The Compass: Prayer

Do you remember the first time you tried to pray?  I do – I was so worried that I wouldn’t do it correctly.  I had been around some older believers and had heard them pray and knew that there was no way that I could use the proper religious terminology and flowery speech that seemed to connect them to a deeper level with God.  And then the fear that I wouldn’t be able to find enough things to pray for so that I could fill 10-15 minute prayers that I heard other believers pray! 

Today’s resource, Prayer, is from a series called The Compass and it is about helping new or young believers learn what prayer is and how simple it is to spend time with their Lord in prayer.  It seems like a simple concept to help others with, and it is, but I think you will find this resource useful in knowing how to focus on the essentials of what is prayer.

The Compass – Who is the Holy Spirit

I would like to introduce you to some materials for disciplers to guide you as you help believers who God has raised up for you grow stronger and deeper in their relationship with the Lord and to prepare them to serve Him with their heart and life. 

Periodically I will introduce you to other resources in this series.  Today’s article is for disciplers to give you some ideas in knowing how to direct a conversation about the importance of depending on the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Preparing Future Leaders Now

 My friend Ben Rivera recently had a conversation with a student leader and he advised her to begin to prepare now for next year and for next year’s leaders.  You might be saying, “But we’re just getting into this school year, we’re not thinking about next year yet.”  However, there is something very powerful and important yet very simple that you can begin to do now to prepare future leaders…

 Journal Your Ministry Activities

 Buy yourself a small notebook and call it your “Ministry Journal” or create a document on your computer or start a blog.  In this journal you want to log and describe the activities that you’re doing each week with the campus ministry.  Describe all the things you are doing in ministry as well as how you felt things went and what changes you would make if you could do it again or if things went well, why they went well. 

 Activities you could include in your journal are: 

•  Your leadership planning times 
•  Weekly meetings or Bible studies if you have them
• Beginning of year surveys
• Social events or evangelistic outreaches
• Prayer meetings
• Reserving rooms or finding places to have meetings or events
• Printing and putting up posters or how you advertised your activities
• Things that went really well
• Things you would do differently
• Everything else you do for the ministry 

By journaling your activities and writing down what you’re learning, you are actually making an investment into the next generation of leaders on your campus.  

 Your journaled notes will give the next leaders a huge head start because they’ll have a better idea of what works and what does not work on your campus and how to go about doing things.  Plus they will glean from your experience so they don’t make the same mistakes you’ve made.  

 As you hand over leadership when you graduate, you will also pass them your ‘journal’, to those who will carry on.  When it comes to leaders for the future, now is the time to prepare.  Journaling 5-10 minutes each week could be one of the best things you do to continue the legacy of ministry on your campus. 

Doing your part

Choose the correct answers: 

The job of the pastor is to:

a)      Be responsible for every function of the church

b)      Be present at every single event connected to the church

c)       Provide for the specific, individual growth of each person in the congregation

d)      Equip the people of the church for service to the world

The role of the church is to:

a)      Somehow provide for each specific need of each person at the exact time they need the teaching or input

b)      Have everything for everybody at anytime all the time

c)       Magically provide teaching and information for non believers, new believers, struggling believers, growing believers and multiplying believers in various stages of life in a way that all needs are met when the needs need to be met

d)      Be a place where you can bring a seeker so that they can “poof” become a mature, multiplying Christian without much effort on other believers’ part…

e)      Be a very important tool in your personal ministry in the lives of others

The role of each believer in the church is to:

a)      Attend church regularly and take good notes of each sermon

b)      Depend on the pastor for his spiritual growth

c)       Take in all the spiritual teaching he or she can

d)      Be equipped so that he or she can minister to those God leads them to in order to extend the ministry that Jesus calls each believer to do

e)      Grow to maturity through giving out as much as he or she takes in

Read further to discover what God has to say about the role of the pastor, church and each individual believer.  Perhaps you will need to make some adjustments to your thinking and understanding of what God has called you to do.  

 

Eph. 4:13-16 helps to enlighten us as to the job of the pastor and the role of the church:

·         The role of the pastor according to vv.11-12 is to prepare God’s people to serve and build up believers.

·         The place of the church is to provide an environment for believers to be trained and equipped to serve.

·         The role of God’s people (you and I), which is found in vv13-15, is to serve by:

o   Be unified in faith,

o   Help nonbelievers know about Jesus, as well as

o   Help believers to grow to maturity in Christ.

·         Finally Eph.4:16 tells us our job as laypeople is simply to do our job – and not expect someone else to do it for us.

So, how can you do your job, even right now?

·         “Unity of the faith” – are you part of a team which is working together in one spirit to reach your campus?  What is helping or harming your unity?  If you don’t have a team, pray that the Lord will raise up other believers to join you. 

·         “knowledge of God” – how can you specifically be involved in telling non believers about Jesus?  What is your plan of action for this coming semester?  Who specifically are you praying for and taking the initiate to tell about Christ?  What are you going to do that is more faith stretching than simply inviting others to church with the attitude that the church will help others to grow?

·         “grow to maturity of faith” – initiate with other believers in helping them to grow in their faith and understanding of God.  Ask Him to show you how you can be personally involved in helping others to grow in maturity in Christ and to grow as a fellow minister of God’s mission.

God has called each believer to be a part of His mission to help others to come into a relationship with Him and to help them grow deeper in their understanding of Him and their faith in Him.  He has also called us to train and equip others as we have been trained and equipped to be active servants of His to make sure that His message is being taken to the world.  Faithfully and actively doing your part will bring all the more glory to Him everywhere you take the knowledge of Him!

Campus Prayer strategy

I hope you are enjoying your summer!  I hate to break the news to you, but the new school year is quickly approaching!  (But, do enjoy the last few weeks of the summer break.)

If you haven’t already begun to pray for the campus ministry this coming year, now is a good time to focus your prayer time in asking the Lord what He would have you do on your campus this year:

- to make Him known to unbelievers, and

-to make Him better known by believers

-as you trust Him to use you to build a movement of God right there on your campus!

Would you like some ideas of how to invite others to pray with you for what God wants to do at your school? 

Why is praying for your campus so vitally important?  How can God use the faithful prayer of just one person?  Here is one inspiring story:

Foundation in Irkutsk, Russia

There is a dormitory in Irkutsk which has been nicknamed "the Christian Dorm". It is called this because most of the students involved in the local ministry live there along with many who have become Christians. In fact several students who lived in this dorm have recently gone into full-time Christian ministry.

Why is all of this happening in this one particular dormitory? This dorm has a history. A Christian student lived in that dorm in 1995 and during his first year at the university he and a small group of students from his church decided to start a prayer time for the dorm. They faithfully prayed for the  students who lived in the dorm and for the university. It wasn't long after they began to pray regularly that the university administration found out about these "strange meetings" and forbid them to continue. But this didn't stop the students from praying; instead they began to meet more frequently and the size of the prayer group grew.  The local ministry was still seeing answers to the prayers begun in 1995.

It turns out that the "history of prayer" for this dorm began even earlier than 1995. Recently another Christian met a pastor who said that he also lived in that very same dorm when he was a student in 1991! He was the only Christian in this dorm in 1991 and he prayed for this dormitory during his entire time at the school.

Perhaps this pastor really wasn't the first to begin praying for this dorm...we don't know when the "history of prayer" for this dorm actually began, but we do know that it is continuing today. The pastor noted, "with prayer it all begins and with prayer it continues." The students in the "Christian dorm" are continuing to pray today that God will use them to gather a future harvest.

  

We visited Irkutsk last spring and were greatly encouraged to hear about the students’ current prayer strategy which included the following:

o   The students in Irkutsk visited churches in the city to share their vision for starting and growing movements of God on their campus and to challenge the churches to regular, committed prayer for them and for the unbelievers.

o   They printed up cards with specific requests for each of the targeted campuses and handed out these cards to people in the churches and to other students as prayer reminders of the things they are together trusting the Lord to do.

o   The students meet weekly to “prayer walk” together around each campus in addition to their commitment for daily prayer during their personal time with the Lord.  People from the churches were invited to join them on these prayer walks each week.

Perhaps you have a prayer strategy of your own.  If you do, please let me know what you are doing so that I can encourage students in other cities with your ideas. 

If you don’t have a prayer strategy, I would encourage you to think of how you can make prayer for your campus a priority.  You do not need to follow the plans other students are using, simply seek the Lord and follow His lead in the area of promoting regular prayer for His work on your campus!