The Audacity of Prayer
Since the emergence of church planting movements around the world in the early 1990s, there have been several lists of what we call critical elements. The earliest one that I have seen had 9 critical elements. Then the list became 10 in David Garrison's books. When I first heard David Watson speak, the notes he gave us listed 17, but he verbally added an 18th. Bob Robert's book, The Multiplying Church, lists 19 (this is the list that I expounded in this blog in late 2008). In David Watson's blog at davidlwatson.org, his April 4, 2008 posting lists 20, and in a personal conversation with him in Honduras last December, he added a 21st! (The addition was group dynamic, so check out his April 4 blog and add that to it and you have the whole current list.....at least for today!)
The interesting thing to me is that as the years have passed and as the lists have been modified to more accurately reflect what God is doing in church planting movements around the world, the first item on the lists has always remained the same. From number 2 through number 21, some elements have been modified, changed, exchanged, eliminated, and added....but number 1 has never changed. What is it?
Passionate, Extraordinary Prayer!
This suggests some things to me. First of all, prayer is important if we are going to see a church planting movement. There is clearly a cause and effect connection between prayer and cpm.
Secondly, it tells me that prayer is effective. Take prayer from the list, keep all the other elements (all 20 others) and execute them perfectly. And the result is: NO CPM.
But add that element back in and the effect is there.
Thirdly, I find that the prayer element has something to do with the amount of prayer. Thus, building a prayer team is vital. We want many people praying unitedly for cpm to happen.
Fourthly, because Scripture and Obedience to it are such priorities, the prayers that help bring about cpm should be Biblically based prayers and built on a Biblically based understanding of what prayer is and how prayer functions.
So from there let me turn to a scripture, quoted from the English Standard Version of the Bible.
Luke 11:8-"I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs."
I am reading the Bible through in the ESV this year, and as I recently read this verse, it leaped out at me. The word was impudence when speaking of prayer. Of course, it is in the midst of a parable illustrating prayer. Most translations give a meaning for this word that implies that the idea is persistence. Surely we should be persistent in prayer, but that is not the meaning of this word.
Listen to the note from the English Standard Version Study Bible, 2008, Crossway Bibles:
"Impudence is Greek anaideia, which occurs only here in the NT. In all of its other known uses in ancient literature, the term means "lack of sensitivity to what is proper," "impertinence", "impudence", it describes being without aidos ("respect," "modesty") "impudence," then, would indicate that the friend is shamelessly and boldly awakening his neighbor, and of course the neighbor will give him whatever he needs. On this interpretation, Jesus' point is that if even a human being will respond to his neighbor in that way, then Christians should go boldly before God with any need they face, for God is more gracious and caring than any human neighbor."
The ESV note goes on to explain that some interpret this to mean persistence. But I think something significant is in the understanding of impudent or audacious prayer.
Here are a few of my thoughts about Impudent Prayer.
1. It was at midnight: an unusual and inconvenient time....indicating the urgency and true desire behind the request.
2. It was for a real need. It (in the parable) was for another person's provision. Since Christ told this to his disciples I extrapolate that a genuine need for others in terms of Kingdom advance is just the kind of prayer that is appropriate for Impudent Prayer.
3. Thus I am advocating boldness in asking, with faith and assurance that the prayer will be heard and answered as the kind of prayer that is appropriate for those asking for cpm to be realized in unreached peoples of the earth.
4. The scripture that comes to mind as a promise for Audacious Prayer is John 15:7 ( in the context of bearing much fruit!)
John 15:7-"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you."
That's what I call an audacious promise to practicioners of audacious prayer.
The interesting thing to me is that as the years have passed and as the lists have been modified to more accurately reflect what God is doing in church planting movements around the world, the first item on the lists has always remained the same. From number 2 through number 21, some elements have been modified, changed, exchanged, eliminated, and added....but number 1 has never changed. What is it?
Passionate, Extraordinary Prayer!
This suggests some things to me. First of all, prayer is important if we are going to see a church planting movement. There is clearly a cause and effect connection between prayer and cpm.
Secondly, it tells me that prayer is effective. Take prayer from the list, keep all the other elements (all 20 others) and execute them perfectly. And the result is: NO CPM.
But add that element back in and the effect is there.
Thirdly, I find that the prayer element has something to do with the amount of prayer. Thus, building a prayer team is vital. We want many people praying unitedly for cpm to happen.
Fourthly, because Scripture and Obedience to it are such priorities, the prayers that help bring about cpm should be Biblically based prayers and built on a Biblically based understanding of what prayer is and how prayer functions.
So from there let me turn to a scripture, quoted from the English Standard Version of the Bible.
Luke 11:8-"I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs."
I am reading the Bible through in the ESV this year, and as I recently read this verse, it leaped out at me. The word was impudence when speaking of prayer. Of course, it is in the midst of a parable illustrating prayer. Most translations give a meaning for this word that implies that the idea is persistence. Surely we should be persistent in prayer, but that is not the meaning of this word.
Listen to the note from the English Standard Version Study Bible, 2008, Crossway Bibles:
"Impudence is Greek anaideia, which occurs only here in the NT. In all of its other known uses in ancient literature, the term means "lack of sensitivity to what is proper," "impertinence", "impudence", it describes being without aidos ("respect," "modesty") "impudence," then, would indicate that the friend is shamelessly and boldly awakening his neighbor, and of course the neighbor will give him whatever he needs. On this interpretation, Jesus' point is that if even a human being will respond to his neighbor in that way, then Christians should go boldly before God with any need they face, for God is more gracious and caring than any human neighbor."
The ESV note goes on to explain that some interpret this to mean persistence. But I think something significant is in the understanding of impudent or audacious prayer.
Here are a few of my thoughts about Impudent Prayer.
1. It was at midnight: an unusual and inconvenient time....indicating the urgency and true desire behind the request.
2. It was for a real need. It (in the parable) was for another person's provision. Since Christ told this to his disciples I extrapolate that a genuine need for others in terms of Kingdom advance is just the kind of prayer that is appropriate for Impudent Prayer.
3. Thus I am advocating boldness in asking, with faith and assurance that the prayer will be heard and answered as the kind of prayer that is appropriate for those asking for cpm to be realized in unreached peoples of the earth.
4. The scripture that comes to mind as a promise for Audacious Prayer is John 15:7 ( in the context of bearing much fruit!)
John 15:7-"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you."
That's what I call an audacious promise to practicioners of audacious prayer.
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