Teach Us to Pray: Prayer That Accesses Heaven and Changes Earth

by Corey Russell

I’m greatly burdened for this generation of worship leaders, pastors, preachers, and leaders in the Church. In an hour where our worship leaders and communicators are the most polished, the most educated, the most articulate, and the most attractive, there is a painful gap that I’m seeing between the excellence of the presentation and the shallowness of the presentation. Yes, you read that right. I said presentation twice. It’s possible to say something and say nothing at the same time, and I believe we in the American Church have become professionals at it. I know there are exceptions to this generalization, but I’ve thought on this statement for twenty years and have seen it firsthand as I’ve traveled thirty-five weekends a year for the last fifteen years. I’ve also seen it in my own life and the lives of my friends. How can we say all the right things, sing all the right things, yet nothing of eternity be imparted to those who hear us? I’m afraid that, after all of our Sunday services have ended and everyone has gone home, what most of us just experienced was more of a pep rally than an encounter with the living God. We are in desperate need of leaders who have been forged in the fires of prayer, fasting, and the Word, and out of that place, they lead the Body of Christ.

We need the encounter of God in our meetings