The Church can be driven by many different things. A quick Google search reveals a number of terms, including: Purpose-Driven Church, Gospel-Driven Church, Christ-Driven Church, Mission-Driven Church, Disciple-Driven Church, Kingdom-Driven Church, Passion-Driven Church, etc.
None of these are bad; in fact, they’re all good. I certainly want to help the church be driven by purpose and mission, by passion and the kingdom of God. But these things are results from having an intimate connection to God through prayer. When the church is driven by prayer, it will be missional and focused on making disciples of Jesus Christ (which includes both the growing of current disciples and the reaching of new disciples).
I’ve written before about my struggle to describe this kind of church. A few years ago, I chose prayer as a focus for my ordination project. At the time, I wrote …
I’ve wrestled with a number of terms — praying congregation, prayer-centered church, prayer-based church. Prayer-saturated, which comes from a book title, is my favorite. More than being a “praying church” (prayer can be self-focused) I want to communicate the idea of prayer as foundation for mission and ministry.
It’s not that the church prays simply for the sake of praying. Rather it bathes everything it does in prayer. And before it takes a step, it seeks God for direction. It is a church based on, saturated with, and driven by prayer!
Again, I want the church I lead to be purpose-driven, mission-driven, Spirit-driven, kingdom-driven, etc. I just think the best way to achieve that is by being a church driven by prayer!
What do you think? I welcome your comments below!
I have known the Lord for almost 30 years and though my heart has been wrestling to express the needs put there by the Holy Spirit, I had not been able to find practical, methodical and helpful prayers as the ones I am studying today in your post. May the Lord keep blessing you, brother, with insight right from his heart, and may He keep you and your family under His wings and protect you from anything that might come against you. By the way you might be interested to know that the Lord’s blessing has reached me though you all the way here at Athens,Greece. Such a great and kind God we serve. Thank you.
Thanks so much for your kind comment and encouragement!
It’s great to hear from you; I trust God will bless you and your ministry in Athens!