In 1997, I got acquainted with the Brooklyn Tabernacle by means of Pastor Jim Cymbala’s book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. The subtitle is: “What happens when God’s Spirit invades the hearts of his people.” Since I’m doing a sermon series on the Holy Spirit, I wanted to be reminded of Pastor Cymbala’s testimony.
A major theme of the book is the central place of prayer in the life of the Spirit-led church. In 1972, shortly after Cymbala began to serve at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, a mid-week prayer meeting was launched—and in time it became the heartbeat of the congregation. Cymbala quotes Spurgeon: the prayer meeting is “a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray” (p. 28).
The Brooklyn Tabernacle is also known for its choir, led by Jim’s wife Carol Cymbala. A music publisher asked Carol, “So what’s the formula here? What makes this work?” She told him about the choir’s prayer meeting: “The life in the music comes from prayer” (p. 49). Jim observes, “The more we pray, the more we sense our need to pray. And the more we sense a need to pray, the more we want to pray.” Prayer is our “lifeline” (p. 50).
“The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer. Only when we are full of the Spirit do we feel the need for God everywhere we turn… If our churches don’t pray, and if people don’t have an appetite for God, what does it matter how many are attending our services?” And, “If we don’t want to experience God’s closeness here on earth, why would we want to go to heaven anyway?” (p. 58).
Reviewing this book reminds me of Jesus’ indignation toward those who turned the temple into a place of commerce: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). Perish the thought that we would allow any pursuit to displace the pivotal role of worship and prayer in the life of our church!
