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Many churches in America do not give ample time to pray during their Sunday services. And a lot of churchgoers do not believe God answers prayer, said a Pentecostal pastor.
"It would be hard, I think, to prove ... that you could have a service, a New Testament-based service, without having times of prayer," said Jim Cymbala, who leads Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, at the Assemblies of God Prayer Summit this week.
Cymbala was referring to evangelical churches on a general note. A Southern Baptist leader had recently raised the concern of churches and the lack of authentic worship. Jim Shaddix, senior pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Denver, Colo., recently told Southern Baptists that older generations of churchgoers and more traditional Christians a lot of times are emotionless in worship and list prayer requests but do not actually pray during service.
And when such churches try to organize a prayer meeting, hardly anybody comes, Cymbala pointed out. It just ends up being a "warmed over Sunday service."
Cymbala, whose church now draws 2,000 people to its prayer meetings, suggests prolonged times of prayer during Sunday services. Allotted time to prayer could break the barrier to the reluctance many people have toward prayer, he indicated.
For those who do not believe or have given up on the belief that God answers prayer, John Lindell, who leads James River Assembly in Ozark, Mo., told believers to wait.
When one stops anticipating the promise of the Lord and tries to solve problems alone, mistakes are made, he told the 1,400 Pentecostals at the summit's concluding session on Wednesday. He further emphasized God's ability to supernaturally strengthen those who wait on Him.
Churches today, however, have lost patience.
"The problem with the church today is we want God to push us through a fast-food window. 'I don't have time God, so don't delay long, don't make me wait long,'" Thomas E. Trask, general superintendent for the Assemblies of God, said earlier at the summit.
Lindell gave summit attendants a chance to be patient as he invited people to come forward to the altar to "wait" on God in prayer.
Throughout the three days of the Assemblies of God Prayer Summit, attendants frequently answered to calls of prayer at the altar.
"We didn't call a prayer summit just to teach about prayer," said Trask. "We're going to have a time of prayer."
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The nation's largest Pentecostal group drew some 1,400 people to a prayer summit that centered on a divine power that many of America's churches are leaving out, according to one preacher.
"I'm afraid that in a number of our (Christian) churches around America, we're preaching an oxymoron of an Old Testament Christianity," Jim Cymbala, senior pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, told summit attendants in Springfield, Mo. "We're preaching Jesus and we're preaching laws, but we're missing the dynamic element of the one who is able to make you ... what God wants you to be."
Cymbala spoke of the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Pentecostal preacher of the Brooklyn megachurch opened the Assemblies of God Prayer Summit Monday night telling fellow believers that they are hopeless without the Holy Spirit.
"How sad to travel around the country and world and see churches trying to have a Christianity that represents the New Testament without anunderstanding and an emphasis on the ministry of the Holy Spirit," he said.
In place of the third person of the triune God, Cymbala noted that many church leaders have become formulaic.
Church models and conferences may lead some church leaders to copy the way a successful pastor runs ministry. The "copycat" mode, however, prevents the ministry from being blessed by the Holy Spirit, Cymbala indicated.
"God has something better for us," he exhorted. "He has his Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us."
Another possible hindrance to the Holy Spirit working is seminary. Cymbala never attended seminary but realized that seminary graduates adopt "some formula and some traditional way," whether it be a Baptist or Pentecostal way of running ministry. And formulaic leaders show little dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit, the Pentecostal pastor noted.
Pentecostals are no exception.
"Think of all the churches that have Pentecostal doctrine around this country and that are doing nothing for God," Cymbala shouted. "They don't baptize 10 people in a whole year and they're speaking in tongues and they believe in the cardinal truths of the Bible.
"There's got to be more than just an Acts 2 experience."
Then, how can you distinguish a "true spirit-filled" church? Cymbala says the Holy Spirit "cuts to the chase" and penetrates like fire when it works within a congregation.
Pentecostal preaching is supposed to penetrate into people's hearts and not be clever or showy; music is supposed to penetrate and not just entertain churchgoers; sinners are supposed to feel uncomfortable; and the power of the Holy Spirit is not "user-friendly and seeker-sensitive."
"It says 'get in or get out.'"
With all that, "when fire (Holy Spirit) comes, there are changes in people's lives," Cymbala said. "This is what makes Christianity unique - God Almighty dwelling in a man or a woman."
The Assemblies of God Prayer Summit concludes Wednesday.
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