“Prayer is where the action is."
- John Wesley
"God does nothing except in response to believing prayer."
- John Wesley
"You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed."
- A.J. Gordon
"Prayer strikes the winning blow; service is simply picking up the pieces."
- S.D. Gordon
These quotes speak of great truth
How different things would be if we believed this truth
How opposite all our services would be if we believed
The prayer meeting would be the service
It would not be 2 or 5 minute prayer and then church
Church would be prayer
We have it backwards
This is the reason there is no power and no progress
No resemblance to the early church
These quotes are true
But we don't believe them
We believe teaching is where the power lies
We believe what we do in church is where the power lies
What is our basis for thinking this way
Is it just following traditions?
We "evangelical" Christians have traditions too, not only the Orthodox or Catholics
One difference may be that at least these traditions involve God's Word
But truthfully it is following the motions and becomes as dead as other traditions
"The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give it."
- E.M. Bounds