Submitted by: PR (Mississippi)
About 2 years ago, my wife and I were seeking how to become vital and practice the God ordained way in our locality, which has no job-dropping serving ones, no major campus, very few young people, and about 40-50 saints. We prayed and began fellowshipping with a few saints over lunches and dinners about what the Lord wanted in all of us. Through our prayer and fellowship, we found two other young couples who wanted nothing but to endeavor to be vital, build up the church, and bring our Lord back. So we decided, along with these two couples, to begin having a small group prayer and fellowship time. We simply would get together, fellowship about our situations, the situations in the church, and pray for anything which was on our heart. Out of this prayer and fellowship the Lord began to blend and knit us together in ways we had not experienced before in the church life. After about 6 months the Lord brought us a brand new family with kids to take care of and shepherd into the church life. In the last year and a half since we’ve been meeting with this family, we have kept our small-group time of prayer and fellowship. As a result the Lord has continuously added fruit to our group. This new family has born fruit two or three times over and the Lord has given us several other families to take care of as well. We have done very little of our own effort except to be faithful in gathering to pray and fellowship once a week and as a result the Lord has added to our group of six over 20 new ones to take care of in the last 2 years. Out of our little small-group prayer meeting have developed two home meetings, many new ones, and a rich flow of life into all of us! I am a medical student, my wife works, and we have a new-born child. The other two couples have 5 kids combined (ages 1-11), and one brother is a medical resident, the other a sales engineer. We all are VERY busy, but nevertheless our church-life is becoming preeminent in our living every day. This is not a result of anything we have in our own disposition, but a result rather of what the Lord has gained in us the last two years. Through the blending and knitting in our small group, our personal relationship with the Lord has grown, our relationship with the saints in the Body has been vitalized, our reading of the Word and the ministry has been greatly amplified, and our pursuing of the Lord has greatly increased. Anyone reading this should be encouraged that the days of meeting “every night of the week” are not for Elden hall or the 1970’s church life only. They are for today too. Simply gather to pray and fellowship with some the Lord leads you to and you will find that the church life can be more than a Lord’s Day meeting and a prayer meeting. It can be even more than a traditional once-a-week home meeting. If we are faithful to pray and fellowship the Lord will bring us all into the vital living He needs to return. This is why we are alive, this is why we are Christians, and this is why we are in the church life.
I’m quite encouraged to see how prayer and fellowship is the starting point and the way to bring us into a vital living and to carry out God’s ordained way. May the Lord burden us all to pray more and work less!
Amen Paul – very encouraging. We have had a similar situation arise here in Houston. Our group consists of several PhD students, MD students, residents, a lawyer, etc., and even though we are quite busy we endeavor to have a church life that is house to house and literally day by day. Some of the new ones we care for are classmates, and others the Lord just added seemingly out of nowhere. It seems all we need to do is enjoy the Lord together and he will take care of the rest.
I agree with DC and Paul that it is possible and normal to live the vital group-church life amidst a busy environment. If not, maybe we are too busy and need to reconsider the way we work and live.
I noticed as well that whenever our group (same as DC’s) prays and fellowships together (outside of our weekly small group meeting), things just happen. But when we slack in our prayer and fellowship, things stop and may even go backwards.
Paul, how does your group carry out your prayer/fellowship time consistently? Do you have a set time/place weekly, etc.?
DC2, we do have a set time. Every Thursday night we meet from 6:45-7:45 (short and succinct can often be better in terms of focusing our time). The place rotates but usually it is in one particular couple’s house. It has become as set as any other meeting in our schedule and like you said, if we miss it, the adverse effects start to show very quickly.
Thank you brother for your very encouraging testimony! Lord group us together with others for prayer and fellowship! Through prayer and vital linking in the Body You can do it all! We just enjoy Him and He takes care of the rest. This is the true, daily church life!
THANK YOU for sharing this! It’s so encouraging! A few of us sisters are just beginning to meet regularly to pray, with a burden similar to what you shared. This is an impetus to keep us going!
Thank you brother Paul for such an encouraging testimony of how we can all cooperate with the Lord through vital group prayer. May this be a seed sown in many that brings forth fruit that builds up the Body and brings the Lord back for His bride.
Amen for such an encouraging testimony of how a prayer life should be. I’m enlightened that prayer should not be done in an independent way but through fellowship among the members of the Body. May the Lord burden us here to also to pray livingly in fellowship.
Thank you for this encouraging testimony! The miraculous normality in the church life!