Around the table the discussion flew, but the ideas which the discussion picked up never seemed to land in a place that made sense. The topic was the church and its inability to reach the world. The question was brought up again and again, "What must we do differently?" New suggestions, opinions and statements came up each time but none satisfied the question. Off to the corner of the room I stood contemplating what was being said and was earnestly seeking a solution. The dim light room provided a serene atmosphere and there I sat in the stillness of the moment restless for truth. The low hum of the conversation was a soothing soundtrack to my thoughts and as the stillness and peace enveloped itself around me, the answer dawned in my mind. Prayer.
We have the doctrine, the truth as a church. We know the Bible, and have our own prophet, yet our knowledge is proven useless by the facts of reality. The church in North America is dying. Our growth rate worldwide is grossly shadowed by the population growth rate. Young people are leaving the church at incredible rates and we have no ability to stop them. If we know the truth, why do people leave the church. We have emotional drive in evangelistic series, in youth rallies, in week of prayers, but the numbers still dwindle.
What we lack however, is not truth it is life. The life of the early church was conceived in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gave a life of fire, a fire that raged in the hearts of humanity for the salvation of humanity. But the Spirit did not leave, God did not say that it was for the early church only. Can we not have the same Spirit that the early disciples had? We do not have the same Spirit, this is evident, but why? The disciples had the life, the fire, because they asked for it. It says in Acts 1 that the disciples came together in prayer. After the ascension of their Master, they gathered together as one and prayed for the promise of the Spirit, the promise of life. The promise was given. The Spirit breathed into its nostrils and the church became a living soul.
We lack the unity of the early church. We have week of prayers with little or no prayer, church services with only a small portion for prayer,our daily lives lived for the pursuit of happiness but lacking prayer. Prayer is gone. We have lost it and in turn have lost ourselves. The life of the church depends on the church to connect with life. We pray not for life, for Spirit, and we have not life, or Spirit.
As we parted ways that night, it all began to make sense. Our doctrine is not the problem, not even our bigotry or judgementalism, these may be problems yes, but it is not the reason for the lifelessness of our church. We have ceased to pray as a church but we continue to hope for a better life within the church. The solution to our church problems is a simple one, not a change in doctrine, or church format, or even ecumenicalism, its prayer, and when we pray we shall see this body of a church rise to life, and it shall be on fire with the Spirit.
