The Church@Prayer

I love and welcome a good challenge. Moreover, I like to challenge myself. One evening several years ago after a prayer meeting at my local church, I challenged a church leader about making prayer the focus of our prayer meetings. The response? "Well, you'll just be talking about the same things every week." This seasoned spiritual leader was not alone in his thinking. Many spiritual leaders and members believe that a church cannot and will not focus on prayer for 52 weeks-one full year. As a matter of fact, one pastor was emphatic in his position: "It will never happen."

Are you struggling with planning your prayer meetings? Are you thinking there's no way you can study and discuss prayer for 52 weeks? Yes, you can! This 52 Weeks of Prayer Initiative (52- WPI) is just what you and your congregation needs. The Church@ Prayer: 52 Weeks at the Throne of Grace is a practical guide con- taining 52 essays on prayer that considers crucial concepts on the transforming influence of prayer and can be used to guide your prayer meeting discussions and sermon themes throughout the year.

These essays are not conclusive but are the author's spiritual musings on each passage of Scripture as seen through the eyes of prayer. As such, the essays were not written to cover every aspect of the specific theme; rather, they are intended to be used, along with the discussion questions, as a catalyst for the expression of the reader's thoughts and to encourage further dialogue.

Now you (your church) have more tools available to focus on prayer each week for the next year. I challenged myself to write these essays, and I'm currently challenging any new pastor to a church to spend the first 52 weeks of his tenure preaching and teaching about prayer. The challenge is also for any pastor-begin now by committing the next 52 weeks to preach and teach about prayer. Being intentional about prayer will set a tone for the con- gregation and unleash a tremendous wave of power to move that church forward spiritually.

I'm not a pastor, and I've never pastored a church, so I've never had the opportunity to implement this bold philosophy. But I am a Christian, and I've experienced the tremendous power of prayer. As such, I'm currently challenging spiritual leaders to try it. Spiritual leaders, this is your opportunity to engage your members over the next 52 weeks in practical prayer discussions that will foster ministries, programs, and activities to cultivate a house of prayer. I'm curious to see what God is going to do. What do you have to lose?

In my first book, Inevitable & Imminent: On Becoming a House of Prayer-The Process, I outlined the process of how a church becomes a house of prayer. This book allows you to do "it" for a full year. The subject matter experts tell us that most habits can be formed in 21 to 30 days; watch what happens to your church and in your home after these 52 weeks!

"In his first book, Inevitable and Imminent, Dr. Carrington makes a strong evangelical case that the central task of effective churches is grounded in the church's prayer life. But this is not easily achieved and is even harder to maintain. In this new volume, The Church@Prayer: 52 Weeks at the Throne of Grace, Carrington offers a methodology for maintaining that commitment with weekly reflections on biblical texts that directly address prayer's centrality and offers space for personal or corporate reflection within its pages. His message is simple, yet challenging; prayer works, prayer is work, and prayer leads to work. One senses from its pages Carrington's profound commitment to prayer's efficacy and its potential to transform this broken world of ours."

-The Rev William Weisenbach

"Thank you for giving me this amazing opportunity to read and process this wonderful book. The great paradox is that, while I found your musings to be quite inspiring, I also found them to be incredibly convicting. No pastor, church leader, believer, or individual who is serious about growing their spiritual relationship with God can read this book and not be encouraged to invest more effort in prayer. I believe The Church@Prayer: 52 Weeks at the Throne of Grace should be a handbook for every church and a guide for starting a serious journey into the efficacy of prayer. My prayer is that this volume will become the launching pad of the revival that is so greatly needed in our world today. But that revival must be started by the church at prayer. Thanks again for this wonderful resource."

-Pastor Hugh Marriott

"As I began to read The Church@Prayer: 52 Weeks at the Throne of Grace, I was quickly reminded of just how far some of our churches have strayed from the biblical model Christ gave us about the importance of prayer. I can literally feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the bold convictions that Dr. Carrington asserts throughout these pages. As a church, we must now allow Christ to revive our spiritual condition. And when we pray with purpose, the church will come forth again, just as Lazarus did when Jesus called him forth from the grave. Amazing! You'll have to get the book and read that essay to find out how that can actually happen. This book is truly a must-read for all spiritual leaders who desire to put first things first: prayer."

-Mithra Williams

"It's interesting how Dr. Carrington went straight at the cancer and not the symptom of it in dealing with the spiritual morbidity within the Christian church. Thereafter, he places the church on a path to recovery and spiritual well-being for fifty-two weeks. The Church@ Prayer: 52 Weeks at the Throne of Grace highlights how the church has perhaps been doing everything right and one thing wrong-little or serious lack of the discipline of prayer. This is the reason for the cancer. Dr. Carrington cogently illustrates the diminishing returns from such a practice. I particularly like how he connects the theory and praxis of the discipline of prayer-each week being a link in a golden chain. And this chain remains as strong as each link remains unbroken. The Church@Prayer is a great work that promises transformational benefits both personally and for the corporate church."

-Pastor Ainsworth Joseph

Hugh Wesley Carrington, Ph.D., is founder of Bridge, Inc. Hugh helps organizations optimize performance through training and development of their members at all levels and the streamlin- ing of organizational processes. He is an accomplished, dynamic speaker, and blends his love of education, the study of people, and research into his process-driven approach to organizational learning and development. Before anything else, Hugh is a Christian who believes in the power of prayer. In addition to leading Bridge, Inc., Hugh is currently also an Adjunct Professor at Long Island University in the School of Business, Department of Social Work, and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Hugh has held several departmental positions in local churches of a denomination that numbers almost 20 million worldwide. He is a frequent presenter at local churches and related events and has had the opportunity to observe how we as Christians approach prayer. He has had the opportunity to implement what he teaches, including his signature House of Prayer process, and knows that it works. Hugh holds a M.S. in Human Resource Management, a Ph.D. in Sociology, a M.A. in Higher Education Administration, and a BA in Marketing Education. Hugh resides in Stamford, Connecticut, and is married to the former Maxine Cenac. He is the adoring father of a college sophomore, Serina Jordan Carrington, and a preschooler, Hugh Wesley Carrington, Jr.

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