New Churches Podcast | Season 1 | Episode 682

Prayer and Progress

Ed Stetzer & Daniel Darling

Episode 682: Every church planter has experienced the link between prayer and progress in the ministry. It’s easy, however, to focus more on progress than on prayer. Host Ed Stetzer talks with Dan Darling and Jessica Thompson about the crucial relationships between prayer and progress in the life of the church planter. 

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

  • How the work of planting and the need for prayer often intersect in desperation
  • Ways the work of church planting can change your prayer life
  • How a church planter can maintain vibrant dependence on God
  • How God can miraculously intervene when we become utterly dependent on Him
  • Practices that can help entrepreneurial types build prayer into their lives

Helpful Resources:

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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

We can focus so much on the the work of the Lord and not the Lord of the work. But as church planters we find ourselves dependent on the Lord and and His work every day, begging Him to do the work. @EdStetzer

In church planting, there’s so much doing, you might be tempted to not pray. But there’s a desperation too. When you’re starting a new work, you can’t help but pray. It seems to me they work together. @Dan Darling

This is a stereotype but the kind of people attracted to church planning seem to be people who are not naturally contemplative. There’s jet fuel drinkers and candle burners, and overwhelmingly the church planters are the jet fuel drinkers. @EdStetzer

What you can do is continually pray and have a heart attitude of dependency on the Lord and then cultivate that in your church. You are cultivating a life of prayer in your church so it is an overflow of what you are already doing and it’s coming out in your church.  – Jessica Thompson

Henry Blackaby says that God purposely calls us to things bigger than ourselves so that we’re dependent on him. I found that to be so true. @Dan Darling

I’ve never been more dependent on the Lord than when I’m in a church planting situation. The frailty of the situation, the desperation of the need and the focus of the church planting team – for me, those moments point us to a deeper and more profound moment of prayer. @EdStetzer

A lot of times people link prayer to progress. We need to be real careful when we’re doing that because I know some men and women with incredible prayer lives who don’t have thousand-member churches. But that doesn’t mean their prayers aren’t just as earnest and persevering.  – Jessica Thompson

Published on July 12, 2022

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About the Podcast

New Churches Podcast

The New Churches podcast offers practical answers to your real ministry questions. We aren’t going to provide lofty pie-in-the-sky theories. Instead, we are going to help you in your real ministry context, with your real thoughts, questions, and issues.

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Meet the Authors

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is a professor and dean at Wheaton College where he also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.  He is the incoming Dean of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches; trained pastors and church planters on six continents; earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates; and he has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. He is Regional Director for Lausanne North America, is the Editor-in-Chief of Outreach Magazine, and regularly writes for news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates. He serves at his local church, Mariners Church, as a Scholar in Residence and Teaching Pastor.

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Daniel Darling

Daniel Darling is an author, pastor, and leader. He is the director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dan is a bestselling author of several books, including The Original Jesus, The Dignity Revolution, The Characters of Christmas, The Characters of Easter, and A Way With Words. He is the general editor, along with Trillia Newbell, of a small group study on racial reconciliation, The Church and the Racial Divide and is a contributor to The Worldview Study Bible.

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