A CALL TO EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER
By Steve Nation
Christian Focus. 111 pages. £5.99
ISBN 978 1 527 100 893
The great challenge for the contemporary church is to pray. It’s not about preaching, but first about praying.
The situation is summed up in a telling paragraph in the middle of this excellent book: ‘Prayerlessness is a mark of someone who is not taking the Bible seriously, nor the life God calls us to. One implication of this for many of our Bible-believing, gospel-declaring churches is a much needed rebuke. Contrary to prevailing opinion, churches that are strong on sound theology and expository preaching, yet poor in prayer, are not strong churches, but weak. They are weak because there is a distinct lack of trust in God, reliance on God, humility before God.’ And so it is that so many of the churches of our country are involved in a zero-sum game. They grow, not by conversions, but by taking people from other churches. There is much activity at the human level, but little from above.
