A People’s Prayer Summit?

This post was written by Senior Pastor Dave Gadoury

A number of Rhode Island pastors, including me, are convinced of the need in our area for a renewed church culture and a united, prayer-bathed movement across denominational lines that is very intentional about three simple things:

• Praying for those without Jesus
• Putting feet to their prayers by practical demonstrations of the caring love of Jesus
• Sharing the gospel of Jesus person to person through those caring relationships

For seven years, more than 70 Rhode Island pastors have met together for multi-day times of prayer seeking God’s face. As a result, they have come to believe that something God would use to bring about these changes is to give the “people in the pew” the opportunity to experience the same joy of united worship that they have found in their Pastors’ Prayer Summits and follow-up prayer breakfasts. This month, the third “People’s Prayer Summit” will be held – this one hosted at our own church on September 25.

The need for this kind of concerted prayer is apparent when you consider the challenges facing our churches. Part of the problem is us, and part of it has to do with the environment in which we serve. If we are honest, we must admit that too many of the churches of our area, including ours, are:
• Fragmented (i.e., functioning separately in our spheres: / suburban vs. urban / white vs. minorities / community vs. community)
• Inwardly focused (i.e., overwhelmed with our own congregation challenges, problems, and programs, rather than being more broadly kingdom-oriented with an eye on what God is doing in and through us corporately for His work in our state/region)
• Resistant to change (i.e., more than most, we are slow to adopt new approaches to ministry and mission, partly due to our Yankee stubbornness, of which the statue on the top of our capital, “The Independent Man” is emblematic.)
• Fortressed (i.e. perhaps because our numbers are so small and our message so unusual in our community, we tend to think about our community with an “us vs. them” mentality rather than a “Love your neighbor as yourself” mentality).

As we look beyond ourselves to consider the challenges of fruitfully sharing the gospel, we recognize that the populace of Rhode Island is:
• Highly secularized, liberal, and hostile to institutional religion, and/or…
• Heavily Roman Catholic (i.e., so self-identified, whether nominally or devoted), and…
• Especially negative in their perceptions about evangelicals, who are viewed as right-wing, marginal, and/or irrelevant.

What will it take to change the spiritual climate and see the kingdom of God make a significant advance in our region? I believe that it will require the following:

1. A broader and more meaningful engagement of pastors with each other in mutually supportive prayer, transparency, discussion, and an openness to fresh ways of thinking about leadership and ministry.

2. A new understanding of the need of local churches to become engaged with the communities in which they live through significant ministries of compassion and service. This engagement must be grounded both in our understanding of our calling to manifest the love of God to the world around us, and also in our realization that gospel witness must combine demonstration with proclamation to be heard in our community.

3. A commitment of these spiritual leaders to forming meaningful partnerships with each other for the cause of Christ. Such partnership will link ministries within cities and towns with each other, suburban congregations with urban and ethnic churches, and smaller and under-resourced congregations with larger ones.

One way YOU can help bring these about is to participate yourself in a People’s Prayer Summit. Please make plans to attend on September 25!