³⁰ I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, ³¹ that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, ³² so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. ³³ May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. – Romans 15:30-33

WRESTLING TOGETHER IN 2015

My adjustment of 15:30 says, “I urge you, Imago Dei, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayer to God for me—and not just for me, but for the entire mission and ministry of this church.”

What Paul has in mind, in our text, for Christians is a soul-aching, heart-burning wrestling in prayer. It’s devoted. It’s persistent. Faith fills it; dependence motivates it; love controls it. But in many ways, I won’t be able to get you to join in the struggle unless you see and agree with the needs I’m about to line out.

Think about it this way: consider the last time in your life when you were zealous in prayer. What as driving that unusual zeal? I bet it was unusual need. One such instance in my life that came to mind this week was earlier this year when an old childhood friend died in a car accident. He left behind a young wife and a son who was just a few months old. The notion of a child growing up and never knowing his dad was gripping – maybe even crippling – and that need compelled unusually earnest prayer.

Urgent need drives urgent prayer. Here then are four urgent needs we, the elders at IDC, are wrestling for in prayer this year and we are urging our church, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with us in prayer.

Devotion to gathered worship. As best as we can tell it seems that a large subset of our members will miss, for one reason or another, at least 20 out of the annual 52 Saturday gatherings. This is something we must pray about. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” In light of this verse, one of the things we covenant to as a church is, “We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.”

We are encouraging our congregation to examine its orientation toward Saturday night. We are not expecting every member to get a “Perfect Attendance” ribbon at the end of each year, instead – because of Hebrews 10:25 and our church covenant – I want to encourage them to an ordinary prioritization of gathered worship. The corporate gathering is the ordinary means by which Christian discipleship occurs, it is the power center of a local church’s mission, and it is the hub around which our church unity revolves. So to be gone from gathered worship with great frequency means not only missing out on this “atomic power” of discipleship, but it also means putting one’s soul in a dangerous place. As Hebrews 10 says, it’s commitment to corporate worship keep us close to Christ as we await His return.

Zeal in evangelism. The Risen Christ gave us clear marching orders for our corporate mission, “Go into all the world and make disciples by proclaiming the gospel of Christ in the power of the Spirit.” We are praying this year for God to awaken our hearts to the glory of Christ and the plight of men. In the next five years 50,000 people are projected to move into McKinney, with almost another 50,000 coming in the five years following. We stand on the precipice of an unusual opportunity for gospel proclamation. But even if such statistics weren’t true, evangelistic opportunities abound in our area for so many of us. Here then is the primary prayer: that every church member at IDC would share the gospel more in 2015 than any other year to date. Some in our church may just we wading into the evangelism waters, while others might be swimming in the deeps for the first time. The coresponding prayer is for God to awaken our eyes not only to the local need, but to the global need and some would be compelled to go to the nations.

Delight in discipling relationships. Jesus didn’t merely tell us to proclaim His gospel by His spirit, we do that disciples would be gathered into churches so they might worship the Lord and obey His commands; that they might grow as disciples. We long to be a disciple-making church and evangelism is the door that opens unto the house of discipleship. The weekly gathering is like the furnace room, but it’s not all. So we are praying for broad relationships among church members to build one another in Christ. Be it through a small group, regular hospitality, The Upper Room, Women Discipling Women, or just casual, yet regular meetings to discuss spiritual things. We are praying for great delight this year in discipling relationships.

Supernatural provision of a permanent home. The first three are spiritual realities and the final one is a physical reality. And here’s why I add the adjective of “supernatural” to God’s provision of a permanent meeting space. Clearly any provision of a space will be a work of God, but supernatural helps – I hope – us understand how much we need His mighty hand to move in this area. One of the top developers in the metroplex recently told me McKinney is probably the hottest market in the entire country. We are indeed small fish in an ocean of whales right now. But our God rules over even the whales of real estate. Just as a young family inevitably longs for their first home after renting a space, so too do we long for a place where we can call home. With patience and wisdom we look to him to direct our steps. So we are asking the church to pray for the elders and the Future Building Team as we labor and lead in this area.

— This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “A Praying Church.” —