Our task in Co-Mission is to reach London by planting churches for Christ. This goal defines us in everything we do. However, while this goal is clear, it will be very difficult to fulfill it. For a start, our city is big and complex. There is so much spiritual apathy in the population. We are already opposed by strongly entrenched worldviews – and spiritual warfare rages around us. We have a cunning enemy.  Reaching London is really very tough.

All this means that we need to be doing some serious prayer. Of course, we need to plan well and strategise effectively to plant churches, but actually our major tactic has to be a lot of time on our knees. We are using the phrase ‘extraordinary prayer’ as a tagline to stress this. The point is that gospel preaching and church planting will require an unusual commitment to prayer – prayerfulness above and beyond what feels normal or ‘reasonable’. This is a challenge for our whole network and a call to every church and every person. We all need to be seeking God with some level of fervency.

So, how can we move towards this?

We need to see prayerlessness as a problem

It’s very easy to treat prayerlessness as an ‘acceptable sin’, largely because it’s a sin of omission and so flies under the radar. We don’t notice it, and soon forget it all together. However, in Daniel 6, the story of the lion’s den, we find a great antidote (have a read of it!). There, Daniel, effectively an old age pensioner, prefers the risk of being torn limb from limb by lions than to neglect his daily prayer time:

‘Then they said to the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.”’ (Daniel 6:13)

For Daniel, prayerlessness was more dangerous than being eaten alive! He definitely didn’t view it as an acceptable sin. If we want an even stronger motivation, let’s consider the Son of God himself. Surely, if there’s anyone who could’ve left off praying, it was him. Do I need to pray less than Jesus?!

We need neediness

I used to think that prayerfulness was all about being self-controlled, well-planned and disciplined. I’m not too bad at doing those things, but they weren’t enough to get me on my knees. I’ve found that neediness is a far more potent motivation than self discipline:

‘Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; Lord, hear my voice.’

Psalm 130:1

Desperation in life, ministry and church planting is brilliant rocket fuel for prayer. Pride and self-reliance, on the other hand, is the fast-track to prayerlessness. If we can, as a network, mentally bottle our neediness, we’ll pray.

We need to have our eyes opened to the spiritual war around us

Reaching London is fundamentally a spiritual war, and not simply a matter of deployment and fundraising. There are principalities and powers arrayed against us:

‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’ (Ephesians 6:12). 

If we are to have any chance against this darkness, we’ll need to spend a lot of time on our knees seeking spiritual power. By way of a negative example, think of the disciples in Mark 9:14-29. They’ve been trying to do an exorcism but haven’t been successful. Then Jesus comes along and immediately drives out the demon, and the disciples are full of wonder and ask how he did it. Jesus simply says:

‘He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”’

Mark 9:29

The implication is that the disciples had been attempting an exorcism without prayer. While that obviously seems to be a very stupid strategy, are we too not guilty of it? Don’t we also seek to share the gospel, witness, follow Jesus and serve without much prayer at all? But, Co-Mission can’t fight Satan without prayer. We need to open our eyes to spiritual realities and warfare, and, when we do that, we will find it an excellent motivator to seek God’s face:

‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.’ (Ephesians 6:18).

Let’s pray!

In a very real sense we will have to become a movement of prayer if we are to be a movement of church planting. We reach London and plant churches on our knees. So let’s pray fervently. Pray that the kingdom of darkness would be overwhelmed. Pray that we might be fearless and that a door would open for the gospel. Pray for everyone involved in our network involved in planting churches. Pray for the leadership of our network that they would plan and strategise carefully. Pray that God would show you what your role in all of this should be. Pray that resources and money would come. Pray that your own church might be given ideas and creativity for the future. Pray for other networks in our city that God would bless them and use them. Let’s seek the Lord for our city.

‘Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances.’ 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

With a whole network on its knees, who knows what the Lord might just do?