Welcome to season 2 of the Determined to Dance podcast. I pray that you’ll be uplifted, encouraged, and will move forward each and every day. Today’s episode, Praying for Others: The Local Church, focuses on how to pray for the churches around the community.

Show Notes: Praying for Others: The Local Church

I drove my granddaughter to dance lessons yesterday. She’s taking ballroom dancing and it was my first time to see her practice with the instructor. They’re working on three dances: the foxtrot, tango, and rumba. Basic steps are involved. The way she walks and glides is more important than I realized. She enjoys the practice but isn’t quite ready for “Dancing with the Stars.”

The evening reminded me of the local church. Two or three people gathered in the name of Jesus. They meet in brick buildings, storefronts, and houses and offer a variety of ways to worship and learn about the God of the universe. You probably have several in your community. Each congregation can make a difference to the people around them, but like my granddaughter isn’t dancing on television yet, most aren’t fifty-thousand-member megachurches.

Instead, they are community-oriented, often with many members of the same family. From twenty to two hundred or so people, they can better the area around them by sharing the love of Christ. And it all starts with prayer.

The apostle Paul worked with churches scattered throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. He encouraged, rebuked, exhorted, and prayed for each one. If you belong to a local body of believers, you need to pray for them. But you can also pray for other area churches who reach out to the lost, the hurting, and the broken.

In Ephesians 1:16-19, Paul mentions a prayer he is lifting up for the church in Ephesus. I like the simple language The Message Bible uses: “That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!”

Paul prays specifically:

For the people to know God with intelligence and discernment.
For the eyes or vision to be focused and clear.
The church will know its part in the community.
They’ll understand the wonderful way of life that comes from following Christ.
They’ll see His work in them as they trust Him.

What a wonderful prayer focus for the church. Each body of believers knows God intimately, their vision is clear and focused, and they follow Christ in trust as He works in them and through them. The community church, made up of men, women, youth, and children who live nearby, can touch lives, sharing acts of love and kindness to people who need to know there is a God in Heaven who cares and a church that does also.

We planted a community garden at The Bridge Christian Fellowship this year, the local church my husband and I attend. When you look at worldwide, often chaotic events around us, it seems like such a small way to reach out. But people have been blessed with fresh vegetables such as corn, okra, peas, squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Church members tilled, plowed, planted, hoed, and harvested food. A beautiful expression of love that reveals the heart of Jesus. Other churches in our community facilitate a clothing closet and canned food ministry. Some reach out to widows, orphans, local families, and schools.

Again, it starts with prayer. The church prays, and the members pray. We lift each other up because we’re on the same team.