Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #213 Creating a Culture of Prayer

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#213 Creating a Culture of Prayer · The OneCry Podcast

• 0:02
  I do this all the time, don't blow past those moments where something just happened
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  and not realize, hey, I bet you that thing that just happened is tied to prayers
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  that were prayed way back in your life.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Well, welcome once again to the One Cry podcast.
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  You know, a podcast is a wonderful thing, Kyle.
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  I'm Bill Elleth, and Kyle Reno is here with me.
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  And, you know, this ability to just throw this stuff out on the Internet,
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  and it literally goes around the world.
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  We have people that we, you know,
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  we found out not long ago that a pastor in Uganda
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  had been so blessed and his life so changed by something that happened on one
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  of these podcasts that he began to tape the podcast and take them around to pastors in Uganda.
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  And we found out about it. Some of our guys went over there and and there were
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  hundreds of pastors who'd been in flood. And we didn't even know what was going on.
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  So that's the beautiful thing about God. And that he just does stuff that to
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  accomplish his purposes that we don't even know.
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  And we're living in an age where what a potential to get the gospel of the whole
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  world is pretty, pretty astounding. Well, Kyle, we're going to talk about something
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  just really awesome and an important day.
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  We talked in a recent podcast about just prayer as not a duty,
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  but as an experience of moving into the presence of God and living there.
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  And it's just it's really the essence of the Christian life.
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  And but, you know, a lot of people don't don't know how to get into that.
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  They don't know how to set that up in there as leaders, how to lead people there. That's right.
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  So you've had a lot of experience in that.
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  And God used you to do that. What does it take to lead a church into a culture of prayer?
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  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think, one, I would say, what do we have that we've not
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  received so we do not boast as those that have not received it?
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  So if there's anything to give here, it's because I received it from that and
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  from great men that helped to shape my belief around the local church.
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  So I think you're right, Bill.
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  Looking last week, we looked at prayer in the life of an individual,
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  a follower of Christ, a leader, and in their personal relationship with God
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  that manifests itself through a vibrant prayer life.
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  But we want to sort of level the crosshairs here for a few moments.
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  And anybody can learn from this, but I'm going to speak specific to,
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  and Bill, you do a lot of this, but speak to pastors and those that find themselves
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  in spiritual leadership in their church, whatever model, whatever way.
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  And say, hey, if we want to truly see our church have a culture of prayer or
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  an atmosphere of prayer, that doesn't happen by accident.
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  You know, like that doesn't happen by happenstance, that there's something that has to happen.
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  And I think that it starts in the heart of a leader or leaders, you know.
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  And so for me, you know, my story, like, hey, I didn't grow up in church around
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  the things of God whatsoever, you know,
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  and man, because of that, experienced a lot of heartache, a lot of brokenness,
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  came to Christ 19, I was 20 years old there, but then immediately discipled.
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  And by the time I'm 21, 22 years old, I'm surrendering to ministry and getting
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  hired onto a church staff, which I would never hired me. So praise God that they did.
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  But I found myself with a wild man, Andy Heiss.
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  That was a I was a coach and he was a Coca-Cola guy that he got hired like a
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  few months before us. And and we didn't know nothing.
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  I mean, like and when I say that, that literally we love Jesus and we love what
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  he had done in our life and what he was doing in the lives of others.
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  But we didn't know ministry, but we were in a vibrant church that prayed like crazy.
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  And then he read and then handed me a book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire,
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  by Jim Cimbala about becoming a house of prayer and what God had done there.
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  And what happened for me that I've had to have that reinforced,
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  I mean, I'm about 45 years old now over the last 24 years.
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  I have to keep coming back to something I learned at 21.
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  Is this guttural conviction in me,
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  like way down here in my leadership life and whatever way God wants me in a ministry,
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  in a church is that I will never see anything happen out here in my ministry
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  or in the local church or in what God's doing in this city that didn't start in the place of prayer.
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  And I think I've never met a pastor that wouldn't agree with the statement.
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  You know what I mean? I've never met a follower of Christ that wouldn't agree
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  and amen the importance of prayer in the life of a person, in the life of a church.
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  We've all preached messages. And I'm saying this to me.
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  I have to relentlessly return to this truth about God's house should be a house
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  of prayer for all nations.
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  We know that Jesus modeled perfectly. We know that the church was born in a
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  prayer meeting, not a preaching moment. We know all that.
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  But, Bill, you know this. We know this in counseling people about other aspects
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  of someone's life, but until it becomes this core conviction,
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  like in the recesses of my leadership life,
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  that until I come to truly believe that unless I pray like it matters,
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  nothing's going to happen that truly matters.
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  And I think, unfortunately, we supplement that with mechanisms and models and
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  all the different things, you know, leadership skills and develop.
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  And I'm not saying those things are inherently evil at all.
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  They're just not core. They're not and they're not guttural.
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  And what God had to do in the early and has to do with me, I'm saying that right now.
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  He has to do this in me every season. Remind me that, Kyle, this is not some
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  add on, as you say so well, Bill.
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  This is not in addition to that. This is this is the birthplace for everything
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  that are truly advanced the kingdom of God.
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  And and that but I got it. And here's what I'm saying. I'm going to get to practical.
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  But I got to believe that, man. Like, that's got to be so down in here,
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  guttural conviction that demands change and transformation.
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  And here's the beauty of it. When it becomes that kind of conviction,
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  what awakens is dependence.
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  Like, I know that I need you for anything to come about in my life,
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  in the life of this church, in my leadership. And because of that,
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  I'm going to first become a leader that prays.
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  And then I'm going to strive to learn how to, and I'm going to talk about that
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  in a second, to learn how to clarify how to lead a church to pray.
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  But it has to start with a conviction. Bill, I know you've experienced that
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  and seen that, but what would you say to that?
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  You know, our buddy, Jason,
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  Jordan Bowen, I remember, you know, he planted a church here in my city and
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  where I live, Little Rock, and it was going really well, everything.
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  But then he came to such a desire for that church to see revival.
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  And he said, Bill, they're just not hungry. Our people are just not hungry. Yeah.
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  And he began to pray for and ask God to create a hunger.
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  And as you were talking, I was just thinking this.
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  You know, there are guys that, for instance, using your athletic background,
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  there are athletes that I always played sports just to play sports.
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  But there are guys who lived. I mean, it was they want to go to the NFL.
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  They want to go to the LB. they, you know, it was a conviction with them.
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  They were hungry for it. And those are the guys who, those are the guys who
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  get there, you know, and there are a lot of Christians that they just,
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  they just don't have a hunger for prayer.
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  And, you know, I guess the question I would have, and Jordan and I talk about
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  this a lot, how do we help create this hunger for prayer in the life of our church?
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  How do we create it in ourselves and not be distracted?
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  Because I think we're going to do what we think is valuable.
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  And what you're saying is right. Somewhere we've got to cross the line in realizing,
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  and I was trying to remember how you said it just a minute ago that I've got to pray like it matters,
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  you know, because it does matter.
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  Everything, everything matters about how we pray. It's got to become a deep, deep conviction.
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  Yeah, yeah, way down in here. And I think you're saying it makes me think.
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  It's that, you know, you would never disagree with these statements,
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  you know, around prayer and the necessity for prayer.
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  And I often, you know, and I understand God's not a God of guilt,
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  you know, or shame or like he's not coming, showing up in the life of a leader
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  right now on this podcast and going, see, they're talking about you.
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  You know, you're not. Yeah, no, God doesn't play that way.
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  But I would say that the Holy Spirit will bring about a conviction that will
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  say, hey, this is a place where there's deficiency that's going to hurt you.
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  That's going to hurt your leadership life. That's going to make you self short
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  of the true advancement of the kingdom of God.
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  So that demands you do something with it. You know, until I found that in any
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  area of my life, until I come to a bright biblical conviction,
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  like way down in here in my spirit, man, like, hey, this has got to change.
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  I got to make some adjustments that that promotes inside of the defendants on the spirit.
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  Say, now, now, Lord, show me how to live it differently.
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  Show me how to lead it differently. It starts down here.
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  Now I'm begging for it to come manifesting through my life.
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  So I say again, it starts with that conviction. And I would encourage you pray
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  for God to bring that guttural conviction over that.
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  I want to be a man of prayer, a woman of prayer. I want to be a leader that
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  prays and leads prayer and sit with the Lord in that until you until it happens, until it happens.
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  And then from there, from conviction, then I think this is where if you want
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  to have an atmosphere of prayer in your church, that culture of prayer, then you need clarity.
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  Like, so what does that mean to be a house of prayer?
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  What does it mean to be a praying? And so, Bill, you've led this so well.
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  Then you have to start saying, we're going to set some environments.
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  We're going to provide some resources. You know, we're going to take some prayer retreats.
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  For us, Bill, back in the day, you know, is we're going to start giving as a staff times to pray.
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  Right. We're going to set that apart. And that's where it ends in calendar in
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  a minute for everybody that's wanting the three C's.
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  But you got to get some clarity on like what wines in are you going to use this
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  season to help foster an atmosphere of prayer in your church?
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  Like right now for us, illustration of that, we're going to two weeks from now,
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  starting a new ministry season this time of year that we're in.
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  We're going to have 10 for 10 and it's 10 days of praying that we're going to
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  provide 10 minute videos to all of our church to help them pray specific ways
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  for these certain things.
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  You say, Kyle, is that the best way to do it each season? I don't know.
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  It's what we're going to use.
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  It's a way. And here's, I don't, I'm not sold that this will be,
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  that we'll ever do it again this way next time, you know, or the years ahead.
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  But what it is for us is we're providing clarity to our church on here's how
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  we're going to start praying this new season, this new semester.
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  So we'll come around in January and we'll do 21 days of prayer and fasting,
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  going to provide these seven things we're praying for in the next 10 years as
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  a church. We're going to have times in our worship services where we do that.
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  We're going to pray every Tuesday as a staff at 830 to 930.
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  And none of those models are sacred.
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  But what they what they are is they bring clarity to how we are as a church
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  going to try to help you. And the way that, Bill, I learned so much of this
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  from you is that we want to model as a church.
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  I mean, and how we help foster environments of prayer that we want to model
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  as a church that which you can adapt to your personal life as a follower of Christ.
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  We should we should as a body model something that you can as a as a individual in your own way.
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  So, I mean, if you just talk about prayer about prayer without ever giving some clarity.
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  Yeah, people don't know. They don't know. They don't know. You know,
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  that's what shepherds do, right?
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  I mean, you know, the old statement that leaders don't point the way they lead the way.
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  And so, first of all, they've got to see that conviction in your heart.
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  You know, I tell you, one thing about our pastor, he won't do anything without praying.
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  I guess this is really important. I guess this really matters.
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  I guess maybe in my life would be different if I did what he did.
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  But then secondly, the shepherd is sitting down and teaching and getting God-initiated
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  plans for different seasons. I think it's always good to have variety in prayer.
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  But, you know, you and I have experienced this long enough in leading a church
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  that you hit upon some things,
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  some wineskins, that can be foundational.
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  And they just work for a long period of time.
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  For instance, 27 years ago, we started praying with our staff every week and
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  completely divorced from any tactical meeting.
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  So we didn't say, okay, now pull out your calendars. It was, we're here to pray.
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  And we got better and better at doing that.
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  And it was just a rhythm that fit our rhythm as a staff.
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  So many guys who come through and been on our staff said, you know,
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  the one thing that I learned more than anything was this praying with the leaders of our church.
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  I meet staff guys all the time say, you know, I've never prayed with my pastor
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  one time and it's so foreign to me I think, how do you function?
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  How do you find the mind of God about things?
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  So there's some things like that and for instance, years ago,
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  and I think how God used you to,
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  Help us. We developed 21 days of prayer in January and it has just become a
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  rhythm that works for us. Our people look forward to it every day.
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  Yeah. And so that's we'll probably just keep doing that until it's it's not
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  an effective wide. Right.
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  But then there are things that you do like 10 for 10 that you may do this fall and never do again.
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  But we've got to, we're setting down the railroad tracks.
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  You know, I heard Jay Adams say one time that a train runs better.
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  Does it run better sitting out in the middle of the field or on two railroad tracks?
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  It runs good on a railroad track where it's got a structure for it.
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  And that's what you're talking about. So we need to have conviction and we need
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  to have clarity around practically how we pray and what, what's that?
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  I'm dying to hear the final scene.
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  Yeah. And this is where it lands. It has to land on the calendar.
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  Yeah. Like if you're, if you're going to, if you're going to be a praying leader,
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  leading a praying church, then at some point it has to have priority.
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  Meaning like we don't get to the end of the calendaring process and go,
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  you know, so where's prayer at in the life of this church?
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  You're like, no, no, no, no, no, no. On the front side.
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  It's that prayer gets priority and that we know that moving into this season,
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  these rhythms, like when do you pray?
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  Do you pray? Like for us, I have different, you know, 21 days of prayer and fasting.
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  We take these three Wednesday nights in January that we do these prayer rallies together.
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  We're creating here some prayer retreats that we're going to take people on
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  to learn how to even more deeply intercede and to pray.
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  We got a boulder room that people pray throughout the services.
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  You know, so it's on the calendar in a certain room on these Sundays.
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  You know, we pray every Tuesday morning over these things as a staff.
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  So here's what I'm going to the leader.
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  And this is the, you know, this bill, a church calendar will fill itself.
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  It will fill itself.
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  It's sad. And nobody, and I mean, it's sad to think that if you could pick up,
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  and maybe a practice to do, is to pick up last year's calendar.
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  And if you just read through it, where would you find that prayer had the priority?
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  And if not, use that as a way to help bring that conviction.
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  You know, say, you know what, that won't be true this next year.
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  We're going to make some adjustments.
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  And here's the other thing, man, Bill, and Bill, speak to this,
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  because say you walk this out and God's even now giving you that conviction,
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  bringing some clarity. Hey, we're going to try some things here.
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  We're going to learn from others. I tell you, man, learn from others and that
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  you're going to put in the calendar in the calendar process. What I am not saying is.
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  Man, it's going to be just so well received by everybody right off the bat.
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  And it's going to be the easiest thing that you lead in because because that's not true.
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  Because it is it will be some really hard work to to help cooperate with God
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  to create an atmosphere, culture, prayer in your church.
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  You know, it is the symbol of famous statement. I mean, you know who loves the
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  preacher, you know, who comes on Sunday morning or no, who loves the worship,
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  who comes on Sunday morning, who loves the preacher who comes on Sunday night.
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  You'll find out who loves Jesus, who comes to the prayer gathering.
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  Yeah. You know, like so it's hard work, guys. It's hard work. It's just worth it.
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  It's just worth it. It's just worth it. And it'll change your ministry life.
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  It'll change your church. And I know that many guys get discouraged.
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  Well, they do. And, you know, I was on a panel with Jim Simula one time and
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  I asked him this question.
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  I said, Jim, all of these pastors come to your Tuesday night prayer meeting
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  and they see these, you know, three to five thousand people praying and it's
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  unbelievable. You ought to go.
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  You really ought to go and experience that. And then they go home and they say,
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  OK, we're going to have a Tuesday night prayer meeting.
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  And it's a flop and they just give up, you know.
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  Well, you know, Jim, I said, how do you, what do you say that?
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  And Jim said, well, what I would do is you've got the most amount of people on Sunday morning.
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  I would preach a little less, Pastor,
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  and I would incorporate a deliberate prayer time on Sunday morning.
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  And, you know, I know guys who have done that and not standing up and saying,
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  oh, well, let's pray now. Now we're going to need to pray. And you hadn't even thought about it.
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  No, you're praying about that prayer time because you want your people to really experience.
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  You know, when I was leading our prayer with our staff every Tuesday morning
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  for years, I prayed about that prayer time.
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  That's good. Because I said, Lord, every week, Lord, please don't let us have
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  an experience here that's void of your presence. I want our staff to get wrapped
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  up in you as experiences.
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  Man, we had these glorious times of prayer. And then that's what puts the hunger. That's right.
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  And I think the other thing is start where you can, you know,
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  just like taking a deliberate time of concentrated, prayed for,
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  spirit-led prayer on Sunday morning.
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  See that as important as your message.
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  And then the other thing I say is start with your leaders. I mean, just...
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  Don't expect your whole church that hasn't had a prayer culture at all to get
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  there because you set up a time to do it.
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  You know, first, I may have to.
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  And you've given us such a great pattern here, Kyle, of conviction that's necessary.
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  And then that brings, what's the second? Some clarity.
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  Yeah, clarity. Clarity about how we're going to do it and then calendar.
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  When are we going to do it? Yeah.
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  So, but it starts with a conviction. And if you try to lead there and there's
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  no conviction among any of your leaders.
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  So my good buddy, college roommate, Greg Greenway, who is just a faithful pastor
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  in an Arkansas town for years.
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  He met with three to five men every week for years and years and years.
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  And every church he was in developed a culture of prayer.
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  But it began, I remember being there with him one time and here he's had two
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  guys and I happened to be there that week and we're all down on our knees in
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  his little office and he's leading them in prayer.
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  Yeah, it just went on over and over and over again. So that's the price. Yeah. Hey, can I add a C?
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  Yeah. Can I add a C? Well, I don't know if it's good.
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  Well, here's what I just, man, the Lord just brought this to mind, I really believe.
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  And then be ready to celebrate because God's going to hear.
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  And I'll tell you why I'm saying that, because we're about to celebrate.
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  We prayed this time last year, actually last, you'll remember this,
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  we celebrated 50 years as a church.
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  And we prayed for some specific things. I mean, here's an illustration.
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  We prayed for 50 days up to that 50th anniversary and gave thanks and all those things.
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  But then we asked for one thing specifically that the Lord would stretch out
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  our tent pegs, that he would enlarge.
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  What we needed was some properties around us to us have the ability to purchase
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  them because we needed the space.
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  So in the last two weeks, three things have happened.
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  Right so that were in in additional properties
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  that will either be a purchase one's given
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  to us things like so so well i say that to guess what i'll get to do in the
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  next couple weeks right is that i'll be able to celebrate the hound out of that
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  in front of our people that hey god heard your prayer a year ago so that's why
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  you pray with clarity don't just get pray for god to do certain things.
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  Yeah, specific. One pastor is pastoring a little rural church of 10 people,
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  right? And I sat down with him.
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  He was asking me some things he was disturbed by.
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  And I said, hey, man, why don't we just ask in the next few weeks for the Lord
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  to bring five new families?
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  And like in his mind he's like like that would radically change the church it
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  would definitely do that uh and not it wasn't a month later i got a text from
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  him with a pic of that they
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  had more than that had joined the church wow you
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  know join the church well they started praying for that i draw families
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  to it like so pray with that clarity man
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  specific prayers put it in a rhythm calendar and
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  then when it's and don't i do this all
• 25:22
  the time don't blow past those moments where something just happened and
• 25:25
  not realize hey i bet you that thing that
• 25:28
  just happened is tied to prayers that were prayed
• 25:31
  way back yeah yeah way back absolutely yeah
• 25:35
  and you know the bible is is filled with
• 25:38
  that of celebration and and and that's
• 25:41
  when you know god gets the glory yeah
• 25:44
  to make sure that's not saying oh that guy that gave us the
• 25:47
  land and he great yeah right god moved on
• 25:50
  the heart of that yeah look at this money we
• 25:53
  raised in aren't we great oh it was god we've
• 25:56
  given from his hand back to him and so
• 25:59
  it it puts the glory where it belongs it also uh shows people the uh big 50
• 26:10
  cent word is efficacy of prayer the the uh the reality of prayer,
• 26:16
  that prayer really works.
• 26:18
  So we did it here and five families came. Maybe, you know, maybe we can do that again.
• 26:23
  And five more families, you know, and then it just helps develop this rhythm of gratitude.
• 26:30
  Yeah. Just gratitude. We're so grumpy about everything all the time and just not grateful.
• 26:36
  And God's people ought to just be filled with joy. But the leader has got to
• 26:42
  lead the people to connect the dots with that. So important.
• 26:48
  Well, it's so good. Yeah, so good.
• 26:50
  Bill, here's what I just, man, why don't you use a guy that,
• 26:55
  has led for so long in these ways and learned every season how to do that even more effectively.
• 27:02
  Man, why don't you just pray for all the leaders that are listening?
• 27:06
  That the Lord would just help them, just really, really help them,
• 27:09
  help bring about that conviction, that clarity, man.
• 27:11
  They look at the calendar different and be able to celebrate God things.
• 27:15
  I'd love to. I'd love to. Let's go to prayer. And I want to pray for the leaders specifically.
• 27:24
  But the truth of the matter is everybody on this podcast is a leader. You lead somebody.
• 27:31
  You lead your children. You lead your household.
• 27:33
  You lead your friends. You lead your peer group.
• 27:37
  So this applies to you, and particularly those pastors and staff and leaders of churches.
• 27:44
  So, Father, we are so grateful for this leader that you have taught a pattern
• 27:57
  of prayer and how to build a church that really is a house of prayer.
• 28:04
  Lord, how pleasing that is to you.
• 28:08
  When you said, my house should be called a house of prayer.
• 28:11
  And all of a sudden, Lord, you look at your church and you say,
• 28:16
  well, look, it really is.
• 28:17
  And that dear pastor, that dear staff, those good elders, those godly intercessors
• 28:23
  in that church, they have led this church to really become a house of prayer.
• 28:30
  And Father, we know that we have to constantly be vigilant about that Because
• 28:35
  we can slip away right back into our old patterns, our self-centered humanistic
• 28:41
  patterns, if we're not careful.
• 28:43
  So guard our hearts about that. And I pray for everyone who's listening that you would show them,
• 28:52
  Lord, I ask this specifically, next step in leading their church to become a
• 28:59
  house of prayer, leading their
• 29:00
  family to build a house of prayer in their home. leading their peers.
• 29:07
  Or I remember one time as a junior in high school on a choir trip,
• 29:14
  and I was so burdened about our youth group, and I asked three other students,
• 29:22
  and we went off and we prayed a whole afternoon,
• 29:27
  and you fell that night and changed that youth group.
• 29:32
  And so, Lord, it could be a student who's listening. a college student who says, God wants to lead me.
• 29:38
  To make my friendships center around the presence of God and prayer.
• 29:45
  And I'm going to lead them there, whether they go or not. It's their choice, but I'm going there.
• 29:52
  I pray that you would create in us this holy hunger and thirst for your presence
• 29:58
  and your power that comes through intimacy with you.
• 30:02
  And we know the gateway to that is word-centered prayer.
• 30:07
  So thank you for this truth. And Lord, we pray that when Satan wouldn't come
• 30:12
  and just snatch it off the ground of our heart, I pray we'd tell somebody what we learned today.
• 30:18
  And so that it would just go down and really spread out roots and then bear
• 30:25
  fruit in the days to come. We love you, Lord.
• 30:28
  And we pray in your precious name. Amen.
• 30:31
  Amen. Awesome. Amen. Well, thank you so much, Kyle.
• 30:34
  That was just really rich. And the last C was good, by the way. There you go.
• 30:40
  If you don't want a C, call us.
• 30:43
  I'll let you know. I don't know. Cough drops or. I got one.
• 30:48
  That's good. Or a pill. I don't know what it might be, but another C.
• 30:51
  I'm running out. I'm running out. You can get too many Cs.
• 30:56
  That was good. That Celebrate was worth the price of admission.
• 31:01
  And we're glad you came today. Thanks for being with us on the OneCraft podcast.
• 31:05
  Share it with a friend. would you do that?
• 31:07
  Maybe you're in a church and you would long for your pastor to hear this.
• 31:13
  Go on the OneCry podcast.
• 31:16
  You can find it at OneCry.com. Copy the link and just send it to him.
• 31:21
  And just say, hey man, I heard this today. So I know this would encourage you.
• 31:25
  Just send him the link and say,
• 31:27
  would you listen to this? And I'd love to hear what you think about it.
• 31:32
  And then join us next time we're going to look at some great things the next
• 31:36
  few weeks on building this culture of prayer and and what it leads to in terms
• 31:42
  of revival and spiritual awakening in our churches thanks for.
• 31:47
  Music.