What Happened to Prayer Meetings?
Dr. Ron Johnston
Someone once said that the reason why people don’t go to prayer meetings is because they went to prayer meetings. I identified with that completely when I heard it. When I was a teenager, the church I attended held a prayer meeting every Wednesday night. It was not the highlight of my week. It was boring, repetitive and at least for me lasted too long. If I had written this paragraph back then scores of people in churches all over the country would have identified with what I just wrote.
In the decades since then most evangelical churches have stopped having prayer meetings mostly because the were boring, repetitive and lasted too long. In most cases stopping was a good thing. Certainly as a young person I didn’t miss those meetings at all.
There was, however, a problem. They didn’t replace those ineffective meetings with a different approach to prayer. It wasn’t the prayer in the name that was the problem. For a number of reasons prayer should have remained at the heart of life in the church. It was the meeting that was the problem. It was the way in which the meetings were conducted that made them ineffective.
In most churches it wasn’t just the mid-week prayer meeting that was removed. It was prayer that was removed. There are very few evangelical churches in Canada today that have a strong focus on prayer.
I was in Honduras a few years back and I experienced something that I have never experienced before. Among the Christians that I met there prayer was not what they did. It was who they were. Prayer was at the very core of who they were as Christians. They didn’t pray for each other and for situations because it was the right thing to do. They prayed because it was the natural outflow of their walk with God.
Over the past year or so I have been introduced to Ignite Prayer Canada. I am excited about what they are doing. To quote from their website:
“Their passion is to equip and empower church leaders and churches in cultivating a culture of Kingdom prayer that aligns with God’s heart and purpose.”
Their goal is to see 1,000 churches across Canada develop this deep focus on prayer.
I would love to see many small churches be a part of that number. I would encourage you to look at their website https://igniteprayer.ca/ and to seriously consider if God would have you become part of this movement.
Just as a little aside as I close. If they are going to reach their goal, they have to have small churches come on board because there aren’t enough large churches to reach the 1,000.
Who Has Influenced You?
Dr. Ron Johnston
One of my most treasured possessions is a book signed by the author’s wife.
To explain why it means so much to me I need to go back a long ways to my early years of adulthood. I had been raised in a home in which one did not question the basic truths of Christianity. One just accepted them and believed that they were true. The problem that I had was that God had given me an inquisitive mind. I loved to ask questions and throughout my high school years I had a lot of them to ask. I used to ask my mother for answers that she was in no way able to give. She had a grade eight education and no capacity to answer the kind of questions that I was asking.
Then I came across two wonderful books that changed my life. Paul Little, an American working with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship wrote Know Why You Believe and Know What You Believe. Those books provided me with answers and even more important convinced me that to quote Paul Little, “I didn’t have to commit intellectual suicide to become a Christian and I didn’t have to kiss my brains good-bye.” Those books changed my life.
I am convinced that one of the ways in which God shows his love for us is by giving us small unexpected gifts that usually are a completely surprise. In our first year of marriage Gloria and I lived in Chicago for eight months. We went to a wonderful church there and to my total surprise Paul Little attended that same church. I got to hear him preach and even got to pray with him a few times.
About ten years later Paul’s son enrolled at bible college in Toronto and attended the church in which I was serving. He was going through a difficult time and I got to work with him in the struggles that he was having. His father had died in a car accident prior to this but I was in contact with his mother Marie as we tried to work through the problems. When Paul Jr. had moved back to the U.S., I received a copy of Paul Little’s books with an inscription in the front signed by Marie. It simply read “With warm appreciate Marie Little.”
Paul Little had played an important part in my Christian development. He had met a need in my life when I most needed it. I have always been grateful for that. Then I got to play a small part in the life of his family and for that I am grateful as well.
There have been a number of people who have helped to shape my life. Some I knew personally. For some it was what they wrote or said that made the difference. I some times joke with my wife that when I die if one person comes to her in the visitation and tells her that I made a difference in his/her life then my life will have been worthwhile.
I leave you with these two questions. Who were the people who made a difference for you? Who are the people for whom God used you to made a difference for them?
The Character and Servant-hood of Jimmy Carter
Dr. Ron Johnston
I just finished listening to some of the tributes that have been paid to President Jimmy Carter over the past few days as America and the world celebrated his remarkable life. What has struck me has been the fact that while his political success is up for debate, there is almost universal agreement that he was a man of character who lived out his Christian faith for everyone to see.
Vice-President Kamala Harris shared a story that should be a challenge to all of us, especially to all who are in a position of leadership. After leaving office President Carter and his wife were actively involved in Habitat For Humanity, an organization dedicated to providing housing for those who can’t afford it. On his very first trip to build a house he and his wife rode on the bus with all of the other volunteers. When they arrived at the church where they were spending the night, the Carters asked that the private room that had been set aside for them be given to a young couple who had postponed their honeymoon to be part of the building team. The Carters then proceeded to sleep on the floor of the church along with everyone else. The remarkable thing is that this was not a one off. This was who the Carters were, a President and First Lady who truly knew what servant leadership was all about.
N.T. Wright in his book After You Believe says something that explains Jimmy Carter’s actions in this story and gives all of us who aspire to leadership something to think about.
The way this works out is that it produces, through the work of the Holy Spirit, a transformation of character. This transformation will mean that we do indeed “keep the rules”-though not out of a sense of externally imposed “duty,” but out of the character that has been formed within us. And it will mean that we do indeed “follow our hearts” and live “authentically”- but only when, with that transformed character fully operative (like an airplane pilot with a lifetime’s experience), the hard work up front bears fruit in spontaneous decisions and actions that reflect what has been formed deep within. p. 26
As Christian leaders we need to be servants. We don’t need to act like servants. We don’t follow a set of rules that outline what it means to be a servant. We need to become servants so that when confronted with an opportunity to serve, it is the only response that we can give. Love needs to become so much a part of who we are that we can only respond in love. Humility needs to define us so that we can only respond to others with humility. The secret of living as Christians is not to follow a set of rules that define what a Christian is but to allow the Holy Spirit to so shape us that displaying his fruit is as natural as breathing because in our innermost core that is who we are.
In the story above I believe that this was true of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. They were a small town couple from Plains Georgia who never forgot those humble beginnings. I am so thankful for the example of leadership that they have given to the world. I have to think that somewhere in the United States there is a couple still shaking their heads in wonder when they think about the time when the president and first lade gave up their room to them.
Thoughts About Christmas
Dr. Ron Johnston
This is a special Sunday at the church that I attend. What makes it special? It is the third Sunday of Advent and if you love Christmas as much as I do that always makes it special but there is more to it than that. There are four things that, Lord willing, will happen that can only happen in a small church. It would be next to impossible for a large church to duplicate these things.
A few years ago during Covid my wife wanted to do something unique to let the people in our church know that she was thinking about them. She decided that she would bake a small cherry pie for everyone in the church. She didn’t just do it for every family. She did it for every person young and old who called our church home. We then put them in our car and delivered them to every home. She will spend Saturday this week baking cherry pies. It is fun in that every counter and table in our kitchen will be covered with pies. We don’t deliver them any longer but every person will receive their own personal pie when they arrive at church. I should say that my wife is an amazing baker and so these really are a treat.
Instead of our regular Sunday morning service, this week we will have a carol sing. We will gather around the piano and spend the first half of our time singing whatever carols people call out as their favourites. For this one Sunday we resort to using the hymn books which means that people can even sing parts if they wish.
Every Sunday we have a prayer time in our service during which people can share blessings and requests. My wife, who is the pastor, then comes up and prays for those things that have been shared. This gives a different touch to the traditional pastoral prayer.
Finally we finish off the morning off with our traditional dessert Sunday. People are encouraged to bring Christmas goodies and after the service we go downstairs and enjoy these sumptuous delights. We don’t have a meal, just desserts and fellowship.
All of these things work better in a small church. In fact most of them would be impossible to do in a large one. In a church of five hundred if only half the people shared a prayer item and only took fifteen seconds to share it, it would take a full hour for them to share and the pastor would have two hundred and fifty items to pray for.
All of this to say that we need to find those things that work in our small churches and there is an endless list rather than wishing that we could do the things that large churches do and that we could never do well.
Quotes That Changed My Life
Dr. Ron Johnston
There are few things that I like more than to come across a good quote when I am reading. It may be how the quote is written. It may be that it provides me with a new way of looking at something. It may just be a thought that I needed at that particular moment in my life. Whatever the reason, it is an exciting event that I try to savour.
There is something, however, that is even more exciting and that is when I come across a quote that changes my life. Usually I read it, ponder what it says and then allow it to shape my whole outlook on life. I have a list of about twenty of these and I am thankful for each one. I want to share just three of them with you in this article. We are all different so they probably won’t impact you in quite the same way as they did me but I hope that you find them both interesting and challenging.
The first comes from a book called Integrity written by Dr. Henry Cloud.
“No matter how difficult it is to hear, reality is always your friend. The reason is almost a truism: everything else is a fantasy.” p. 106
Too many small churches live in a fantasy world of what used to be or what they wished was. We all need to live in the reality of what is now.
The second quote comes from Effective Small Churches in the Twenty-first Century by Carl S. Dudley.
“Members of the small church want from their pastor what they find most satisfying in belonging to the small church. . .The small church wants a lover. p. 80
I hesitated to use this quote because of the physical connotations of the word “lover” but it is too good to leave out. As a young pastor I wanted to be a good preacher. I read everything that I could get my hands on that dealt with growth in the church. I did my best to cast a vision for the future. When I read this quote, I realized that while all of these things might be important, they are all secondary to loving my people.
The third quote comes from a small book entitled Your Mind Matters by John Stott. It is an important book but one that some would see as somewhat out of date today. I believe that it still carries a message today. I read it first as a young student in Bible College and it has impacted my life ever since.
“I am not pleading for a dry, humourless, academic Christianity, but for a warm devotion set on fire by truth.” p. 11
There is nothing more important for a pastor than a heart set on fire by the truth about Jesus Christ.
If you have a quote that has changed your life, I would love for you to share it with me. I still need more life-changing quotes to become all that God wants me to be.
The Importance of a Trust Account
Dr. Ron Johnston
Every once in a while I read an author who says something that I have been saying for years. Whenever this happens I jokingly comment on the author’s intelligence. Actually it makes me feel good that someone thinks the same way that I do. It happened again a few weeks ago in a book entitled The Speed of Trust written by Stephen R.M. Covey. If his name sounds familiar it is probably because his father, Stephen R. Covey, wrote a very successful book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
At the heart of leadership in any church, whatever its size, must be trust. If there is trust between a pastor and the church or between the leadership team and the church that church is in a positive place to move ahead. If that trust is lacking, it is difficult for leadership to do anything.
I often talk about the importance of what I have called a trust account that exists within every church. Every time that leaders do something positive they make a deposit into that account. It may be walking through a time of loss with someone in the church. It may be recognizing the contribution of people at a Sunday morning service. It may be the time of quiet prayer when someone is going through difficulties. It can take many different forms but each one makes a deposit in that trust account.
On the other hand every change that is made is a withdrawal from the account even if the change is positive. Every idea that doesn’t work results in a withdrawal. Every disagreement over direction for the church constitutes another withdrawal. If the trust account is full to overflowing, leadership can make almost any change that they wish to make and the church will go with them. If the account is almost empty, they may have trouble making even the simplest of changes. It all comes down to trust. With this in mind there is no such thing as an insignificant action on the part of leadership. Even the simplest thing will either make a deposit into the account or a withdrawal from the account. When the withdrawals outnumber the deposits, the result is that there are insufficient funds to make a change.
What does all of this have to do with Stephen M.R. Covey’s book. Here is the quote that got me excited and made me think that the author was a pretty sharp person. As you work on behaving in ways that build trust, one helpful way to visualize and quantify your efforts is by thinking in terms of “Trust Accounts.” These are similar to the “emotional Bank Accounts” my father introduced in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. By behaving in ways that build trust, you make deposits. By behaving in ways that destroy trust, you make withdrawals. The “balance” in the account reflects the amount of trust in the relationship at any given time. p. 130
Relationships are Everything in the Small Church
Dr. Ron Johnston
I sat across from a young law student who was contemplating suicide. He came from a very dysfunctional family and with the pressures of school added to his already existing family pressures, it seemed to be more than he could handle.
He told me his story. His father was an alcoholic who emotionally abused his mother. He felt the need to protect his mother but wasn’t always sure just how he should do that. He talked about his father coming home late from a night of drinking with his buddies, waking his mother and arguing with her for hours at a time. He told me how he would almost fall asleep in class the next day because he had spent the night trying to intercede for and protect his mother.
As I listened to him, I had flashbacks to my own life. I have never heard a story that was so much like my own. I was able to identify with this young man at a deeper level than I have with anyone else that I have ever known. His story was my story and to a great degree his pain was my pain. Over the next year or so I spent a great deal of time with him and my prayer is that my investment in his life made a difference. He didn’t attempt suicide. He graduated from law school and moved to Northern Ontario and over time I lost contact with him.
In a small church relationships are everything. The time spent listening to people may just be the most important thing that you do on any given day. People don’t become part of a small church because of powerful preaching or excellent programs or dynamic studies. They become part of a small church because they want to belong to a group of people who truly care.
My favourite book on the topic of Leadership is entitled Integrity and was written by Dr. Henry Cloud. This quote from that book changed my whole outlook on working with people.
“True listening and understanding occurs only when the other person understands that you understand.”
I would love to post that in every small church in Canada. If relationships are the heart of every small church than this challenge would be a worthwhile goal for every person who attends one of those small churches.
Impact of the Small Church
Dr. Ron Johnston
God uses a lot of different influences to shape us into the person that we are. For me some of those strongest influences have been the small churches with which I have been connected over the years.
My public school years were spent in a small independent mission church in the town of Sundridge Ontario. I was part of a boys Sunday class taught by a man who had very limited teaching skills but he had something else that made all of the difference. He had the ability to love us boys and through him I learned the importance of relationships in a small-church setting.
My high school years were spent at the Burks Falls Baptist Church, another small
church in a small town but in that church I learned how to serve. My sister and I started a youth group that soon incorporated teenagers from all over town. I preached my first sermon there and as bad as it was the people encouraged and supported me in it. I organized my first area-wide event while I was there and experienced the fun of seeing something that I had done work. I even served for a time as part of the leadership team while I was still a teenager.
I moved to Toronto to go to Bible College and for the three years that I was there I attended a Brethren church called Doncaster Bible Chapel. When we had only been there for a few weeks, the leaders asked me to work with the youth and offered to pay for our rent for the time that I was there. From that church I learned what it meant to take a chance on a young person, giving him responsibility that he hadn’t really earned.
A few years later I was part of a church plant, Thornhill Community Church, made up largely of young Bible college and seminary students. What we lacked in experience, we made up for in enthusiasm. From that group I learned a lot about what it meant to be part of a Christian community.
I could on talking about several other small churches but I am running out of space in this article. Those churches shaped my life. I will take credit for the failures but those churches contributed to all of the successes that I have ever experienced.
If you are a small church, you have probably had a far greater impact than you imagine. That young person teaching Sunday school as a teenager, that musician who is part of your worship team, that potential leader helping with the youth group, all of those people serving throughout the church, you are impacting in a way that they probably would not be impacted in a large-church setting. Your church matters to God. It matters to me. It matters to the future of the church in Canada.
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