Twenty-one years ago I prayed a prayer that has changed me more than any other. It changed my vocation, location, orientation, and just about every other “ation” in my life.
The prayer? “God, I don’t ask you for much today. I just ask that you give me your heart for lost people.”
Nineteen words. Twenty-one syllables. Seventy letters. One request.
I prayed that prayer every day for ninety days. By the end of it, I was a new man. I was no longer content to serve the church. I was compelled to serve God and his purposes in the world. At the time, I was an associate pastor in a nice, safe church in rural Colorado. I was content with that. I planned to stay there for a long, long time.
But the prayer (or, the Lord) wouldn’t let me. The prayer moved me to San Diego County, where I founded New Song Community Church, a church focused on reaching the lost. To date, just a few less than 8,000 people have received Christ through New Song’s ministries. Last year we released a movie that we believe is saving lives daily. (The movie is aptly named, “To Save A Life.”) We’ve helped start seven churches and seven parachurch ministries or outreach-focused companies, one of which has planted 104,000 churches. I am in awe of what God has done.
Here’s what I know:
1. A simple prayer really can change you.
2. God’s great desire is that all people come to know him.
3. God uses ordinary people who are willing to take extraordinary risks.
4. The community you live in will only be reached if people like you pray dangerous prayers and get about the business of building Christ’s church.
5. Churches that reach out are led by pastors who are compelled by God to reach their communities. Most of these pastors don’t see themselves as overly impressive. They’re just convicted to their core that they must mobilize people to reach out because they are convinced that this is God’s primary purpose for them, and for their people.
I’ve written an eight-week adventure designed to infect pastors and churches with a love for the lost. If you’d like to become infected, email me at hal@pastormentor.com and I’ll send you a lesson a week for the next eight weeks. If all goes well, you and your community will be changed more than you’ve ever imagined.
Reaching the lost is a command from our Lord, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature!" Hello, i work with people on the streets, my name is, Terry Dorn - Chaplain to the Streets. I have developed a tool to be used in the work of witnessing. It is a flip chart style book, that help guide you in a step by step method that gets the word out to the street. See it at, http://terrydornbooks.com/books.html Thanks Terry Dorn
Posted by: Terry Dorn | October 09, 2010 at 01:50 PM