Introduction

He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

2 Corinthians 1:10-11

First, thank you for navigating to this prayer journey. By even opening this up it shows that you are willing to support Central City! We are humbled to be on this journey with so many wonderful people like you.

As you can guess, we can’t do this without God’s help. We are trusting that God will be present and help us every step of the way. In fact, we are doing this because it is clear that this is where God is calling us to. As the saying goes, where God calls, God will equip. And so we move forward trusting that God will equip.  

This is where you come in. We need your prayer.

We aren’t just saying this. We need it. Seriously.

We need people like you to fall on their knees, and plead with God on our behalf. We need people to fast and to pray. We need people to intercede for us.

Will you pray? With all your heart, soul, and strength?

You will? Good. Again. Thank you.

Now: What should you pray about? That’s a great question. We know that there are some things we need prayer for consistently. What follows are 11 brief devotionals that examine some of the core issues we hope you will pray about.

We truly appreciate your commitment to pray. In the words of Paul, “many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”

Sincerely,

Joe and Allyssa Graves

Pray for Opportunities

“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Revelation 3:7-8 NIV

Open doors vs. closed door

There are a lot of factors that go into a church trying to accomplish God's mission. We have to find a location that works, meet hundreds of new people, learn about a new community, share the Gospel, disciple others, and organize everyone into a worshiping body. With each of these topics, there are hundreds of variables. As this passage suggests, we are ultimately weak people. We don’t have the strength to do this on our own.

We started this church because God called us to, and without God it would be impossible. We need God more than ever before. In order to see this church continue to grow, we need God to open some doors and shut others.

The greatest gift that God can give a church or a ministry or an individual is not comfort, wealth, health, or security. The greatest gift is the gift of an open door.

We honestly believe that God has placed an open door before us. And if God opens the door, there is nothing that anyone can do to shut it. This is why we are asking that you pray. Pray that God continues to open doors. But we don’t just want open doors. We need some closed doors too.

In fact, the second greatest gift is a closed door.

We know that God will shut a lot of doors during the process of church planting. Closed doors present a different set of opportunities. Closed doors are the way that God pushes us toward better opportunities. It's a way for us to experience the opportunity for patience, wisdom, and hope. And it’s a way God clarifies his vision in us.

So pray that our leaders have patience to wait not just for opportunities, but for the right opportunities. And pray that they would have the wisdom to know the difference. Pray that God may instill in our leaders such a profound hope that they will never get discouraged, even when God seems to be closing a door. In fact, together, we are relying on God to do amazing things. Let’s join together and pray to God for the gift of opportunity!

Pray for Our Community

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Jeremiah 29:4-7 NIV

Seeking other people’s prosperity

The Israelites were living in exile. They had been taken from their home, forced to live as slaves in a rather hostile environment, which makes this passage all the more profound. In Jeremiah, God writes a letter to his people living in Exile with the promise that in time, all would be made well (Jeremiah 29:11). Along with a number of other things, he tells them that they should seek the prosperity of the city they had been carried off to.

The city to which they had been carried was filled with their enemies. The city was made up of slave masters who had stolen them from their homes and their families. They were the people Israel had been at war with. Yet, that didn’t change God’s heart. It had always been God’s plan to use the people of Israel to bless the nations. So while it wasn’t ideal that they were stuck in exile, God decided to use it anyway. He tells them to settle down—to get married, plant gardens, and make it their home. They were to let go of their past country and embrace this new country as their home.

We’re planting a church in a new community. The Israelites were carried to their new place because of war; we are carried to our new place because of love. We plan to love our new community. More than that, we are hoping to fall in love with this new community as much as, if not more than, our current community. The words of Jeremiah still apply: We are headed somewhere new, and our prayer is that the place we are headed to is better off because we’re there. We want to seek the prosperity of the city we are being drawn to.

We are starting out as just visitors, with so much to learn. We don’t assume that our presence will be a blessing, and we have no intentions of being saviors to our new community. Instead, we pray that God would bless the city we are headed to.

Would you join with us and pray for our new community? Pray that God blesses it. Pray that God helps our team to truly settle into this community; leaving the past behind and fully embracing the place we are carried off to. Pray that God helps our community to prosper, and our new church along with it. 

Pray for Volunteers

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:36-38 NIV

The harvest is plentiful

This verse provides a simple formula for preparing future leaders of the church. It starts with two simple facts. First, the harvest is plentiful. Second, the workers are few. 

When you think about it, as painful as it is, these two facts have always been true. There is so much to do!

There are millions of people throughout the world who have not had an authentic opportunity to learn about the goodness of Jesus. The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few.

These two facts are at the heart of what it means to plant churches. There is a great opportunity, and there is a great need for workers!

There are a lot of different ways to recruit new leaders. But if we read just a little bit further, Jesus gives us the ultimate action step for getting more leaders to serve. It’s a simple command: Pray. That’s it. That’s what God gives us. He just says we should pray that the Father would send workers into the field. In fact, this is the only other prayer Jesus instructs his disciples to prayer besides the Lord’s prayer. One might say this is the “neglected prayer.”

It’s humbling to realize that we can’t be the ones to send workers into the field.

There is no such thing as human-recruitment for a God-sized mission. We don’t own the field, so we can’t hire the laborers. Ministry only happens when God does the sending. So our responsibility is simply to pray. Our responsibility is to ask. We have to plead with God, that the Lord would send workers into the field.

Please consider praying that God would lay on the hearts of people at our church, and in our new community, an urge to step up and to help lead this new church start. Pray that God would send workers to help make new disciples. 

Pray for Boldness

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Ephesians 6:18-20 NIV

Plainly and publically

One of the hallmarks of the early church’s ministry in the book of Acts was boldness (Acts 4:13, 29, 31, 28:31). They fearlessly and boldly proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Boldness carries a little bit of baggage in the American church. When we say “boldness”, you might think of things like arrogance, confrontation, or angry street preachers. Rather, we prefer compassion and sensitivity in place of boldness. Yet, when we study boldness in the original Greek, there’s a deeper and more beautiful meaning at work.

In Greek, the word for boldness didn’t originally mean boldness at all. In fact, it literally meant, “freedom of speech.” The reality is that there is no such thing as perfect freedom of speech, because even if someone in authority gives you permission to say what you want, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to like it. Thus, the word for “freedom of speech” in Greek began to carry with it a connotation of boldness—or the willingness to speak freely even in the face of opposition or when it’s unwelcome.

In Jesus’ ministry, this word boldness is used to differentiate between the times when Jesus would speak in riddles or parables, and the times that He spoke more plainly or publically. The Greek word that is translated as “boldness” in Acts is often translated in the gospels as “publicly” or “plainly.” In this sense, it means more than just boldness. It’s used to describe the kind of speech that is plain, simple, and public. It’s the kind of speech that is free from riddles—speech that is not confusing.

This kind of boldness is something that Paul longed for often. It wasn’t something that came naturally to him. It wasn’t something he could talk himself into. It wasn’t something he could get himself hyped up for. He didn’t have boldness because he overdosed on caffeine. He viewed boldness as a gift of the Spirit. He viewed it as something that came as a result of prayer.

In three places, in three different letters, he specifically asked that he might have this kind of boldness (Eph. 6:19-20, Phil. 1:20, 1 Thess. 2:2). He prayed for it, and he asked others to pray for it on his behalf.

If you study these passages, you’ll see that Paul longed for, prayed for, and trusted in God to give him the gift of boldness: the supernatural ability to speak plainly, publically, and without fear, the good news of Jesus Christ.

Would you pray that our launch team may have this same kind of boldness to speak plainly, publically, and without fear? Pray that God will give us opportunity to proclaim publically and plainly the Good News of Jesus Christ. Pray that we never become complacent or arrogant, indifferent or too confident; but that we would speak plainly and humbly about the God we serve. 

Pray for Miracles

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Acts 4:29-30 NIV

Signs and wonders

“Signs and Wonders” were another one of the hallmarks of the early church.

Throughout Paul’s missionary journeys, God uses him to perform signs and wonders. If you’ve ever read the book of Acts you might become impressed with Paul and think there was something special or unique about him. Like many Christians before you, you might aspire to be like him or even think of him as a hero of the church. But I want to challenge you to recognize that Paul, himself, would tell you that he was a human, just like us. In fact, I don’t think there was anything terribly unique about Paul.

It is no coincidence that boldness and signs and wonders became the hallmark of Paul’s ministry. It wasn’t by accident. It wasn’t unintentional. It wasn’t simply because Paul was that kind of leader. Rather, I think these things became the hallmark of his leadership because it was something the early church prayed for. If we go all the way back to the beginning of Acts, listen to what they pray for:

“Now, Lord… Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:29)

Before Paul was even a Christian, the early church was praying that it would be a church that performed signs and wonders. Paul came to Christ within a church prayed-up.

We can’t plant a church without God’s intervention. We trust that God will use our church to transform the lives of people, providing healing and hope where there was none. We hope God will provide the perfect location, and help us meet the budget to pay for this location. We are praying that God will do more than we could ever think or imagine. And when God works even the smallest details out, while we could easily explain them away, we will choose to give God all the praise and glory.

Will you pray that God would perform signs and wonders in our midst? Will you pray that God would work miracles in this new church start? Will you pray that God will be with us in a big way? Would you pray that God might work in ways we never thought possible?

Pray for our Location

Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

Acts 18:7-8 NIV

Looking for an open door—literally.

Throughout Paul’s ministry, he used a couple of typical places to launch new churches. First, he would often go to a synagogue, which was the local Jewish place of worship. If he were in an area that didn’t have a strong Jewish presence, he would often go to the marketplace or to places used for political debate. Whether he went to the synagogue or the marketplace, Paul went to places where people were already gathering to reach them where they were.

After reaching a few, he would often organize new believers into smaller groups in local homes. They would move from a large group to a small group, and the church would grow from there. To make this work, there needed to be a public gathering place to teach in, and a private gathering place to grow in.

In many ways, this is how people still plant churches. We need a public place to gather a large number of people, and we need homes to disciple people in smaller groups.

When we launch weekly services, we want to be able to organize people into a worshiping body. To do this, we need a location that works for us and for those we want to reach. We want something that is easy to access, has plenty of room, and has the atmosphere that will connect with people who are disillusioned with church.

Along with a worship location, like the Apostle Paul, we want to organize people into small groups in people’s homes. We know that, in general, people’s spiritual growth happens in circles not rows.

In other words, we need a public gathering place for worship and we need homes for small groups.

From the experiences of others, I know that finding the right location is the one thing that causes the most sleepless nights. It is also where people get to see God move in the most miraculous ways. So, we’re inviting you to join us in this faith-filled time of prayer. Pray that God would open the door for the perfect location for us to reach people for Christ. And pray that God would move the hearts of our people to open up their homes for small groups.

Pray for Cooperation

An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”

“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

Luke 9:46-50 (NIV)

Cooperation vs. Competition

Competition seems to run in our blood. We are people who love to be the best, even at the expense of others. While the kingdom of God is meant to be above this sort of petty conflict, the truth is, we are not.

The first disciples argued amongst themselves as to who was the greatest. They were insecure about their position in God’s kingdom, and so they debated with each other about who was nearest the top. Jesus uses the absolute vulnerability of children to show them what a real hero in God’s kingdom looks like.

And yet, the disciples didn’t pick up on what Jesus was talking about. Not only were they arguing about who was great amongst them, they were also threatened by others who were doing work in Jesus’ name. They asked Jesus if they should tell the others to stop.

Their question shows their bias and presuppositions. They can’t imagine a world where God would work in someone other than themselves. They can’t imagine a world where they aren’t the center of it.

At the heart of competition in the church is the belief that God has chosen “me” more than “you.”

This isn’t true, which Jesus makes very clear. He tells them, rather profoundly, that if someone isn’t against you, then they are for you.

When we plant a church, there is no doubt that there will be other Christians across the way who watch what we are doing. They might wonder if we should really be doing what we’re doing. We might be insecure of each other’s success, and wonder why God is working through them in a way God isn’t working through us. We might struggle with a spirit of competition. But our prayer is that we won’t.

Will you pray that God gives us a generous spirit of cooperation? We want to work alongside other organizations, churches, and ministries—not against them. Will you pray that God gives ministries in our new location a spirit of cooperation? We really want to be welcomed into the conversation and find some great ministries with which to partner.

Pray that God opens the door for cooperation, not competition. 

Pray for Divine Appointments

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Acts 8:26-31 NIV

The right conversation at the right time

Philip was sent out into the wilderness and, while there, he encounters someone who wanted to learn more about God. This Eunuch was the ultimate seeker. He was curious. He was trying to figure out who this God was. And at just the right time, God brought Philip around to explain it. This is the perfect example of a divine appointment.

We’re praying that God gives us hundreds of divine appointments like this. We know that a church plant will not succeed without plenty of divine appointments.

In Columbus, 81% of the population does not think it’s important to attend a religious service, but 44% consider themselves spiritual. In other words, there are hundreds of thousands of people who do not attend any church but consider themselves spiritual. They might be curious. They might have questions. They might even be seeking.

Today, the vast majority of people who currently don’t attend church were once active in a local church. In other words, most of the people who are not attending church once attended church and stopped for some reason. Our hope is to meet these people.

We believe our faith community is uniquely equipped to reach and disciple people who have had negative experiences with a church. We believe that God is going to arrange divine appointments with people who are spiritual but not religious. We believe that if we pray for divine appointments, God will connect our church to random, unexplainable encounters with people at the right moment for God to transform their life.

Will you pray that God will provide hundreds of divine appointments like the one between Philip and the Eunuch? Will you pray that God will push our leaders out into the community and onto the desert roads, as the Spirit leads?

Pray for Our Leaders

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.

Colossians 1:9-10 NIV

This is going to be tough

Everything that I’ve ever read about church planting suggests that it’s one of the hardest things a pastor can do. I was listening to a pastor speak once about his life and ministry. He was a pastor of a rather large church that was, at one time, a new church start. He said once that he would do anything for God yet, he hopes that God never asks him to plant another church. He said that he barely survived the first three years of the church start, and this is not an uncommon story amongst people who launch new churches.

Here are a couple of reasons why this is so:

First, new church starts are, in a lot of ways, like any other start-up. It’s a challenge just like any entrepreneurial experience. You are expected to do a lot with few resources. You are building things from the ground up. There’s a lot of work and money that goes into something that is not necessarily guaranteed to succeed.

But second, it’s also a spiritual endeavor. Whatever you believe about the nature of spiritual warfare and however it works, church planting is clearly on the front lines. So not only do church planters wrestle with all the stressors of a start-up, they also have an intense spiritual battle, wrestling with spirits of insecurity, doubt, fear, and a variety of other exhausting pressures.

In short, our leaders need your prayers.

Pray that God would protect them and give them an unexplainable confidence in God’s ability to provide. Pray that God fills them with hope as work is done to open the doors necessary to move forward. Pray that our leaders commit to making room for rest, that they would take a day off each week and find time to separate themselves from the pressure of starting a church. Pray that their identity and value as a person would not become wrapped up in the success or failure of the church plant. 

Pray for Humility

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

Success vs. failure

We are praying that we are a successful church plant. In the first month of weekly services, we would love to be worshiping an average of 100 people. In the first three years, we would love to grow to 400 people. It’s a lofty goal, and it’s possible that it won’t happen, but that is how we are praying. We trust God can do amazing things when we remain faithful and trust in God’s miracles.

As much as we hope to be successful, and as hard as we’re going to work to make it happen, there’s actually something worse that could happen than falling short of these goals. There’s something worse than failing.

“What could be worse than failing?” you might ask.

Well, that’s simple. We could actually succeed.

It’s true, success can actually be more dangerous than failing.

If we succeed in filling our church with people, but we do it by cutting corners and hurting people along the way, or if we let the arrogance of success infiltrate our hearts, it would have been better if we failed.

Success wrapped with arrogance is far worse than failure rich with humility.

We are praying that we succeed, but we are also praying that God keeps us humble. We want to be a church of people that confess our sins, humble ourselves, and trust in God’s view of us more than the world’s view. We don’t want recognition. We don’t want accolades. We want to be a church that walks humbly with our God. True success will be to gather hundreds in worship while keeping true to the humility of Christ—any other kind of success will ultimately be a failure.

Will you humble yourself before God on behalf of this new church start? Surrender your feelings of pride and arrogance. Confess your sins. Lay everything out before God, and pray that God would come and heal our land.

Pray that God keeps us humble, while also helping us to reach our breakthrough goals. Pray that our leaders are able to maintain a healthy discipline of prayer and study, so that their spiritual life isn’t attached to the success or failure of the church plant. Pray that we succeed not only by worldly standards, but also in the content of our character.

Pray for Extravagant Generosity

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NIV

Beyond our local community

As Christians, we are asked to surrender our entire lives to God. This goes so much deeper than just what we give to the local church or ministries. As Christians, all that we have is God’s and—for whatever strange reason—God has entrusted us to be good stewards of these gifts.

As a new church start, we are relying on the generosity of so many people. An already-established church is funded through the generosity of those who are in attendance. These people have grown in their faith while at church, have come to trust the leaders, and have caught a vision for the ministry of the church. They give to support the ministry of which they are already a part.

A new church doesn’t have this luxury. A new church, by definition, doesn’t have a congregation yet. Even after it has a congregation, many of the people are new to the faith. New people often attend a church for a season before they start to give seriously. As such, a new church start has to rely on the gifts of people who might never attend the actual church. We’re hoping friends, family, and alumni of our current church will catch this vision and will give above their regular gifts to support the start of a church that will reach people who don’t yet have a church they would call a home.

We’re trusting that God will move the hearts of people to engage in extravagant generosity, to give to something they might never directly benefit from. In 2 Corinthians, Paul makes a case for exactly this kind of giving—giving that reaches beyond our local community.

Would you pray that God moves the hearts of people to give towards this new church start?

Pray that God helps us to be good stewards of these resources, and that we will not want for anything that we need to realize this vision.