Why are we all reading the same book this summer?

In February 2008 Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil spoke at River City Community Church and gave a powerful sermon entitled, “What time is it?” The heart of her message was that God was calling the River City body to become a Kingdom community. Becoming a Kingdom community would have multiple dimensions to it – it was time to submit to the King, it was time to do the will of the King, and it was time to do the work of reconciliation that defined the King’s domain.

This sermon turned into a divine moment for our community. There was a sense of conviction and response unlike anything we had experienced in our first 5 years at River City. There were many who gave their lives to God for the first time. Others re-committed their lives before the King. Still others had a profound spiritual experience, sensing God calling them into lives of full time devotion in fields ranging from law to medicine to international missions.

Because of the overwhelming response to the message, we hastily organized a midweek prayer gathering to follow up on the Sunday service. We had held prayer meetings before, but never with much enthusiasm or longevity. We would soon discover that this prayer meeting was going to be very different.

Within 10 minutes we realized that the 15 chairs we had set up (which we thought was optimistic) was going to be nowhere close to enough. The office space swelled with those who had been impacted by Dr. Salter McNeil, augmented by many who had not even been there but who didn’t want to miss what was happening.

We spent the first hour or so going around the room and allowing those who had come out to share how God had worked within them that past Sunday. The highlight of the night was something I will never forget. A young lady stood up to share, and those of us who knew her were surprised because by nature she is quite introverted.

This isn’t an exact quote, but she essentially said something like this: “God is moving in my life right now in a way that I have never experienced. I feel God pursuing me and calling me to Himself.” She then paused, and said, “In fact, even right now, I feel God calling me out of my comfort zone.” With that she began to move towards the center of the circle. Nobody was sure what she was planning, and as she got to the middle of the room she surprised everyone as she abruptly fell on her hands and knees prostrate before God. She began to weep, and her tears were soon followed by one guttural prayer after another. She cried out to God as if she was the only one in the room.

I am embarrassed by my reaction, and looking back I see that my flesh was stronger than my spirit. Instead of realizing the sacredness of the moment, all I could think about was how to get control back of the meeting. “What is everyone going to think now?” I thought to myself. “They are going to think we are a bunch of crazies.” My overly analytical mind was in full gear. I was leaning on my years of ministry experience to try and figure out how to use this as a ‘teachable moment’ and then proceed on with the rest of my plans for the night.

What happened next blew me away. As I was sitting there lost in my thoughts, every person in the room had a different reaction. They all fell to their knees simultaneously, and with no prompting joined this young lady in prayer. There was no signal to do so, and no guilt trips given to try and connect people to the moment. Instead, there was an astute sensitivity to the sacredness of the moment and the movement of God’s Spirit.

I was the last person in the room to fall on my knees, and when I finally did I knew exactly what I needed to pray. My first prayer was a prayer of repentance. I asked God to forgive my short-sightedness and my lack of faith. Here God was working in powerful and mysterious ways, and all I could do was try to figure out how to control the flow of the meeting. My second prayer was a prayer of submission. I finally was getting the picture that God was painting. This wasn’t supposed to be one emotion-filled prayer meeting. God wanted to move within the River City community in a powerful way, and He needed me to stay out of the way of what He wanted to do.

Since that first week in February I have been on an intense personal journey rediscovering prayer. I have always prayed, and in my 10+ years of vocational ministry I have done my best to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my life and in ministry. Yet even with this being the case, I quickly discerned that God was trying to take me to a new dimension in my personal prayer life, as He was with the other people in the River City community.

Since that time I have repeatedly asked God to reveal Himself to me in new ways, and to show me how to better listen and move in the Spirit. I participated and helped facilitate weekly prayer meetings through the end of May. I have read books on prayer at a feverish pace. I have reached out to those whose prayer life I admire, and asked them for guidance. I have sat under those who have an effective prayer ministry and allowed them to speak into my life through prayer. I feel like I am one of the disciples who watched Jesus pray so regularly and intimately only to finally come to the conclusion that they didn’t quite understand how it worked. Finally they asked, as I ask now, “Jesus, teach us to pray.”

I imagine that those of you who will follow this blog journey over the next 8 weeks are at a variety of places on the spectrum. Perhaps some of you are on a similar track as myself, and sense an almost continuous prompting from God to move deeper into His heart through prayer, reflection, and listening. Maybe you just started coming to River City and are peering in to see what all the commotion is about. Maybe you have been here for this whole run and feel guilty that you haven’t had the same response as those who seem to be on fire right now.

Wherever you are at, I am glad that you are tracking with us. If there is one thing we see throughout Scripture it is a God who loves and pursues His people, and continually calls them to Himself. It is no accident that you have visited this site, and I pray that you will see that as confirmation of one of the many ways that God is already at work in your life.

In order to create some structure for our exploration of prayer, of listening to God, and moving in the Spirit, we decided to choose a book that the entire River City community could read through and discuss together, hence the name, “One Church, One Book.”

Choosing one book for this type of adventure is no easy task. Do we choose a book that is academic or narrative? A book that is full of systematic theology or stories? A book that is a ‘how-to’ or a book that leaves space for you to fill in the blanks?

We pray that we have chosen the right book for the journey. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire is the story of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, but it is really about every person’s and every church’s need to experience the power of God in their lives. We believe that it is a helpful book for provoking reflection, discussion, and action. There may be ideas that are new to you, stories that stretch you, and perspectives that make you a bit uncomfortable. That is ok – this book is a tool to bring you closer to God, and we believe that if you enter it with an open mind and spirit you will benefit greatly from it.

One of the sojourners that has been so helpful for me on this journey to God’s heart through prayer and listening this year is Noella Chung. I have found she and her husband Ji to have a robust understanding of prayer, and both have been very helpful in my process. Noella is going to co-write this blog with me, supplemented by occasional posts by Elders and Staff of River City.

Our plan is to post at least every other day and to get through at least a chapter a week, so jump on in! Read the book, discuss it with friends, read the blog, and make comments as you interact with the content. Let us pray together that the big picture will remain clear. The God of the Universe has invited His children to intimately connect to Him through prayer. He has invited us to hear His heart, to receive His words, to conform our lives to His will, and to experience the healing and wholeness that comes through a vibrant connection to the Heavenly Father. Our prayer is that this book plays a small part in moving each of us towards this reality.

Blessings on the journey,

Daniel Hill
Senior Pastor, River City Community Church