If you weren’t with us in our Fresh Encounter meeting Sunday night, you missed a special time. God touched us, I believe, and I trust that it is just the beginning of more special times in church-wide prayer.

Some may ask, Why this emphasis on church-wide prayer? Isn’t personal prayer enough?

Let me quote Gene Getz in something he wrote back in 1982 in his book, Praying For One Another.

“It is understandable why so much has been written and presented on personal prayer. But why have we neglected the corporate emphasis on prayer found in the Book of Acts and the Epistles? Since this biblical content relates specifically to the life of the church, the body of Christ, it’s here we discover the most releveant biblical teaching on prayer for 20th century Christians.

The answer, I believe, relates to our culture and how it has influenced biblical interpretation. The hallmark of Western civilization has been rugged individualism. Because of our philosophy of life, we are used to the personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘my’ and ‘me.’ We have not been taught to think in terms of ‘we’ and ‘our’ and ‘us.’ Consequently, we individualize many references to corporate experience in the New Testament, thus often emphasizing personal prayer.

The facts are that more is said in the Book of Acts and the Epistles about corporate prayer, corporate learning of biblical truth, corporate evangelism, and corporate Christian maturity and growth than about the personal aspects of these Christian disciplines.

Don’t misunderstand. Both are intricately related. But the personal dimensions of Christianity are difficult to maintain and practice consistently unless they grow out of a proper corporate experience on a regular basis.”

Food for thought. It challenges us Americans and the way we think about prayer. But I believe that, for the most part, Getz is correct. And if he is, then our praying together is vitally important.