,400 different authors (with nearly 3,000 separate titles among them). What it did mean (as Albert Outler put it) was that "Wesley lived in the Scriptures and his mind ranged over the Bible's length and breadth and depth like a radar tuned into the pertinent data on every point he cared to make." Or, as Evelyn Laycock and James Holsinger state: "The Bible was his first and final norm for the validation of any theological discussion. His religion was a religion of the Bible."4
Those who have read Leader Keck's wonderful book The Bible In The Pulpit or have heard Fred Cradock lecture about remaining in The Word understand the intent of this thesis. Christians genuinely are (or should be) a people of The Book. Statistics consistently indicate that near the top of most visitors' checklists is not: "What will this church teach me about current issues or popular psychology or church history?" but rather, "Will this church share with me the truths of scripture?" Growing churches positively address that question from the pulpit, in the Sunday school classroom, in mid-week study groups, in cottage prayer meetings, in Disciples or Trinity Bible study courses. Growing churches place a high priority on teaching the Bible. As Elton Trueblood used to say, "We cannot have fruits without roots!"5 The Christian's roots have always been securely fastened to the Word.
Ecumenical Bible study groups are sources of rich life and spirit within a local church. Often invitations extended to individuals at work or in the neighborhood to join such a group that meets one night per week renders unexpected and exciting dividends. Varied personal and theological perspectives are brought to a group when its membership is not limited to members of one congregation. Also, it is proven that persons who do not attend worship and are not officially affiliated with any particular local church are frequently interested in joining a group simply to study scripture. After a sufficient period of time meeting with a small group in such study, the church building itself begins to feel like home. Many a person who has agreed to attend a Thursday night informal Bible study in "your church" simply as a seeker of truth, given enough time, begins to think of the place as "my church." Frequently those persons go on to become committed and active members of the congregation, already having been effectively assimilated even prior to joining.
Prayer and The Bible: If we are serious about those things, our churches will feel "the wind of the Spirit" breathing life into the dry bones!
Another matter that is of singular importance is developing a good, solid small group structure in the local church.
Lyle Schaller has told us for years that within every congregation there are mini-churches (circles within the circle), and the people who stick with a church are the ones who find their needs being met in the smaller circle.
In the sanctuary one is part of a "congregation." In the Sunday school class, choir, youth group, men's or women's fellowship or a small Bible study class, for example, one becomes part of a "fellowship." In the larger circle one is relatively anonymous. In the smaller circle, somebody knows your name. One of the best means of evangelism at our disposal is the development and use of small groups that draw people into the fellowship.
In addition to such things as the Bible study groups already mentioned, other well-organized programs that address human needs and personal interests are excellent avenues for persons to follow into a church. Many families eventually join a church because a son or daughter had become positively involved with a scouting program. Preschool (or Mom's Day Out) programs bring young families into contact with the church and help them learn to feel "at home" with a particular congregation. Sometimes it's an adult softball team that is the port of entry. Specific music programs for youth or children, special classes or other opportunities for persons with handicapping conditions, singles or single again groups or Parents Without Partners all become means of belonging to a small circle that is embraced by and part of the larger circle. Few things make people feel so warmly received as having a small group where someone knows their name, where they share a common interest and where they feel that they belong and matter. Those groups, if intelligently planned, become wonderful instruments of evangelism and church growth.
Intelligent planning is, of course, the key. It is never wise to answer questions people are not asking nor to offer food for which they are not hungry. About 20 miles outside a bustling southern city was a small, rural, white frame church with a new pastor fresh out of seminary. He was enthusiastic, if not altogether realistic. In short order, dreaming loftily, he convinced his church members that the city 20 miles away was growing in their direction and they should aggressively meet it. He convinced them of the urgent need to evangelize America's business and corporate community (a point at which he is no doubt correct). In any event, this young pastor talked his members into sponsoring a "Saturday Morning CEO Breakfast." Letters were sent out to 100 leaders in the business community. The letters explained the breakfast program and invited the execs to become participants. The women's group prepared breakfast on Saturday morning for 100 hungry businessmen. Saturday came, but they didn't. Not a single one of them showed up. Why not? Because leading CEOs in a large city are not going to drive 20 miles out in the country to a little white frame church to eat pancakes and be preached to. The program was self-defeating from the very outset. However, another small church down the road heard about the idea and developed a reasonable variation. They sent letters and made phone calls to all the farmers in the area (hog farmers, dairy farmers, horse breeders, whomever). They offered a 6:30 a.m. breakfast on Thursdays with a brief program prepared by a representative of the county's Agricultural Extension Department. On the inaugural Thursday, 14 men attended. Now they have in excess of 20 per week (several of whom have become members of their church).
Small groups, intelligently planned, which address needs that people actually experience can become inexpressibly valuable tools not simply for offering authentic ministry to the community but also for building the spirit and size of a local congregation.
Mechanically, there is more or less a "Trinity" of indispensable foundations on which any local church can successfully build. Those foundations are prayer, The Bible and wisely planned small groups where people can nurture one another, where they can bond and be known.
________
1. Arthur Caliandro, lecture at the FCL School of Practical Christianity (Pawling, New York, October, 1989).
2. Harry Denman, speech delivered to Durham District Evangelism Rally (Durham, North Carolina, District of The United Methodist Church, 1972).
3. Paula D'Arcy, lecture at the FCL School of Practical Christianity (Pawling, New York, October, 1989).
4. Information on Wesley and the Bible taken from Evelyn Laycock and James Holsinger, Awaken The Giant (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), p. 65.
5. Op. Cit., Miller, Evangelism's Open Secrets, p. 45.
