Praying the Way

By Charles Mallory

One of the life lessons seared into my heart from my time at Liberty University was hearing the late Rev. Jerry Falwell tell us that in our spiritual disciplines of obedience to God: “All of our failures are prayer failures.”

I keep that thought close now, more than ever, as I return to the church after retiring as an Army chaplain. It is so easy, yet subtle, to revert back into a mindset of being more like a manager that runs the church like a business rather than a shepherd who walks along and among the church as its ordained leader.

One of the most helpful resources to keep the shepherding heart in guiding the church that my wife, Jennifer, and I are leading has been teaching them how to pray “The Free Methodist Way.”

Just like a Rand McNally “Road Atlas” provides me detailed maps for planning my travel, I understand how the five distinct values can truly shape our identity and direction as a Free Methodist congregation.

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“We came to realize that this was our direction and purpose.”

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Praying “The Free Methodist Way,” for us, was not an option. We felt it was in obedience as faithful members of the Free Methodist Church, but also crucial to guiding church members into fellowship and like-mindedness to honor and glorify God in everything we do at our church.

In fact, for the prayer that we wrote for our church, we begin by praying, “As we trust in the leading of Your Holy Spirit, we desire that every aspect of this ministry will further Your kingdom and will lead others to salvation in Jesus, Your Son.”

We came to realize that this was our direction and purpose. We could not afford to plateau due to stagnation, lack of initiative and planning. When the doors were locked during the pandemic, it became apparent that our churches could no longer keep everything self-contained and manageable within the confines of the church’s property.

Life-Giving Holiness

We pray first for Life-Giving Holiness. We must choose to die to self by welcoming the work of the Holy Spirit to awaken us to our need to be sanctified. As our doctrine states regarding sanctification, “This sanctifying relationship with God remedies the divided mind, redirects the heart to God, and empowers believers to please and serve God in their daily lives.” We need to get serious about our faith. We must pursue holiness.

Since launching this prayer, we have seen the lives of several individuals whose hearts have come to life in faith. They are volunteering more and have reached out to support community events. Their faith has progressed from words to action because their hearts have changed, and they are embracing holiness.

Love-Driven Justice

Secondly, we pray for Love-Driven Justice. We realized how comfortable it is to have others “just like us” to be around us. It helped us to see that when we gravitate toward what is familiar, it exposes our backs to the poor, broken, oppressed and outcast. Jesus would never turn his back on anyone, and we were convicted through Love-Driven Justice that we must not show any disregard.

We had our opportunity during Christmas Eve Sunday morning worship. A member that had been away for some time had suddenly reappeared, and it was evident there were some obvious concerns to address. Everyone quickly realized that we had an individual who had been off her medication for an extended period of time.

I watched in amazement as she was welcomed, engaged, and smothered in hugs and conversation from members that Sunday. Through much-needed guidance and what seemed like thousands of phone calls, conversations, and doctors’ appointments, we were able to guide her to the right psychiatric help at our local hospital. As we visited her each week, we saw a new person emerge in gentleness and gratefulness through a church willing to live out Love-Driven Justice.

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“Proclaiming the message, living out our faith, and modeling a godly life to others is drawing the church in and together.”

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Christ-Compelled Multiplication

Thirdly, we pray for Christ-Compelled Multiplication: We no longer find comfort in the familiar. We want to make a difference and become more intentional with putting aside unfruitful programs and investing ourselves in a Spirit-fueled direction that produces fruit and is bathed in redemptive purpose.

We are awakening to the reality that this doesn’t happen with just attending worship service on Sunday morning. We count the cost, engage, and open ourselves to becoming inflamed with the Holy Spirit for spiritual work at any time and any day.

Praying for Christ-Compelled Multiplication, we have seen more members become willing to overcome addictions to their own lives and schedules in order to pour themselves out with selflessness in gifting their lives, time, and resources into the mission of the church.

Hearing stories of members checking on the elderly, inviting younger couples to their homes, and teaching music to children who now sing specials during Sunday worship. Proclaiming the message, living out our faith, and modeling a godly life to others is drawing the church in and together.

Cross-Cultural Collaboration

We move on to praying Cross-Cultural Collaboration. Our church was built in 1915 with the traditional stained glass windows. They are stunning and amplify the colors across the sanctuary. However, we have now discovered just as much beauty outside the church not just in our community, but in the world around us.

We are not only embracing the global church and missions, but partnerships with churches of other denominations in our community. Cross-Cultural Collaboration, for us, has formed a strong alliance with two other churches in our town.

This alliance has resulted in establishing annual community Vacation Bible School (VBS) programs, Thanksgiving services each November, and the local pastors reviving the Ministerial Alliance. It is a great way to share our resources and it unifies our efforts for a much greater harvest in the lives of those who attend these events.

None of this would have happened if we did not take the initiative to cross all necessary barriers culturally, denominationally, and personally. We simply refused to withdraw to focus on offering programs just for our own church. It truly is a matter of being filled with a holy compassion to reach out, collaborate with the world around us, and build relationships so as to join John Wesley in saying “the world is our parish!”

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“We are being shaped in the likeness of Jesus Christ.”

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God-Given Revelation

Our fifth and final Free Methodist Way value is God-Given Revelation. We have a unique saying in the military, which is “you can never over-communicate.” We can’t be satisfied with just the information we have on hand, but must send for, ask, and search for every last credible piece of information.

The same is true for our church. One select Scripture passage that the pastor preaches from is still not enough. That one verse we parse and discuss in Sunday school still needs supplemented. The midweek programs are wonderful, but we still need even more of God’s Word to saturate our minds, hearts and souls.

We need to fall in love with God’s Word, hide it in our hearts, and align our lives to it. We need to make education one of the highest supported ministries of the church. Sunday schools, Bible studies, bands, and small groups should have the church busting at the seams because of hunger for God’s message to us.

Our church has embraced God-Given Revelation by incorporating Scripture into our Sunday worship service through the call to worship and benediction responses. Just as important, we have added the Lectionary readings from the Old and New Testaments and expound on the Gospel lesson through the sermon. The reading from the Psalms has now become our customary “responsive reading” so that everyone can read Scriptures aloud together. We want to saturate God’s message in worship.

We have embraced “The Free Methodist Way” and have seen the amazing results of praying all five values. They have not only shaped our identity as a Free Methodist congregation, but have sparked a renewal of faith in the hearts of our church members. We are being shaped in the likeness of Jesus Christ. We are ever-seeking for the Holy Spirit to ignite a Spirit-fueled movement within us, our church, community and the world.

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