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of your church? Are you encouraging families to worship together and study the Scriptures together? Are the people in your church preparing themselves to hear God’s Word preached, even on Saturday night? We do these things because we still believe that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). God’s Word—not entertaining stories, skits, or piano drops—is the primary means by which God saves and sanctifies his people.
PRAYER The world, the flesh, and the devil are waging an all-out assault on prayer. Busyness squeezes out what’s deemed impractical and elevates the pragmatic. What weak faith we have. A church member recently asked me, “Does prayer change things?” My answer: “No. God changes things, but he uses prayer to do it.” Prayer is a means of grace by which God strengthens his people by drawing them into greater fellowship with himself. A ministry of prayer would include prayer as worship, prayer in large groups, prayer in small groups, prayer as families, and an intentional effort by church leaders to highlight both the delight and duty of regular prayer for individuals. I have found
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that many adult Christians have a harder time praying out loud than young children. Why? Because we are not in regular prayer ourselves and church leaders do not highlight the importance of prayer as a biblical means of growing in God’s grace.
SACRAMENTS According to Nielson Company, the average American spends roughly 3.5 hours watching television a day. That’s in addition to other forms of media—game consoles, smart phones, movies, and the Internet—all vying for our time and attention. YouTube continues to explode with viral videos from the global community, at times drawing millions of viewers overnight. Because we are stimulated and energized visually, television and movies have dominated the attention and affection of our hearts, and churches have jumped on the (so-called) bandwagon. They have often tried to dovetail their ministries with the luster and lure of the entertainment culture, but it simply cannot compete, nor should it! In reality, Hollywood has nothing on the joy, pleasure, truth, and experience found in God’s glorious gospel—made visible and effectual through the signs and seals of his covenant of grace. The Bible calls