Prayer and Purpose

Excerpts from Small Churches Can Thrive by Ed Stetzer

The July/August issue of Outreach Magazine features my article on small churches. Yep, small churches - I love 'em! Especially when they are thriving on gospel and mission.

As a speaker at a number of conferences each year, I continue to see pastors and leaders going from one workshop to another searching for "THE" answer. They show up and hear amazing stories about implausibly happy people who willingly follow a new vision for their lives and their church.

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Passionate, Persistent Prayer
Small churches need to stop looking at megachurches and their pastors as role models. They can learn from them, but they must not copy them. In a world that devalues the small, listening to God in prayer and stepping out in obedience are much more important than the latest magic bullet that often misfires in smaller churches.

That attitudinal change can and does happen through intentional prayer for renewal. As we looked a little deeper at survey results, it was interesting to note that the comeback leaders of smaller churches highlighted the need for prayer even more than those at larger churches. When asked, "To what degree did the following [areas] change during your church's comeback?" leaders of the churches under 200 rated prayer as the area most changed.

Smaller comeback churches are often praying churches. Comeback leaders of smaller churches believed even more strongly that real, intentional, strategic prayer made a significant difference in their revitalization process. God can change attitudes in your church through passionate, persistent prayer for renewal.

An Outward Focus
Small churches are not exempt from the call to reach people because they are small. Too many churches of all sizes spend too much time moaning about what they don't have that other churches do have or about what they can't do that other churches are doing. No, you may not be able to do everything that other churches are doing. But that doesn't mean your church can't do something of purpose.

If smaller churches are going to thrive, they must focus their attention on reaching the lost in their communities. Again, delving deeper into our survey results reveals another important point. When asked the same question above, the leaders of churches under 200 rated evangelism as the second area that changed the most during the comeback.

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