Prayer is a time waster.

[Editor's Note: This concept is one of the hardest for me to live out. I constantly look at myself and say, "You need to be more like that!" So please don't feel as if I am the perfect one when it comes to prayer, it is something that I am working on in my life as well.]

At some level I believe that prayer is a time waster. Bare with me on this, I believe that prayer is of the utmost importance in the life of a Christian, that ones spiritual health is tied into ones prayer life. But prayer is a time waster. Here’s what I mean:

We spend all kinds of energy looking to solve the problems in our life. Marriage problems? Well let’s read this book. Let’s go to counseling. Let’s spend time together talking about our personal differences, reminiscing about the good times, and rekindling our love. Financial problems? Let’s make a budget. Let’s cut back on our spending. Let’s attempt to make our residence a bit more energy efficient. Hopefully you get my point, when we come to problems we look to do, do, do in an attempt to solve our problems. We like to think we can take care of our own problems, but reality is – you can’t do this.

A quick look at the amount of people on blood pressure pills should help us to see this...

Let’s think about tithe. For most people in the world, the concept of first giving away 10% of their income means that money will be really tight in their homes. We usually think we’ll need 100% of what we have to be able to get ends to meet. One way of looking at tithe is that it is God’s way of saying, “I can do more with 90% than you can do with 100%.” The whole point of tithe is for God to help us see that He is our provider! If we trust in God, He will provide for us. After all, don’t the lilies and sparrows have what they need?

God is asking you, in your life, to do the same thing with your time. There is always more than enough to do that will fill up a 24-hour cycle; more than enough activity to keep us occupied, busy, and stressed. As human beings we are like a hive of caffeinated bees…always running around here and there, endlessly busy. Yet God asks that we slow ourselves down – waste some of our precious time – in order to connect with him, to ask him for guidance, wisdom, support, and a way through the craziness of our life.

If God can do more with 90% of our wealth than we can do with 100%, think of how much more can he do with 23 hours than we can do with 24.

So God is asking you to waste some of our precious time; to slow down, to stop solving your problems, and come to Him. He knows that we are - like lemmings [in how we want to solve our own problems], we'll keep going until we fall right over the edge. So he asks us to trust him, to stop, to waste time and talk with him, confess to him, confide in him, and listen to him.

Let's go waste some time.

Church Planting #1: pray, pray, pray

I would like to begin a series on church planting. I would like to focus on what I would do, and the theology behind it. I have never attempted to do something like this, but as I have been thinking, studying, and reading about church planting, I have come up with some ideas on how I would like to do it. Thus I would like to offer the following steps on I would take in planting a church.

1.) Pray, Pray, Pray
2.) Spend time building a relationship with a community
3.) Develop a core of people
4.) Not focus on growth, but mission
5.) Place a premium on creativity
6.) Continually push the envelope
7.) Constantly return to center

I would like to over the next few Tuesdays write on these seven steps. So here is my first offering: Pray, Pray, Pray

I have struggled with pray throughout my life. It seems to be a very vague and confusing concept. I have grown up with prayer and I think its safe to say that I have prayed nearly every day of my life. Yet with that said, for the vast part of my life, prayer has not been central to my existence. I’m sure that I’m not alone in this.

I think we often give lip service to prayer. I went on a missions trip in the summer of 2000 to Brazil. Like any other missions trip to another country, it cost quite a bit of money; something like $2,500. I did not have that kind of money, nor did my parents so I sent out ‘prayer letters.’ Perhaps you’ve done something like this. You send a letter asking people to do two things: pray and or send money to help pay for your trip. I put quotes on prayer letters, because I was more concerned with getting the money than the prayer. Let’s be honest, I sent that letter out not because I wanted people to pray, but because I wanted their money; it was just more spiritual to add the prayer piece in. I’m just being honest here.

I hold the belief that as a church we need to pray. Why? Because prayer is calling for God to change our eyes to see reality. Too often our prayers are, "God, I don’t want to go through this hard thing!” or “God I need that thing…” We ask these things as if we forget that God is in control and that He wants good for us. The problem is, like children, we often want things that are not good for us. This is why Jesus begins his prayer in Matthew 5, your kingdom come, your will be done. His prayer is focused on a change in heart.

It is when our hearts are changed, when we can see God’s kingdom that we begin to spread the kingdom. It is then that God begins to spread his kingdom. Bono, had a great quote at the President’s Prayer Conference a few years ago. He said, “Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.” This is the heart of prayer.

Prayer will move the church planter to place themselves in the middle of what God is doing. Prayer will position the planter in God’s plans, and that’s the best place we can be. It is here that God wants to work, and it is here that God does work. As a planter, where else would we want to be? We do not want to be here merely because we want to be successful, but because it is here that we are where we should be.

So the first step when planting is prayer.