Praying for Church Restoration
I was sitting in a training for church planters and leaders when all of a sudden phones started buzzing all around me. It wasn’t an emergency alert; it was a call to prayer. These pastors and church leaders have made it a practice to set their alarms for 10:02 each day to pray for, “The Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest field.” (Luke 10:2). At that moment, the speaker paused and invited all to stand as he led the room in a short two sentence prayer that God would raise up more pastors and leaders to reach people with the gospel. The prayer was not seen as an interruption but rather was treated as the most important work that could be done at that time. As I witnessed this corporate moment of prayer, I felt the Lord reminding me that prayer is our most important work at Restor(y) as well. This group was praying for the starting of more churches, at Restor(y) we are being called to pray for the restoration of the church, for the healing of those who have experienced church trauma, and for the equipping and training of pastors that they might be more trauma informed in their ministry.
A core verse that guides our work at Restor(y) is a promise found in Jeremiah 23:4. In this section of scripture, God has just confronted the corrupt leaders of Israel. They have not shepherded the people, they have neglected them. In many ways, it is a description of spiritual abuse. God addresses the trauma that has been inflicted on his people by the leaders and then he speaks words of promise. He says, “I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.” In this verse, God speaks healing. He notes that he will raise up shepherds who will tend to the sheep. Here at Restor(y) we call those trauma informed pastors. Then God says he will ensure that people will no longer be afraid or terrified. Oh how we long for the day when people are no longer afraid or terrified by the church, when spiritual abuse no longer exists, when church trauma is a phrase of the past. We work dilligently for this at Restor(y). Then, and maybe most beautiful of all, God declares that no one will be missing. What a powerful picture of the restoration of the church: all the people of God gathered together in healthy congregations that are truly living as the body of Christ. How we yearn to see that promise fulfilled!
As we work for the restoration of the church, we need to remember that God has already promised it will be so, we are simply joining him in the work he is doing. To help us remember this, I am inviting all of us to the Jeremiah 23:4 prayer, or the 2:34 prayer. I invite us to set our phone alarms for 2:34pm and every day, wherever we find ourselves, at work, in the car, at home, to pause and offer a sentence prayer asking God to fulfill this promise here and now. It is a time to pray for the healing of those who have experienced church trauma, for pastors who will lead in ways that are healthy, and for God to restore his church. Will you join us in earnestly praying to God for his fulfillment of the promise he has made to his people? What a beautiful sight it would be to see a room full of people with alarms going off at 2:34 to pray for the restoration of the church an an end to spiritual abuse. What a powerful sight that would be! I hope you will join us.
