The Importance of Fervent Prayer

I was reminded last week of the importance of prayer. Not just personal prayer that is a regular part of our daily spiritual disciplines, but a fervent, congregation-wide or region-wide movement of prayer.  In a meeting last week about the Great Barrington, MA church plant, I was asked if I had initiated a Converge Northeast – wide prayer effort. To my embarrassment, I had to reply that I had not.  

In that moment of challenge, I became convicted of my responsibility to call our churches to prayer! I can easily get caught in the trap of striving to accomplish projects and activities in my own strength and power. In the practice of prayer, we are really acknowledging who God is and who we are not! When we give Him praise and adoration for who He is, confess our sins, then give Him thanks for that forgiveness, we are then prepared to bring our supplications to Him. Our daily practice of prayer also prepares us for corporate prayer. Vibrant, corporate prayer is foundational to all do in ministry.   

I was reminded of that in the meeting last week!  

Going forward, my team and I will invite you to be part of region-wide prayer activities, and we will provide additional information and resources subsequently. For now, there are two specific requests that I have for you: 

1. Walnut Hill Community Church, Valley Community Baptist Church and Converge Northeast are in partnership to plant a church in Great Barrington, MA. We are in the search for a church planting pastor. Please pray for that search. 

2. In a few weeks, Converge will be commencing what we hope will be a movement-wide 21-day period of prayer. We realize that many Converge Northeast congregations may have already completed their own congregational time of prayer. If your congregation has not done so, please join us for 21 consecutive days in February.  

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).