I wanted to share few thoughts with you all related to the Simple Church Conference. At the conference, many of you were introduced to the idea of the “Luke 10:2 Virus.” I would like to ask you all to join me in spreading this virus! As I think about it, there really is no greater need than for the Lord to send out laborers into His harvest. The harvest truly is plentiful and the workers are few!
Here is the story Felicity shared at the Simple Church Conference 2012:
Any church planting movement must be preceded and then surrounded by a prayer movement. Prayer is essential to any move of God. We need many prayer warriors who will spend hours on their faces before God crying out to Him that He move across our land. In Korea, which has seen a remarkable movement of God over the past 100 years, prayer has been the key. Dr. David Yonggi Cho, perhaps the best known leader there, says that when he first started his church, he needed to pray for four to five hours a day in order to see God move. Now that so much has happened, he has been able to cut down to three hours a day!
But prayer is not just for a few who have the time and the gifting to pray. Everyone needs to be involved.
Back in 2002, two friends, Kenny and John, were discussing how to see a church planting movement start across their state. They realized that Jesus had given the key in Luke 10:2—“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He will send out laborers into His harvest.” They settled on an experiment. Each day they would this prayer together for a few minutes.
As their praying continued, they realized they didn’t know how to pray the prayer day after day, so they asked the Lord to teach them. He showed them from the story in the Bible of the widow and the unjust judge that they needed to be persistent in their praying. He also led them to be very specific in what they asked for.
Things started to happen. Kenny is responsible for church planting for his church group in his state. Before they started praying, about one person in a month contacted him about church planting. It has now become a daily occurrence. And over the last eight months, he has seen over 120 churches start as a direct result of this praying.
“Praying like this is now my only strategy for church planting,” he says.
Kenny and John call this prayer the 10:2b virus (Luke chapter 10 verse 2 and the second part of the verse.) Just like a virus spreads rapidly, they want to see people everywhere praying this prayer. They are seeking to infect everyone they come across. Across the world, people are partnering up to pray the 10:2b prayer daily, and everywhere they are seeing remarkable answers to prayer.
If God is going to initiate a true multiplication movement of disciples and ultimately simple churches beginning here in Central Kentucky and reaching to the ends of the earth (our vision), it will necessitate the sending of more and more people into the harvest fields. Often I don’t know how to pray, but Jesus asks us to pray for this.
So will you join me in setting your alarm clock to 10:02am and every day when it goes off pray a short prayer for more laborers? Perhaps whomever you happen to be with at that time would even join you in this short prayer? I’ve had some interesting experiences with this! Will you share your commitment to pray this with your church family and encourage others to pray this as well?
One other thing related to the conference: For those there, you will recall that Felicity and Tony shared about their friend Rosaura who is in their simple church and who just celebrated one full year of being sober. Read about the party their simple church had for her on Sunday here:
http://simplychurch.com/shhh-its-a-surprise-celebration/
Blogged: Luke 10:2b Virus and More – Follow up from Simple Church Conference 2012!