QUOTE
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Prayer Meetings: Prayer services occur each day, and prayer is
the most common activity of the church that could be considered a program.
There is no training program for prayer or staff person in charge of prayer; no
bureaucracy develops to manage the church’s program of prayer. The church
simply gathers to pray and learns how to pray by practicing regular prayer.[1]
Morning prayer services at five a.m. have been a custom in Korea since 1907.[2]
They occur Monday through Saturday at Yoido Church.[3]
All-night prayer services began in 1972 and since 1980 occur Sunday through
Friday, from ten p.m. to four in the morning.[4]
A special purpose prayer service is held on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. for those
desiring to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.[5]
The church maintains a retreat site, Prayer Mountain, where there are four
prayer services daily.[6]
During home visitation, lay leaders invite non-Christians to the weekly cell
meeting, welcome them there, and invite them to go with cell members to one of
the many prayer services to pray for God’s help for their special needs.[7]
In all worship and prayer services, those who desire conversion are asked to
stand and are led in a prayer of conversion while they are surrounded by
supportive cell members.[8]
Customs such as “Jericho prayer” and “Daniel prayer” guide the faithful in
patterns of purposeful prayer.[9]
Rather than provide programs to meet needs, the primary activity of this church
is gathering to pray and ask God to meet needs.
[1]Hurston, Growing the World’s Largest Church, 38. “Normally, believing Christians pray thirty to sixty minutes daily.” Paul Yongii Cho, Prayer: Key to Revival (Waco, TX: Word Publishing, 1984), 108, 136, 135.
[2]Hurston, Growing the World’s Largest Church, 39.
[3]Pastor Cho’s description of his schedule indicates that he attends few of these meetings. They are a ministry of his staff and lay leaders, thereby enhancing differentiation, diversity, and leadership growth. Cf. Cho, Prayer: Key to Revival, 136-138.
[4]Hurston, Growing the World’s Largest Church, 40-42. The Wednesday night and Friday night prayer services have the highest attendance, drawing twenty-five thousand. Hurston’s research shows that more than half of the cell leaders attend all-night prayer meeting on a weekly basis. Hurston, Growing the World’s Largest Church, 213. Cf. Cho, Prayer: Key to Revival, 111-112.
[5]Hurston, Growing the World’s Largest Church, 43.
[6]Ibid., 3, 6, 7, 11, 55. Cho indicated when membership was 370,000 in 1984 that on average three thousand people, or almost 1% of members, were praying every day at Prayer Mountain. Cho, Prayer: Key to Revival, 108, 136.
[7]Hurston, Growing the World’s Largest Church, 40.
[8]Ibid., 105, 106.
[9]Ibid., 47, 48, 39.
NOTE (my response)
DISCERNMENT QUESTIONS
RESOURCES
Footnotes:
The quote is from Major League Disciple Making: An Overview of the Best Research on the Cell Church, an online course developed for the Institute for Discipleship at www.BeADisciple.com in 2009. Course materials, including these lectures, can be downloaded here: http://www.disciplewalk.com/IFD_MLD_Class_Links.html
All Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Please review the page How and Why We Use Quotes.