Toward the Goal of Being a Praying Church

Luke's account in the book of Acts shows that prayer was a central aspect of the "communion of saints" in the early Church. No doubt the individual believers were given to personal prayer, but the Church's corporate gatherings were also commonly characterized by extended seasons of prayer. The early Church was a community bound together by prayer and this unity in prayer nurtured the saints' intimacy and growth in Christ. Such prayer was central to the Church's early life, and yet it is woefully absent today. And its absence is reflected in (and reflects) the overall individualistic character and orientation of the contemporary American Church. If the Church would fulfill its identity and calling, it must once again become a community bound together in prayer.