Theology / Church

I’m convinced prayer is the key to the health and vitality of our relationship with God –for the individual, church, community and nation. Prayer is our way of connecting with and trusting in the living God – it is his design and therefore God answers and honours prayer.

Jesus clearly modelled the significance and power of personal prayer as recorded in the gospels. Jesus often withdrew to quiet places to spend time praying with his Father. Notably, he did this prior to choosing the twelve disciples and prior to commencing his public ministry, when for forty days he prayed and fasted in the desert while being tempted by Satan (Mk 3:13-14; 1:12-13). Jesus would retreat in prayer to be alone with God to discern his will and replenish his strength for what lay ahead of him. We see the culmination of this in the garden of Gethsemane prior to his arrest, when he agonised over the prospect of the cross. In a deeply moving scene, Jesus collapses at the feet of his Father and in honest desperation asks if it’s possible for the ‘cup to be taken away’ (Mt 26:37-41). However, he gained clear resolve to go to the cross in knowing God’s will, through honest and anguished prayer (if only the disciples had stayed awake to keep watch and pray, as he had asked!).

In an incident when the disciples couldn’t deliver a boy from demon possession, Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith and in private told them “this kind can only come out by prayer”. With the coming of the Kingdom of God, the disciples were engaged in spiritual warfare, but they had neglected to robustly pray and exercise the faith that would make them effective in healing the boy (Mk 9:14-29). Furthermore, when the devil asked to sift Peter ‘as wheat’, Jesus responded by saying that he had ‘prayed for him’, that his faith would not fail after his denial and go on to strengthen his brothers (Lk 22:31,32). Indeed Jesus’ prayers were effective, as Peter became ‘rock like’ in his faith and a bold leader of the early church. Likewise, Jesus also prays and intercedes for us, and like Peter when we have our struggles with sin and temptation, he prays that we come through the testing – purified and stronger in our faith. Jesus also commended bold and persistent prayer. He taught the parable of the persistent widow who sought justice from a dodgy judge, and the parable of the pushy nocturnal friend who needed bread for his unexpected guests (Lk18:1-8; 11:5-10). Likewise there is a mystery and timing to prayer, and we are to trust in the goodness and purpose of God and persist in praying. Prayer is transformative. It helps us to grow closer to the Lord, it fortifies and strengthens our faith and enables us to listen to God and discern his will for our lives. Through prayer we abandon self-reliance, and bring our concerns to the Lordship of Christ and exercise our dependence on him.

Prayer is also the lynchpin to renewal and revival. In the national revival lead by one of Israel’s few good kings, King Hezekiah is an inspiring example of the power of prayer. After years of spiritual and moral decline in Israel, Hezekiah lead the nation back to God and revival followed. As soon as he was in power, Hezekiah consecrated the temple, reinstituted the law and the sacrificial system, and publically led the people in passionate prayer and worship. On one occasion whilst preparing for the Passover, many Levites had not consecrated themselves, so Hezekiah prayed that the Lord would pardon them and instead see their hearts – to which the Lord answered his prayer and blessed the nation (2 Chron 29-30). When the Assyrians invaded Judah and King Sennacherib threatened to lay siege of Jerusalem, Hezekiah didn’t cower, rather he and the prophet Isaiah took to prayer. God heard their prayers and sent an angel to annihilate the Assyrian army leaving Sennacherib to withdraw in defeated disgrace (2 Chron 32:16-21). Towards the end of his life, Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness and in desperation turned to God in tearful prayers. As Isaiah records, the Lord heard his prayer, provided a miraculous sign (by casting the sunlight back ten steps) and in mercy added fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life (Isa 38:1-8).

What do we learn about prayer in the beginnings of the early church? The early church was born on Pentecost when the Spirit descended upon the apostles during a time of devoted prayer and worship (Acts 2:1-4). Further on in Acts we read that after fasting and praying, the Lord revealed to the leaders of the Antioch church, to set apart Barnabas and Paul for their first missionary endeavour (Acts 13:2-3). Prayer preceded the formation of the church and its first missionary journey.

Dr A.T. Pierson has been noted for saying “There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer”. Behind every spiritual renewal – both personal and corporate – the common denominator is prayer. Preceding the reformation Martin Luther locked himself away in a monastery room to pray and study the word. The Methodist revival in England was birthed by the likes of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield who reportedly spent hours in fervent prayer and fasting. Perhaps prayer gave them the courage to boldly preach the gospel to the masses. Historians have suggested that Methodism was so transformative on English culture (particularly among the destitute and working poor), it prevented England from following France into violent revolution during the 1790s. Similarly it was a movement of prayer that sparked the Welsh revival in 1904, spreading onto other nations. In the Welsh revival, hundreds of thousands of people were converted to Christ, alcoholism was halved and violent crime was reduced to the level where police officers were made redundant, leaving the police department to justify their existence. The Welsh revival swept Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, Australasia, the Americas and parts of Africa, forever changing history – all ignited by prayer.

At a personal level there have been perplexing and difficult times in my life where prayer has sustained me, and God in his grace has answered. Over the years I have encountered times of intense anxiety, sleep disturbance, immense work pressures, urgent resource needs, and desperation for his direction and guidance. During these troubling times I’ve always found the resolve and peace that God graciously gives through prayer. So I’d like to encourage you to continue to persevere in honest prayer to God, for he hears and answers according to his good purpose and timing.

The Interserve staff meets each morning to pray for our Partners and short termers across the globe, because we believe in the power and purpose of prayer. Interserve also has prayer groups that pray for our workers and the wider Interserve fellowship. Have you considered joining one of these prayer groups or receiving our prayer newsletter so you can pray more effectively for the work of Interserve? Let’s continue to pray for God to touch and transform not only our lives, but families, communities, churches, mission work, people groups and nations – for his good glory.

Matt Walton is Interserve’s State Director for Victoria.

References:
J. Edwin. Orr – Article on Prayer and Revival.
David Yonggi Cho – Prayer that brings revival 1998.

Theology / Church

Lyn, now Interserve’s Regional Director for East Asia and the South Pacific, worked for many years in Central Asia, and helped to establish a TEE programme in that region. She sent us this story of God at work, moving mountains…..

M was a righteous young man who was a Muslim Mullah. He often used to scold the older men for drinking, because being a devout Muslim meant that followers were not supposed to touch alcohol. He himself was studying to be better equipped as a teacher, and he took his faith seriously. In his Central Asian homeland everyone was meant to be Muslim and only traitors turned away from this way of life.

One day whilst he was saying his prayers in Arabic, he suddenly found himself saying, in his mother tongue, “Jesus is Lord”. He cursed himself for such blasphemy, not knowing where it had come from. He thought he was losing his mind! He did it again, and again felt the pangs of guilt. Then, in his dreams, he met a man in white and the experience changed him profoundly. In the past he had been witnessed to by a Christian friend, and now he felt he must go to church with him. There he heard, and soon came to know and understood, that indeed Jesus is Lord.

M grew in his new-found faith and was asked to go and study theology at the Bible college. During this time, and immediately afterwards, God used him to plant two or three churches. But he found it both challenging and problematic that, in such a mountainous country, he could not get to visit his groups to nurture them. They would wait for his return, as their teacher, but it was not easy to get there, and it became all the more difficult when he started a family and had young children.

After some time, he was introduced to TEE and realised that this was just what he needed. Here was a way to help his groups grow in faith and practice even when he was not there! The book is the tutor and so, if the leader/facilitator of the group could be helped to use the material, then the group could grow and mature to be effective disciples of Jesus.

M now leads the TEE programme in his country, and he is convinced of its importance to help people, especially in isolated areas, to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the Lord.

Theology / Church

The story of the church in one of the most repressive Central Asia countries, by Gulzoda, one of the first local believers.

1991 was a year of confusion and panic for people in my country. The largest nation in the world, the Soviet Union, was dividing and no one was sure what the end result would be. I had grown up believing in the Soviet system and was ready to give my life for it even as a local Central Asian. That is how my classmates and I had been taught. Then, one day, we saw everything we thought we were living for collapse around us. All systems of society, banks, schools, government, healthcare, and even transport came to a halt. When all of these systems stopped another work began.

With the government preoccupied people were able to come in and out of the country without problems. Just as our perception of the Soviet Union was crushed our view of the religion of our ancestors also began to wither. When I first learned that the Soviet Union had dissolved I began to look into Islam as a new source of hope and belief. In this religion I couldn’t find answers to my questions. Right away Russian Christians came down to us and began sharing the Good News. At this time I had just entered the university and a woman came to the university where her cousin worked and began preaching in classes with up to 200 students. About 5 or 6 of us students became believers after hearing her share for just a few minutes. In the brief conversation with the woman from Moscow I received all the answers I needed and walked away with a changed heart.

For the next several years many foreigners came and helped to grow the seeds that had been planted. The presence of foreigners also brought jobs, training and education for many. We had a time of rapid growth and saw believers raised up in many cities around the country. We were taught what “church” is and how we are to live as a body. Since we had no background in the Christian life we learned how to understand scripture and teach it to others. At one point I was leading 11 small groups in one week.

These years were not free of persecution as all of us who joined were attacked by family and society. Many of us also lost our jobs. As the new government began to form the number of restrictions also increased. These restrictions also applied to the foreigners, 80% of whom, after more than 10 years of open doors, were forced to leave. This was a difficult time as we saw many close friends and mentors leave as well as losing jobs and support for countless people.

All was not lost. After this the church began to grow increasingly underground. Since there were only allowed to be two official places of worship in each city these were inevitably used by the majority religion. Networks formed between cities and groups that helped connect the small pockets of believers around the country. An increase in unity has also taken place as denominational differences mattered less. People stepped up into leadership roles that had long been held by foreigners. Though it is still a struggle, leaders are being developed to multiply home groups, in essence seeing each person as a potential leader of a new group.

Challenges still persist in our very controlled environment. Like all developing countries unemployment is very high and a pastor who can live on the giving of his group is virtually non-existent. For believers, particularly in smaller cities, it is very hard to find work. Many educated leaders are leaving to go to other countries to find work because they can’t provide for their families here. Almost all pastors need to have a second job to help cover expenses which takes them away from full-time mission work.

Persecution continues to grow, making some stronger and others fearful. One fellow leader lost his job three times when his bosses found out about his faith. By the third time the police told him that if they caught him again they would plant drugs on him and he would go to jail for the rest of his life. Every week we hear about homes being raided and large fines or even jail time given to those present. In order to protect ourselves, times, locations and days of meetings are regularly changed. Unfortunately for some it became so bad they were forced to leave the country.

The need for outside support is still very strong. A new small group of foreigners has recently arrived bringing business models and ideas for income generating activities. This is helpful because instead of just giving salaries we are developing businesses that will remain even if foreigners leave and which also help to support the leaders of the churches. Since it has become very difficult to get training and education in the country many mission workers are now working and offering training in neighboring countries which we can travel to for short periods of time. This helps meet an important need in spiritual maturity as resources and information are very limited here.

As we look to the future of the church here we see lots of potential. Still young, less than 20 years old, with a country which looks increasingly outwards for help, there are many ways for the larger body to serve a group of believers making up less than 1% of the population. Finding ways to invest in the leaders both financially and educationally is crucial for multiplication. They need encouragement from the larger body to remind them that they are not alone. I have had the opportunity, along with many others, to travel to neighbouring countries to bring the good news. This type of effort has been very effective as our cultures and languages are very similar. In order to continue this and other efforts we need more and more people around us. Just as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “this service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God, (2 Cor. 9:12)”.

Theology / Church

Mojic Baldandorj is a Mongolian Christian leader who has served as General Secretary of the Mongolian Evangelical Alliance, as founder and director of the Mongolian Mobile Training Centre, and who is currently pastoring a church in Mongolia and lecturing on Old Testament Studies at Union Bible Training Centre in Ulaanbaatar.

In world history, the Mongolian Empire is considered to be the biggest land empire the world has ever known. In the 13th century the Mongol Empire extended halfway around the world, stretching from Korea to Hungary under the leadership of Chingis Khan. Historians today acknowledge that during the Mongol Empire there were many Mongol Christians in the royal families and royal court. The famous historian, Marco Polo, tells us that 200 Christian missionaries were requested to come and evangelize the whole empire under the reign of Hubilai Khan but the Pope failed to respond to this request. With the fall of the Mongol Empire, Buddhism was introduced from Tibet and the remaining three centuries saw the saturation of Tibetan Buddhism in every family and clan of Mongols until the country became the second communist country in the world in 1924.

During the communist regime, Mongolia remained closed to the outside world for the next 70 years. Known as “the end of the world“, it was totally impossible for Christian missionaries to enter the country until the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s. In 1990, Mongolia entered into a new page of history, freedom and democracy.

Taking advantage of this new freedom and democracy, the first Christian missionaries arrived in Mongolia in early 1991. They could only get into the country as English language teachers in those times. It is recorded that the first Christian gathering was founded in spring of 1991 with students from an English class. Three churches separately formed by the end of the same year with 40-50 local Christians coming to worship on Sunday. For just under three years, the passionate new believers spread the Good News day and night. Through street evangelism, home visits, and showing the “Jesus“ film, the Good News was proclaimed to the newly-opened country. Revival came to the land. The Spirit of God brought new spiritual freedom and revival to thousands of Mongolians who were thirsty for eternal truth.

It is estimated that by 1996, in less than 4 years since the first Christian church was established, almost 60 local churches had been born with over 6,000 adherents of Jesus coming to those local churches. Then by 2002, over 200 churches had been planted literally in each and every of Mongolia’s 21 provinces with 25,000 followers of Jesus in Mongolia. Today, 19 years later, the country is home to 550 evangelical churches with over 50,000 adults, plus thousands of children coming to worship the one true God.

We believe that it is only the power of God which has brought this great breakthrough. The whole nation is experiencing the move of God in real ways in peoples’ lives. The message of Jesus is not only preached from the pulpit, but its real life-changing power is seen in the lives of many. The church of Christ is being built in this nation gradually but surely.

Many national leaders today feel that the young Mongolian church is reaching her “teenage” period. We feel that the excitement of being “young” is gradually over as the church is facing many new challenges. In this article, I would like touch on one issue which is very important for future church growth in Mongolia.

The explosion of rapid church growth creates a leadership shortage. Suddenly we realize that many new-born local churches lack Christ-like, servant leaders, whose personal life and character mark them out as a genuine disciple of Jesus. We have seen in the past that churches can be planted in a relatively short time with many different resources from the West or Korea. However, we have discovered that that is not the end of it. The church needs a good leader. To make a good and godly leader, it takes a long time.

In recent years, unfortunately, a considerable number of pastors and leaders have resigned or have been forced to resign from their ministries due to sexual sins, unfaithfulness in handling offerings, and personal character issues. Sometimes, their position and ministry are regarded as more important than their spiritual growth and personal encounter with God. We see, unfortunately, that many “good“ leaders fall through the hole, committing sins, and some of them giving up on their faith. When a leader falls, the name of Jesus also falls with it. Of course, developing leaders into godliness is not a one-off event. It is a lifelong process. There might be many ways to develop leaders in other parts of the world, but in the Mongolian church context, the following two practices must be essential steps in developing leaders: personal discipleship and role modeling mentorship. It is my own experience and observation in the Mongolian context that it usually takes as long as 7-10 years or more of personal discipleship and mentorship to see a committed young leader emerge.

I believe that our brothers and sisters in the Western world have a lot to offer for future leadership development in the young Mongolian church. It is estimated that there are over 600 Christian missionaries from many parts of the world working and living in Mongolia. Some of them teach at Bible schools and many work for social projects, but it is my sincere wish that we could work together hand in hand to develop national leaders into Christ-like leaders. We could sit together to discuss real life issues of leadership and promote national leadership development programmes. We could provide personal mentorship for those young leaders. We could work together for training countryside church leaders in their local context. I am not saying that there is no partnership at all. What I am saying is that what we do today is not sufficient and efficient.

Over a hundred years ago, God’s faithful servant, James Gilmour (1843-1891) from the London Missionary Society tried to reach our ancestors for Christ. He ministered to Mongols over 20 years, but saw no converts at all. His precious prayer is passionately noted that,

‘If only the truth can be made to reach their understanding, it is not to be doubted that God will in His own time and way, even among the Mongols, and notwithstanding all difficulties, apply it with living power to the hearts of men, and call out from among them those who will confess Him before their countrymen, and smooth the way for those who afterwards shall follow their examples (Gilmour, 1882:219)’

God has granted His time. It is now time to cooperate and train, mentor, and disciple these young leaders for the powerful transformation that God will bring to our nation.