How to Light the Fire
By Jim Cymbala
October 1, 1994
After I had been pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle for about a year, the church had grown to fifty people, but we were facing problems: little money, few people coming to faith in Christ. One Tuesday afternoon I sat in my cubbyhole office on Atlantic Avenue, depressed. I knew that later that day, fifteen people, at most, would come to church to pray. How could God call me and my wife to this city not to make a difference? I wondered.
I walked into our empty, little sanctuary and recited to God a list of my problems: "Look at this building, this neighborhood … Our offerings are laughable … I can't trust So-and-so … There's so little to work with."
Then the Holy Spirit impressed upon me, "I will show you the biggest problem in the church. It's you."
In that moment I saw with excruciating clarity that I didn't really love the people as God wanted me to. I prepared sermons just to get through another Sunday. I was basically prayerless. I was proud.
I fell on my face before God and began to weep. "God, whatever it takes, please change me. I would rather die than live out some useless ministry of catch phrases."
That was a turning point for me and the church. In the weeks and months that followed, I continued to seek God, and my sermons began to have a sincere urgency.
"God wants to change us," I said from the pulpit. "If we'll let him work in us, all things are possible. We can be a church that makes a difference, that helps people find Christ."
The Brooklyn Tabernacle began to turn around, and twenty years later, we are still learning about the tremendous power of prayer. Every Tuesday evening many hundreds of people come together simply to pray.
SENSING OUR NEED
That experience (and many others) taught me that when ...
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