We are on the edge of an apostolic epoch destined to alter the face of the church. God is committed to His purposes, and there are times in history, when he charges ahead, dragging his people along, calling for us to follow boldly and bravely to places we have never gone before – we are in one of those times.
October 31, 2017 was 500 years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Barbara and I were in Berlin for a meeting of several hundred global leaders there to mark that date. While there, early one morning, staying at a small bed-and-breakfast farmhouse just outside the city, I was awakened before dawn. I made my way downstairs. The farm house was not yet stirring. I sat in the kitchen and began to scribble on a pad what I sensed to be a download directly from the Holy Spirit. I perceived clearly, that we, as a church, were about to be thrust into a new era that would be as significant as the Reformation. These scribbles translated into The New Apostolic Epoch: God’s Determination to Have a Praying and Missional People.
This apostolic shift is not slight. It requires the laity to move from spectator to participant; from passive member to active prayer. It requires pastoral leaders to facilitate the shift from the pulpit-pew dynamic to altar-engagement; from church/congregation to congregations/ kingdom; from ministry to people to mission by people; from inside the church to outside the church; from the church is for us to the church is for them too; from insiders to outsiders; from congregations in isolation to synergy; from engaging dark powers to saving Private Ryan.
Whenever we are missing the missional dimension, God gives us the gift of a mountain-moving shaking of seismic dimensions. This book is a wake-up call to the Body of Christ and the Church.
P. Douglas Small is a Bible teacher and prayer leader. He has served as a pastor and on the faculty of a number of accredited Bible Colleges. He is an Ordained Bishop and International Director of Prayer Ministries with the Church of God. He is the founding president of Alive Ministries: PROJECT PRAY, teaching and training through schools of prayer and consultations for congregations and cities, working with pastors, vocational Christians and intercessors. He is chair of the PCCNA Prayer Commission and a member of the Executive Leadership team of the Denominational Prayer Leaders Network.
Learn more about this book at: alivepublications.org/the-praying-church-made-simple. Find out more about the author at: pdouglassmall.org and projectpray.org.
Contact Laura Stamey to schedule an interview with the author at [email protected], 855-842-5483.
(Source: Project Pray)