The walls of Jericho ultimately fell down because having heard from God, people obeyed God, marching around the city for a week, blasting trumpets and shouting.
The early church grew because Paul prayed day and night, then got out on a boat, escaped from jail and kept preaching the Gospel even if it put his life in danger, which it did again and again.
Jesus prayed all night long and then went out from city to city encountering people in a way that changed their lives and the world.
All of this kind of sounds like strategy doesn’t it?
Interestingly enough, the scripture is filled with strategy if you look for it.
I haven’t become an atheist. I agree that the church needs more prayer and I believe all authentic, effective ministry is rooted in prayer.
But saying “All we need to do is pray” really misses how God works.
If all we needed to do was pray, we could lock ourselves in a closet and never come out. But I’m not sure that’s how God has moved historically.
What begins in prayer should end in some kind of action, because prayer without action lacks courage.
As Augustine said, pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you.
2. Leadership Cop-Outs: We’re Just Being Faithful
I’ve seen too many leaders behave like faithfulness and effectiveness are mutually exclusive.
They’re not.
Just because you’re being effective doesn’t mean you’re being faithful, but just because you’re being faithful doesn’t mean you’ll be ineffective.
And yet time and again I’ve seen leaders use faithfulness to justify a lack of fruitfulness.
