God's Methodist Moment: reflections on the Asbury Outpouring

I was raised in a Methodist church, shaped by the Wesleyan holiness tradition. My parents have been immovable pillars in that Methodist church for some 50 years. The great legacy of the Wesley brothers - magnificent hymns, revivalistic preaching and deep piety - is gratefully mine.  But the emphasis on personal holiness drained my soul of the assurance I craved as a young believer. I have vivid teenage memories of kneeling at the altar to take communion and sticking my fingers through the communion cup holes to grip the altar rail as I confessed my sin, terrified I'd lost my salvation. It took me until my 30's for the doctrines of grace to anchor me in gospel assurance. I also longed for an environment of greater openness to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So, a year after getting married in that church, my wife and I left it for a church that met those longings.

Several years after leaving, I found myself pastoring in a large church that put a lot of effort into the quality of its music, media,  lighting and sound on Sundays.  If something went wrong with these production values, our team leader would would say, "Well, that was a bit of a Methodist moment, wasn't it?" This was his way of saying, 'That was a bit clunky and old-fashioned.' We would laugh and make sure it didn't happen again. I am actually not against high production values, but looking back, I cringe a little at how smug we were and also that I didn't speak up and say, "Hey, that's my parents' church you're talking about!" But I didn't. 

So, you can imagine my surprise on hearing two decades later that there was an outpouring of the Spirit on a small Methodist college campus in Wilmore, Kentucky called Asbury University. 

What began as a standard students' chapel on February the 8th, 2023, with a local pastor preaching a no-better-than-average message, led to sustained repentance as students knelt at the altar rail. Zack Meerkreebs recalls, “I called my wife after my message, told her I had preached a stinker and cancelled my two afternoon meetings so I could go home and take a nap. But after a couple hours of worship and repentance I realized Jesus had something else in mind.” 

Such was the heat and weight of God’s presence in that chapel, the President of the university emailed all students and faculty at 9 pm that evening, encouraging them to go to Hughes Auditorium and told them that classes were canceled until further notice. That chapel service morphed into a 16 day continuous prayer meeting that attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors to Asbury and touched millions online around the world. Eight months later, Asbury has become something of a revival catalyst, with fires of gospel awakening flickering on many college campuses across the USA. 

After a group of us led by my friend, Todd Proctor, visited with faculty, student and pastoral leaders who stewarded the outpouring this past week, I can only conclude that the  Asbury Outpouring is God's Methodist Moment.  

By this, I mean that on the surface, there was absolutely nothing flashy or produced about what was going on there. Zero hype. It was unpolished - even a little clunky at times. The worship and the preaching were biblical and heart-felt, but unspectacular. There were multiple authentic testimonies of miracles, but they were told in understated ways.   There were no big names attached to the outpouring. No book deals or record contracts thus far.  In fact, the leaders had an aversion to celebrity culture.  And yet despite this, perhaps because of this, the veil between heaven and earth felt paper thin. It felt like what the Celtic Christians called, a thin place. There was a kind of naive purity about it all that I hope will remain unspoiled. Jesus was the only spectacular attraction. 

Make no mistake though, the leaders there carry some wise values that left a deep impression on me. I would describe them as follows:

 Consecration

The four words emblazoned above the Hughes Auditorium stage at Asbury University - Holiness unto the Lord - best describe what I encountered when meeting with the leaders there. What left the deepest impression on me was the sense of consecration among them. The repeated theme of repentance and dying to self marked every conversation. One lady described the Hughes Auditorium as a beautiful graveyard where I crucified my old self and buried it. Worship leaders and preachers would rush to pray in the consecration room before getting on stage to crucify pride, confess weakness and declare dependence upon the Holy Spirit. 

David Thomas, the pastor/theologian described by the group as the man who fathered people through the outpouring, insisted that repentance came from kindness rather than severity or manipulation. “People were so enraptured by the beauty of Jesus that they were only too glad to be rid of their sin. Holiness was no longer a set of behaviors. Holiness became a Person.” 

The consecration looked like genuine humility and hard work on relational unity. Impressive. 

For me personally, returning to my childhood environment of consecration with my soul more tethered to the grace of God, was beautiful and needed. As I knelt at the altar God’s presence reminded me of C.S Lewis's description of Aslan the lion when he peeled off Edmund’s dragon skin in The Voyage of the DawnTreader. 

“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. " 

Grace is not permission to sin. Grace is the power not to sin. And this grace was available through an atmosphere of consecration.

Leadership Courage  

I heard repeatedly about the courage of the University’s leadership to allow the outpouring to interrupt the normal rhythm of their institution. This went further than merely suspending classes for two weeks. Dr. Kevin Brown, the President of Asbury, insisted that all giving buttons be turned off during the outpouring on their website so as not to leverage it for financial gain. One student leader told me the university had also refused to leverage the outpouring as a marketing ploy to grow their student body. Both  President and Vice President were integrally involved in the prayer ministry during the outpourings too.  They were ministers, not just administrators. Dr. Brown explained, Asbury has a revival history, so if there is an outpouring, we are a riverbed that means the water knows where to go.”  

His institutional courage acted like a river bed for the outpouring channeling it purposefully towards consecration and mission. Imagine the courage it took to interrupt normal academic rhythms for 16 days, allowing hundreds of thousands of revival seekers to inundate the campus? Imagine the courage it took to bring the prayer meeting to an end after 16 days when it was still in such full flow?

I wonder if there have been hundreds of other chapel or church services that have experienced a deluge of grace but there was simply insufficient institutional courage to welcome the interruption?

Lingering Worship

 The third virtue was lingering worship. Perhaps the small town affected this, but nobody was in a rush. Planning center was nowhere to be found. Worship was unhurried, uninterrupted singing; congregational in nature, theologically true, but more adoration than description about God. I am all for rehearsing rich gospel truths in our singing, but if worship does not lead to adoration of Jesus it can be a theological exercise. Do we have such an environment in our churches at some point in our calendars?

Travailing Prayer 

David Thomas taught a profound message of travailing prayer, from the Old Testament prophets, to Jesus to Paul to the 'Spirit who intercedes with groans too deep to express." (Romans 8:26) He warned about the American Churches' affair with casual prayer, calling Biblical prayer a language of tears. Here is a link to his book  on Travailing Prayer. I believe leaning in to travailing prayer is going to be a mark of awakening in our churches and on our campuses. 

Generational Risk

Finally, the generational risk was impressive. Asbury was primarily an outpouring for Gen Z led by Gen Z. Included in the leadership team who met with us was an 18-year old freshman who preached, and a student in her twenties who single handedly directed the 4 prayer rooms that operated adjacent to the main auditorium. The 24-hour worship was co-ordinated by a young white woman who was married to an African American man who led the gospel choir. Their willingness to be mentored and coached by older leaders was remarkable. But the older leaders' willingness to have them take the lead  was beautiful. Our church has hundreds of Gen Zers and I returned intent on taking more risks with them as leaders.

So, I'm considering these values deeply and crying out for God for a Methodist Moment in our church and the college campuses we serve. Won't you join me?

California Calling: Reclaiming a Theology of Place for the Golden State

I'm told that U-Haul in California can't keep up with the demand from people hiring their trucks and trailers to pack up and leave for greener pastures. That trend hasn't been helped by two recent and very public departures of two very influential Californian residents; Elon Musk and Joe Rogan. Musk, the South African born  CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He's also one of the most vocal and was never going to leave quietly. In a series of tweets in May 2020, Musk  threatened to move the company's headquarters to Texas or Nevada, where shelter-in-place rules were less restrictive. "Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately," Musk tweeted. A few months later he sold two of his homes in Silicon Valley and announced he was moving to Texas and building a new plant in Austin.

 Popular podcaster Joe Rogan of “The Joe Rogan Experience” cited overpopulation, traffic, and “the need for freedom” as the reasons he has been persuaded to move from his current home of Los Angeles to Texas.“I just want to go somewhere in the center of the country, somewhere it’s easier to travel to both places, and somewhere where you have a little bit more freedom,” he explained on his podcast.   

Officially, California added 21,200 people from July  2019, to July 2020, increasing the state’s population a paltry 0.05% to 39.78 million people — still by far the most of any state. But the bigger news is that 135,600 more people left the state than moved here in that period. It’s only the 12th time since 1900 the state has had a net migration loss, and the third largest ever recorded. * 

That's peculiar when you consider the many positive things California has going for it. Historically, people have flocked to the Golden State for its prosperity, its beauty, its creativity, its diversity and its weather. 

So, what are the primary factors people are giving for leaving the Golden State? I'm no expert, but I would suggest at least 5 Big factors.  

• Cost of Living - the high price of housing and taxation is driving people to cheaper States
• Progressive Politics - California has been a Blue State for years and that doesn't look like changing soon,  which makes Conservatives especially, feel controlled, labelled and claustrophobic. 
• Erosion of Morality  - Many people have a fear that raising kids in a culture that has lost its moral compass is not worth all the beauty and opportunity that California has on offer.
• De-Urbanization - Covid has swiftly reversed the pull that the urban centers of Los Angeles and San Francisco have had as major companies have allowed their employees to work remotely. Why live in expensive cities when you can earn the same and live in a small town in another State?
• Zeitgeist - This one is harder to put your finger on because there's no stat you can point to. But it's in the air. It's where the mind tends to go and where the conversation tends to flow. It's a pervading mood. Basically, it's become fashionable to hate on the Golden State.  

I've written about this extensively before, but Californians by nature, tend to be less rooted and more transient than other people from other places. John Steinbeck, the California native, called it 'an incurable  virus of restlessness. The urge to be some place else.'  The five factors above have simply made our latent virus of restlessness more contagious and it seems like we are at some kind of tipping point. 

It's against this bleak backdrop that we find ourselves fasting through the Book of Joshua as a Church this week. There is a promise from God to his people before they cross the Jordan river into Canaan that, "Every place you set your foot I have given to you. Only, be Strong and Courageous." Of course, there are giants in this land flowing with milk and honey. They have already caused the ten spies' hearts to melt with fear. But God calls Joshua, Caleb, and the people to walk in a different spirit of faith and courage. 

There are significant parallels between Canaan and California. A land flowing with milk and honey and with many giants. There is a great need for the Church in California to recover a theology of place if we are to continue to make disciples of Jesus faithfully in the face of increasing hostility to the gospel. Our call is not to conquest, but to cultivation of gospel fruit in this revival-rich soil, even as the giants loom large. 

 Perhaps our State has lost some of its California Dreaming allure? What is needed then is for the people of God to recover a sense of California Calling. Jesus is still deadly serious about His people fulfilling His Great Commission in this place of promise.  

I see California Calling working itself out in a few different ways. 

• It should involve people calling on the Lord in prayer to awaken and revive California again
• It should  involve Californians consecrating themselves to God's calling on them to make disciples and to 'seek the peace and prosperity of the place where He has carried us into exile.' 
•  It could involve calling people from other States and nations into the mission field of California. 

California Calling should be an ethic that operates in an opposite spirit to California pessimism.  

Why not amplify the beauty, diversity, prosperity and opportunity that is on offer in the Golden State while being discerning about the reality of spiritual and moral giants in the land? Why not change the narrative by speaking well of the place God has called us?

California Calling ultimately amplifies Jesus as the Golden hope of this Golden State.

There is no God forsaken place on the planet unless God’s people have forsaken it.

Who's with me?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/californias-growth-rate-at-record-low-as-more-people-leave.htmly

Turning the Tide on Wednesdays: Revival in a Time of Upheaval

Someone should write a book called "The Four Wednesdays." 

That's what my wise friend, Jonathan Shrader said today. Jonathan is a church planter, but in his past life he was a press secretary on Capitol Hill during the Bush administration. That gave his words a lot more weight. What he was referring to, of course, was the massive upheaval caused by four consecutive Wednesdays in January 2021. 

It began with insurrection on Capitol Hill on the first Wednesday, the impeachment of President Trump on the second, the inauguration of President Biden on the third and the Game Stop Stock Market Surge on the last. These four seismic Wednesdays sent shockwaves through America's political, economic and cultural landscape.  

I am not writing to make commentary on these four Wednesdays or to catastrophize these events.  There has already been enough of that. What I want to do though, is call out the sense of upheaval that they have brought to our already uneasy times.

They have caused a rising tide of fear among us. The sense of faith that God is at work seems to have drained from God's people. Many people are in survival mode just longing for some respite from the relentless wave after wave of bad news. Most pastors I talk to are also in survival mode. They are doing everything in their power to gather the scattered, comfort the grieving and piece together some semblance of unity in congregations that have been shredded by the ripe tide of Covid dissension and political tribalism. Churches are generally hanging on by the skin of their teeth and they expect that 1 in 4 will close in the USA because of these tides. 

So why call our church to study and pray through a 10-week Primer on Revival then when so many are fighting for survival? Isn't that insensitive? Isn't it expecting a bit much? 

I think it all depends on how you think about revival, really. Most Christians have been taught to think of revival as a kind of crescendo of spiritual fervor, in which the strength of the Church and the favor of the culture blend in perfect conditions to create the perfect wave. Yet, if we study the history of revivals we find that they generally occurred when the tide of God's presence was at at its lowest ebb and the tide of culture threatened to engulf the church. Think about it. The very word revival infers that something is about to die and needs to be resuscitated back to life.

Historically, revival starts when a remnant, finding their lives at this low ebb, begins to experience renewal as they cried out to God in desperate faith. This renewal then grows to become a contagious awakening to the presence of God. At some point, by God's mercy, the tide begins to turn and swells to become a tidal wave of God's presence that crashes into a world in upheaval bringing hope and healing.

In that sense, there's never been a better time than now to pray for revival.  

We have been gathering weekly around the Rend the Heavens revival primer in 24 groups humbly asking God to revive us and turn the tide through us. Our group meets in our back yard on Wednesdays. It wasn't planned that way, but it has been so encouraging to sense a rising tide of God's presence despite the waves of upheaval taking place every Wednesday in our world.

 

This primer is aimed to help small groups of people to pray for revival with both faith and wisdom. It explores ten examples of revival in the Bible and connects them with similar contemporary examples in history which will stir people to pray, "Do it again, in our day, Lord!" It is designed with practical prayer prompts and questions for group discussion. We encourage you to gather in any one of the 24 groups on different nights of the week, or perhaps to begin a revival primer group in your church.

We cannot manufacture revival. It is a sovereign act of God. But we can prepare the conditions of our hearts to be ready as the tide begins to turn. We believe that this primer will be a catalyst for a tidal wave of God's presence and healing to flow through the Church and into a world of upheaval.

Rend the Heavens: a primer for revival prayer is available now on Amazon.

 

Fresh Winds and False Winds : discerning when to go and when to stand.

Yesterday was the last Sunday of gathering to worship in the open air. By this coming Sunday we should be meeting under a big tent, which will protect us from the elements and allow us to put up a stage and TV screens.  But yesterday it was blazing hot and blowing a gale and we were exposed to it all; so much so that umbrellas were blown over and people had to stand at each corner of their easy-ups to keep them from blowing away. Meeting outside has definitely brought a new robust grit to our church, for which I'm thankful.  

It seemed appropriate, as we commissioned our Southlands Santa Ana launch team, to do it while these hot Santa Ana winds were blowing. In the midst of these forceful winds I thought of the ways in which the wind can be both disruptive and constructive. The same wind that picks up an umbrella and blows it over can also pick up a seed and carry it to fertile soil where it lands and grows into a tree. 

Jesus, when explaining to Nicodemus what life would be like for those who followed Him said, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. So it is with those born of the Spirit." (John 3:18)

When God blows with the wind of His Spirit, it is both disruptive and constructive. Among the Santa Ana launch team, people have allowed God to uproot them from one place to be planted in another for the sake of gospel. They have invited the disruption of moving house or changing jobs and saying gospel good-byes to friends they love. They've done this because they realize the disruption will be constructive as the wind carries the seeds of the gospel to grow and bear fruit in a new city. 

It's no use resenting the disruption when the wind blows. I mean, this is a crazy time to be planting a church. Most churches are fighting for survival and here we are sending valuable people out to start a new congregation! It's a risk, of course, but we have been praying and planning into this risk for over year now. And we sense the fresh wind of the Spirit blowing. So it seems best just to hoist our sails and  allow the wind to carry us along. If we are to allow God's wind to do constructive things at this time we have to allow it to be disruptive. In Acts 8, the winds of persecution caused a scattering of disciples which caused a spreading of the Word of God. The disruption was constructive. 

Of course, we should not be carried along by every wind. Some winds are not constructive at all. They  are destructive false winds. We must brace ourselves against them so that we are not 'tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.' (Ephesians 4:14)  There are destructive false gospels blowing across the Church in these days. We must discern them and stand against them. The winds of Progressive Liberalism will likely blow more strongly with the upcoming change of president and government.  We must find grace to honor and pray for our new President, whether we voted for him or not, to bring unity to a divided nation. We can do this while resisting the likely erosion of religious liberty, Biblical sexual ethics and the sanctity of marriage and life in the womb. On the other hand, we must also stand against the winds of Christian Nationalism that seek to co-opt Jesus for their political ends. This is a subtle but violent wind that is carrying many Christians away as they reduce Jesus' kingdom to their vision for the nation.  This article by PJ Smyth on a-newcomers-guide-to-christian-nationalism is helpful. We have to avoid both political extremes as Christ followers.  As C.S. Lewis wrote, "The devil always sends errors into the world in pairs--pairs of opposites...He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them." No doubt, we must also keep standing against the winds of Nominalism, with its false doctrine of cheap grace and vision of Jesus as Savior, but not Lord. These winds must not blow us off track. We must stand our ground against them as we 'contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.' (Jude 24) 

Finally, we must remember that the wind has the power either to extinguish or energize a fire. For many of us, the winds of adversity have almost extinguished the flame of faith and passion for Jesus. But God promises that 'a smoldering wick he will not snuff out until justice is led to victory.'(is 42:6) He is more than able to energize the flickering wick of our souls that once burned brightly with the fresh wind. God is mercifully on the move, reviving His Church when it is at it's most feeble! This is a time to allow the fresh wind of God's Spirit to 'fan into flame the gift of God that is within us through the laying on of hands.' ( 2 Tim 1:6) 

As Keith Green sang all those years ago, 

Oh Lord, please light the fire, That once burned bright and clear.

Replace the lamp of my first love, That burns with Holy fear

I also love this more recent song called Fresh Wind around the same theme.

As we begin our 9 week focus on praying for revival by signing up for a micro-revival group, let's pray together that God's fresh wind would help us to fan into flame the smoldering wick of our passion for Jesus that would lead to a blazing fire of revival. 

May His wind be a friend to our fire. 

'Grant us a little Reviving' : A Prayer for Revival that doesn't Freak me out.

I once took part in a week long fast during which people prayed day and night for revival up in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. All I can remember of the time was feeling really hungry and a little freaked out. Because of that, the idea of praying for revival conjures up images of many loud prayers and many loud preachers, waving big black bibles and making big promises in a dusty tent, and a hollow sense of anti-climax, because nothing really happened. Because of those memories, I generally steer clear of praying for revival for fear of hyping people into a kind of  expectation that inevitably ends in jadedness.

I'm nervous of an overly Pentecostal approach to prayer that expects God to change everything in one sudden, cataclysmic moment. Truth be told, I've found much of the life of prayer is about inheriting the promises of God little by little through faith and patience.  However, I'm equally nervous of the more popular Contemplative approach to prayer that insists all change must be slow and gradual. Biblically and in Church history, we have to acknowledge that there were times when God did in fact come and dramatically change everything for His people in an instant. These times were described as Revivals, and God wants us to persist in praying for a suddenly;  a dramatic in-breaking of His power and mercy, even while we labor in the slowlies. God is the God of slowlies and suddenlies.

Today in the book of Ezra, I found a prayer for revival I can pray without nervousness. It is so beautifully understated. Twice, Ezra uses the phrase, "Grant us a little reviving." He is not asking for God to come down and build the temple all by Himself. There is not an ounce of abdication in Ezra's prayer.  It is prayed before Israel return from exile to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and they know that it will not be done over-night. So they are asking to be revived so that they can re-build. 

Ezra prayed that God would revive His people by satisfaction, for mission and for re-building.  

1.  Revived by Satisfaction 'That our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery" 9:8  This  request comes off the back of Israel's repentance from idolatry. It is a prayer for personal revival. When Saul's son Jonathan ate from honeycomb after battle in 1 Samuel 14, he said, "See how my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of that honey." Ezra borrows from this idea, praying that Israel would not only be cleansed from their sin, but that they would turn to God and be revived by Him as they feast on the honey of His goodness. Revival begins as God's people are broken out of  slavery to sin and find satisfaction in Jesus.  

2.  Revived for Mission 'Our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia.' v 9 Can we see how God is taking His people's eyes off their own slavery and has started to set it on doing a work in their city? This is a key in revival, where our satisfaction in Jesus turns to a desire for transformation in our cities.  This desire was met with  favor from 'the kings of Persia.' Note that favor with those in authority does not mean we automatically get a Christian government. The Babylonian empire did not become Jewish, but their king looked favorably upon the Jewish exiles and granted them finance and permission to carry out their mission. This is something we can be praying for the Church, not necessarily that we would be in positions of power, but that we would experience favor with authorities rather than persecution.  "Pray for those in authority that we may have  live quiet and godly lives. This is pleasing to God who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim 2:3-4)   It could be argued that revival begins when the Church is free to get on with the job of being the Church, proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel in all sectors of society, re-building the city's ruins. This includes a harvest of salvation, the upholding of godly values throughout society, and a rise of mercy and justice in the face of corruption and oppression. 

3. Revived for Re-building "Grant us some reviving to set up the house of God and to repair it's ruins."

The returning exiles not only re-built the city walls, they also rebuilt the temple; the house of God. This parallels God's purpose for His Church to be restored to a place of His glory. A glorious church experiences a restoration of robust gospel proclamation and a demonstration of the Spirit's power that results in a harvest. Worship is restored to reverent passion and community becomes authentic, sacrificial and bold. Revival must include a revival of the builders of the church.  Let's ask that God would energize us to be builders.    

This prayer is so faith-filled, yet so responsible. No freak show here. Just an earnest plea for revival.
Let's pray it together. 

God-sized prayers. God-shaped rhythms

There's a wall in our children's ministry area with the words God-Sized Prayers written on it. Each child has been asked to write one God-sized prayer request on it that they pray for during 2016. My son's prayer request is for our friend Bob to be healed of Motor-Neuron Disease. One girl prayed for her siblings to come to faith, another for the homeless in our city to be fed. As usual, our kids lead the way in faith.

Towards the end of last year as we preached through the book of Ephesians, God got our attention about our tendency to pray survival prayers. The Apostle Paul reminded the church in Ephesus of God's powerful prayer-answering ability, calling them to pray beyond their own needs and beyond their own life-times.  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you can ask or imagine, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever Amen. (3:20) 

Of course, our Father hears our desperate prayers for survival, because He graciously cares for every detail of our lives. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, Give us this day our daily bread. But He taught them to pray, Your kingdom come before and after that! He was shaping their prayers to go from the tyranny of their self-centered urgency to the priority of God's grand, eternal reign. From the above-mentioned verse, one might describe God-sized prayer as "Prayer, empowered by the Spirit and emboldened by our position in Christ, that confidently asks God to show His glory through the church in ways that exceed our imagination and outlast our generation, for the sake of Christ's fame." Perhaps this kind of prayer is less about survival and more about revival? What if we asked God to help us pray more like this in 2016?

And what about God-shaped rhythms? While Paul viewed God as Sovereign, this didn't breed any sense of prayer passivity in him. He said that we needed Christ's power to pray these God-sized  prayers. He also said, "I keep asking God," knowing that this kind of prayer required perseverance. Jesus famously told the prayer parables of the persistent widow and neighbor who kept asking, seeking and knocking. (Luke 11) He told these so that we should pray and not give up. Praying God-sized prayers requires power and perseverance from God himself,  because we so easily retreat into small, survival prayers through defeat or delay.

When a distraught father brought a son suffering with epilepsy to Jesus for healing, he said that the disciples were not able to heal him. After Jesus had cast out the demon and healed the boy, the disciples asked him in private, "Why were we not able to cast it out?" and His answer to them was, "This kind only comes out only through prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29) The disciples had seen people healed and delivered before as they prayed. But this particular situation seemed to be a mountain that could not be moved. Jesus' solution was to call them to greater private prayer for the sake of greater public power. It is not a neat formula.We ultimately rely on God's sovereign grace. But God-shaped rhythms of prayer and fasting do empower God-sized prayers.

As a church we pray together the second Wednesday of each month at 133, and fast together twice a year for three days. These times have been absolutely indispensable to our life as a church over the years. They are like the engine room of a ship, bringing heat, power and forward momentum. We will continue to fast twice a year, but have felt prompted in 2016, to fast once a month on the day of 133, in response to Jesus' words, "This kind only comes out through prayer and fasting." We are not doing this to twist God's arm. We simply believe that as we fast and pray together consistently, He is wanting to empower us to pray beyond survival towards revival,  confident that He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. Won't you join us this Wednesday the 13th January, as we fast and gather at 6:30pm at our Brea campus to pray.