When the Church Prays

Good morning, Grantham Church.

Good to see all of you in worship this morning.

Today is the official start of our fall 2026 ministry at Grantham Church.

And with that, we're beginning an eight-week sermon series called The Thriving Congregation.

If you're a member or regular tender at Grantham, that will likely sound familiar to you because along with a cohort of other Brethren in Christ churches, We are currently part of the thriving congregations initiative, which is a three-year program designed to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them to deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other and contribute to the vitality of their communities in the world.

And this program enables local congregations to explore and better understand their place among rapid social and cultural changes in our own local context.

Here are the phases and the focus of that program.

Last year, year one, our core team at Grantham made up of two pastors, Pastor Melissa and I and four other congregations, was led by our thriving congregations coach to reflect on who we are as a Brethren in Christ Church with certain gifts as well as our mission and vision.

And we're now entering year two and we're going to be considering where God has placed us.

Who are our immediate neighbors and surrounding community and what are the needs and ministry opportunities around us.

In the final year, you can see there we're going to be discerning and making plans for how God is leading us to grow to meet needs, to bless our community and to do new things for the kingdom of God.

And in the meantime, church leadership and our core team will keep you informed about that process.

And so with this ongoing work in mind, our fall sermon series has been created to encourage you in your walk and to spur us on together to be a healthy Christ center church to be a thriving congregation.

In the thriving congregation series, we will explore eight characteristics of a healthy church.

A church that prays, develops healthy leaders, takes spiritual formation seriously, loves deeply, stewards faithfully, serves, generously, grows, and multiplies, and ultimately points people to the God revealed in Jesus.

Over the coming weeks, we'll discover how a church that becomes increasingly centered on Christ and his good news will naturally become a thriving congregation that is spiritually alive, relationally healthy, missionally engaged, and increasingly fruitful for the kingdom.

So, I'm inviting you to follow the message each week, but also to engage in conversation with others in the personal spaces that you find yourselves in here at Grantham.

So that we can be intentional about listening to the spirit and discerning God's leading for Grantham Church.

Amen.

Can you do that together?

Let's do it.

If you're taking notes, I've entitled this first message When the Church Prays.

Would you pray with me now?

Father, we are grateful for your presence.

We're grateful that we've already been led together in worship, sensitizing our hearts and our minds to your voice.

And so, Lord, we ask that you speak to us now for your servants are listening.

We pray these things in Jesus' holy name and all God's people said.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Turn with me if you would in your Bible to our main scripture reading this morning, the book of Acts chapter one.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.

Acts chapter one, and as you are turning there, would you stand with me for the reading of the scriptures?

This is the The beginning of Luke's second gospel, the story of the church.

Acts chapter 1:1-14.

Luke writes, "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day that he was taken up to heaven.

And after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

He appeared to them over a period period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command.

Do not leave Jerusalem But wait for the gift my father promised, which you've heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Then they gathered around him and asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" And he said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the father is set by his own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy spirit comes on you.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going.

When suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them.

Men of Galilee, they said, "Why do you stand here looking into the sky?" This same Jesus who's been taking from you into heaven will come back in the same way that you've seen him go into heaven.

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city.

And when they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.

Those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James.

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank God, you may be seated.

I think we've all experienced what happens when the power goes out.

You ever experienced that at home?

You know, especially when it's really dark outside, you know, and maybe you have a candle or two.

But if the power is off for a long time, I don't Have you ever done this?

I've done this where I almost like forget that the power is out and then I go into a room and flip on the switch.

It's like, oh yeah, right, the power's out of course, dummy, you know?

It's it's a real thing.

Now imagine coming into the church on a Sunday morning and discuss covering that the power is out.

The lights don't work, the sound system doesn't work, the screens are dark, the coffee isn't brewing.

That's serious business.

The HVAC isn't running and suddenly all the things that normally help us to do church are unavailable.

And you discover something important.

A church can have all the right equipment and still have no power.

to run it all.

That makes for a good picture of the spiritual life of a congregation.

Think about it.

We can have excellent preaching, talented musicians, good programs, beautiful facilities, gifted leaders, strong children and youth ministries, effective technology, well-organized calendars and money in the bank, and still fail to live in conscience dependent on upon God and be living by his power.

And how do we live by God's power?

Well, it's simple really.

We live by God's power through prayer.

Prayer is how the church plugs itself in to the reality that our life and our mission depend upon God.

Just think of prayer that way.

Our prayers are plugging into the power source to make things happen.

And so, that is where we must begin to be a thriving congregation with the power of prayer.

It is best-selling book Letters from a Skeptic, Greg Boyd writes this about the power of prayer.

He says, "God has chosen to govern the universe through free agents.

He has left certain things open for us to decide." And among those things is the power of prayer.

Things happen when we pray that simply would not happen if we did not pray.

Clearly, Boyd is emphasizing a belief that prayer makes a real difference in the world.

And it also highlights how prayer goes beyond our own spiritual formation, certainly is good for that.

But prayer is also about aligning our heart with God's heart and partnering with God and the things that God wants to do.

In other words, our prayers allow us access to God's power.

And just like power is needed to run our devices and all of our modern technology.

We need divine power to bring ordinary things to life in the church and to manifest God's kingdom on the earth.

I've said this before at Grant Hill.

I'll I'll never forget the missionary from China who came to the United States, maybe as a pastor, he came in the United States and he went back to his home church in China.

They said, "What impressed you most about the church in America?" He said, "What they can do without the power of the Holy Spirit." It's a so bring so bring thought.

With that in mind, we can say that nothing of any kingdom significance happens apart from prayer.

Where as John Wesley wrote, "God does nothing but in answer to prayer." That's what we see happening in the book of facts, which we started to read there.

Luke tells the story of what happened after Jesus was raised from the dead.

And how the Holy Spirit empowered the birth and the growth of the early church.

And Luke says that before Jesus ascended to heaven, he gave his followers an enormous assignment.

He said, "You will be my witnesses to the very ends of the earth." That's no small task, is it?

That's huge.

But notice what Jesus doesn't tell them to do, he doesn't say, "So start a organizing.

Go develop a five-year strategic plan.

Recruit volunteers.

Build a facility.

Launch immediately.

Now, all those are good things, but that's not what Jesus says, is it?

What does he say?

He tells them to wait.

To wait.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised.

Now, waiting in Jerusalem at that point That was that was kind of scary.

That was no easy thing to do.

Remember for a while they're hiding.

They don't want to be seen as those followers of Jesus who had recently been crucified.

And many of them would have just soon gone back to where their home towns were, to get out of get out of dodge, right?

But he says, "Wait.

Wait." They pray, they wait.

In Acts 1:14, Luke says, "They all joined together What?

Constantly in prayer.

Church, this is significant.

Don't miss this.

It'd be easy to read Luke's account of the church and miss that one verse.

The first activity the church after Jesus' ascension was not production, it was dependence.

It was reliance upon God.

They couldn't accomplish Jesus' mission in their own strength.

They needed power.

They needed the Holy Spirit.

And it's during their constant praying that the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and Acts 2.

Did you notice that?

We're all familiar if we've run up in the church with Acts 2, the Spirit coming at Pentecost, did you notice they were praying before the Spirit comes?

From there we see an explosion of growth.

And it continues because as Luke sums it up, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching to fellowship, to community within the body of Christ, and to the breaking of bread.

And this scholars believe this is a reference not only just to sharing meals together, but sharing communion together, and to prayer.

So notice when the church prays, something happens.

In fact, in the first four chapters of the book of Acts, we can visibly see what prayer enables the church to do As they tap into God's power and seek to carry on the ministry of Jesus.

Look at this.

First, we see that prayer creates unity among God's people.

There's truth in that modern proverb, a family that prays together, stays together.

Now, like any proverb, there's it's a general truth.

Doesn't mean that some families won't break up, but generally, this is how proverbs work.

Generally that's true.

And secondly, we see that prayer helps the church discern the way forward when difficult decisions need to be made.

So, prayer creates unity.

Family that prays together stays together, including your church family, and to there prayer helps the church discern.

When tough decisions need to be made, we go to God to ask for wisdom.

So, Thirdly, we see that prayer empowers the church for mission.

Through prayer, the spirit gives each of us gifts.

As we looked at that in our last series.

And then fourthly, prayer gives the church courage to act even the face of opposition.

You know, we're all about holding things together here at Grantham.

Holding evangelism together with service, right?

And holding prayer together with action.

In his letters to the churches in Ephesus, Colosse, and Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul instructs those congregations to believe in the power that comes through prayer when he says this, Ephesians 6:18, he says, "Pray in the spirit when things are tough." No, no, no, that's not what he said.

Pray in the spirit when you've done all that you can do and you don't know what else to do.

No, no.

Is that what Paul says?

What does he say?

Pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

So notice prayer isn't reserved just for emergencies.

Colossians 4:2 he says, "Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful.

Devote, that is to dedicate.

Be He says, "Watchful.

Be spiritually alert and have a grateful heart." I think that's fascinating that in many Many of the places and Paul talks about prayer, there's always that attachment to being thankful, being grateful.

And any of you know the work they've been doing in neuroscience, you know the power of gratitude.

We'll begin our prayers by thinking God for who he is and what he's done.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, you thought Jesus wept was the only short verse.

Here's the next one.

Pray continually Now Paul isn't suggesting that we should literally spend every moment verbally speaking prayers.

At some point you got to get off those knees and you got to do.

So what does he mean?

Well, instead he's describing an ongoing relational awareness of God and a prayerful posture that continually recognizes God, you are here.

God, I need you.

God, you're with me.

God, what are you doing?

God, how do you want me to participate in what you're doing?

It's an awareness.

It's a posture.

It's what it means to walk with Jesus.

So this is an invitation and intentionally move prayer from the margins or being an add-on to spirit spiritual life or the life of the congregation.

Oh, we're going to have a meeting.

Oh, I guess we should pray.

That's what we do in Christian meetings.

Now, it's more than that, right?

It's more than that.

So, moving it from the margins to to the center of who we are and what we're doing.

For example, when prayer moves to the center, we stop asking what can we accomplish and we begin asking what is God doing.

We stop relying primarily on our ability and we begin by relying on God's power.

We stop treating ministry as something we manage and we begin seeing it as something God leads.

We stop making decisions merely according to our preferences and begin seeking God's wisdom and discernment.

God, what do you want?

And lastly, we stop seeing prayer as a preparation for minister ministry and we recognize that prayer is a ministry.

You see, a praying church isn't necessarily a church that talks about prayer the most.

It's a church that actually prays.

Pray is before making decisions.

God, give us wisdom.

Pray is for one another.

God, meet my brother and sister in their need.

Pray is for those who don't know Jesus.

God, open doors for the gospel in this person's life.

Praise for leaders.

God give our leaders wisdom, courage, humility, and holiness.

It praising moments of crisis.

God, help us.

We don't know what what to do.

Praise in moments of celebration.

God, we thank you.

You are great.

You're wonderful.

You're good.

Praise when the future is uncertain.

God lead us.

Give us vision.

And perhaps most importantly, a praying church praise together as a family.

Again, a church can have all the equipment, right?

All the equipment necessary to put on a service, but equipment isn't power, programs aren't power, buildings aren't power, talent isn't power.

The church needs God.

You know, that's one of the reasons for this piece of furniture up here that we often forget about is it's not just for aesthetics.

It's to remind us of our need for God and sometimes when we recognize that need, we should get off our bums.

Move our feet and go toward God.

Prayer is the posture that reminds us of that reality, right?

We need God, we need his power.

The disciples stood before an impossible mission.

You'll be my witness, as Jesus said, to the ends of the earth.

Now, they couldn't do it.

They knew they couldn't do it.

So, they prayed, and they waited, and they relied upon God.

One of our core values in the Brethren in Christ.

Number 10 actually.

Relying on God.

And then the spirit came.

The church was born.

The gospel went forward and ordinary people became witnesses for Jesus.

So what about Graham Church?

Have we ever experienced God do something bigger than us?

Because of our prayers and relying upon God for the power, the direction, and the resources.

Sure we have.

Let me tell you one story from our history.

Over 40 years ago, Grantham Church was part of something that some of you are familiar with, but others in this room probably are not.

In 1982, a social services center in Pittsburgh was about to close.

At the same time, unemployment was rising and hundreds of families were depending on that center for help with food, housing, utilities, and other basic needs.

And so a letter went out to area pastors asking essentially, what are we going to do about this?

That letter eventually made its way here to Grant them.

And our Peace and Social Justice Commission began asking a very simple question, how does God want us to respond.

In the beginning, there was no plan.

There was no staff, there was no building.

They just knew there were people in the community who were hurting, and they wanted to do something about it.

So they began talking.

They began dreaming.

They began working with two other brethren in Christ churches, and they prayed.

And one person involved said this, "We knew we needed to pray a lot.

So began each meeting with a session of prayer.

You see, they were well aware that the task seemed impossible.

They didn't know exactly what God was going to do or how he was going to do it.

They just kept talking and taking the next step and praying to God and eventually those three churches, Grantham, Dillsburg Brethren in Christ, and Cumberland Valley, which is now the meeting house Dillsburg, helped establish a new ministry called New Hope.

ministries.

Grant him provided financial support and folks from our congregation volunteered.

Ministries started in a small basement at Dillsburg Brethren in Christ and then something happened that they couldn't have imagined when they started.

It grew and it kept growing.

40 years later, New Hope Ministry serves thousands of people every year through multiple locations across our region of the state.

How did that happen?

Well, it all started with a need that seemed too big for the church to solve.

But instead of saying that's someone else's problem, the government will eventually take care of that.

They asked, "What would Jesus have us do?" In church, they prayed and they acted.

And They prayed and they acted together believing that God can do the impossible.

And over time, God used those prayers.

And those small acts of faithfulness to create something far bigger As many of you know today, New Hope Ministries, one of our four ministry partners that grant them is a significant presence in our community serving thousands of people who need help and hope.

And some of you even volunteer volunteer there regularly.

And what a powerful reminder of our need for God's power through prayer.

And what God can do when we get serious.

about being the hands and the feet of Jesus to those in need.

That's what a praying congregation can do.

To sum up this first message, here here's what we're saying in three takeaways.

Number one, prayer reveals that we truly rely upon God.

Prayer expresses our need, our desire, and our dependence upon the spirit.

Number two, prayer transforms the church and propels her forward.

It's the energy that moves us into God's good future.

It brings unity, discernment, power for mission, and courage to act.

Earlier you saw in the slide that the courage to act.

If you look at Acts 3 and 4, which we recently referenced, Peter and John walking up to the temple, they don't hesitate and being the hand in the feet of Jesus.

Silver and gold, we don't have any.

But what we can give you is this, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk.

Courage, courage to act.

And lastly, number three, the thriving congregation is a praying church.

You see, prayer isn't just a last resort.

It's not that.

It's the very breath of a spirit-filled people.

How often do you need to breathe?

I like that rock band, by the way.

How often do you need to breathe?

Yeah.

So, how often ought we to pray?

And there's some practical things that we're doing at Grand and to communicate and encourage us in this direction.

More recently, while we already used the prayer chain, many of you over 200 100 of you receive that when there's a a prayer need.

It goes out to your inbox.

While we already do that, we're going to be more intentional in the coming weeks of posting spiritual needs and concerns in our church and our community as we're wanting to invite you into more intentional prayer.

And today, this ministry is expanding into the prayer team, the prayer team.

You can see the prayer banner off to the side of the stage over here.

Every Sunday after the service.

There'll be members of the prayer team.

There'll be standing there waiting for you if you want to come and pray with someone.

Of course, our pastors are also always available.

These prayer altars are always available to you, but just as another way of responding to God's calling to be a praying congregation.

I'm thankful for those team members who were willing to serve in that way.

Finally, here are some questions to help us to reflect and respond together.

Number one, number one, let's just Take this before the Lord.

Where in my life have I not been relying on God?

Is there an area?

Is there a specific place or a need or challenge that you have?

How was the spirit inviting me to go to God more in prayer?

What is the Lord saying to you?

Maybe you just thought if I just pull myself up by my bootstraps Perhaps, right?

What they say?

I can figure this out.

And that's not working.

Maybe it's time to pray.

Hey, if you need help praying, I want to encourage you to check out this app, Lectio 365.

Some of you've probably seen that at our info centers.

There's a QR code there, info centers.

This is a wonderful resource, Lectio 365.

They now have a prayer that you can listen to, you can read it if you want to do that too, you can follow it.

A lot of them have British accents.

That's fun.

Right, Vicky?

It's much easier to listen to than Americans, you know, especially if somebody from Texas, but you know.

They got morning, they've got midday, they've got evening.

Oh man, you can go to sleep listening to one of the evening.

As you practice some ignatian spirituality there, reflecting on how God's been at work in your life in the day, how you've seen him at work.

And just resting in him.

Maybe you need some help doing that.

Get a good rhythm and routine going, check out that app.

There's a lot of different ways to do this, church.

But whatever works for you, to pray constantly, to have that posture, encourage you to adopt it.

Number two, number two, question two, where are we lacking unity?

Discernment, power, or courage is a congregation.

Nothing specific in mind here, but just what do you see.

Is there anything you notice?

How is God inviting us as a congregation into deeper prayer?

Sometimes it begins saying, what are we going to do about that?

And asking God to provide the way.

Lastly, number three.

What is one specific step I can take this week to make prayer a more essential part of my life and our life together?

Church, what is the spirit saying to you this morning?

And what will you do about it?

Whatever the Lord is speaking to your heart, I pray that you will trust and obey.

Father, we thank you for how your spirit has been speaking to us through this message.

reminding us of the power that is needed to propel the church forward, to carry out the task of this ministry that you gave us to do.

A ministry of not just saving souls, but Lord of bringing your kingdom, more of your kingdom to Earth as it is in heaven.

Thank you, Lord, that you've not left us alone.

Thank you, Lord, for the promise that you'll never leave us nor forsake us, and that through the power of your spirit, you have given us an advocate.

You've given us power to do the things you've called us to do.

We invite your spirit, Lord, to speak to us in our own individual walks of how we can be praying people and speak to us as a church, Lord.

The ways in which we see we have great need to depend upon you.

As we enter into this time of reflection response, Lord, will your Holy Spirit continue to move?

Pour out your grace upon your people now.

We pray these things in Christ holy name.

Amen.

Amen.