Tag Archives: Charles Finney

Are you embracing emotionalism? (Updated)

Having grown up in the church all of my life I have heard the challenge against “emotionalism.” This normally follows someone, who is a young believer, doing something that out of order. This “emotionalism” can be attached to a lot of unhealthy things that can happen in a church. I live in the wintry, upper Midwest of the USA where we are affectionately called the Frozen Chosen. We are definitely on the calm side of the calm/emotional spectrum.

But this idea of the calm/emotional spectrum leads me to a challenge that people in my neck of the woods struggle. Merriam-Webster.com has one of the definitions of emotionalism as, “undue indulgence in or display of emotion.” And those of us who have seen this in church say a hearty, “amen.” Actually where I live a hearty “amen” could be called emotionalism.

What if you move to far in the other direction? What if our fear of emotionalism causes us to disengage our heart completely? If some of us expressed our love to our spouses with the same emotion that we express toward God we would end up in marriage counseling. Jesus called us to love the Lord with all our heart and soul. I think that includes our emotions.

I will love the Lord with all my heart and that includes my emotions!
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We can miss out on a lot if we do not engage our emotions. Charles Finney would go so far as to say that “excitements” are the only way for the church to grow.

David’s wife Michal was appalled at David’s dancing and I can be in danger of becoming like her. The answer, as in most cases, is an internal look. Ask yourself, “Which end of the spectrum am I?” If you find yourself in an emotionless religion then you must find new ways to engage your heart. It may be scary for a couple reasons. One: engaging our emotions before God does not always feel safe to start with because we are not used to it. Two: we may fear that our friends will charge us with “emotionalism”.

I want to challenge you that the journey will be worth it and may just bring new life to your walk with Jesus. It will also give us more grace for brothers and sisters who happen to slip into “emotionalism.” You may provide healthy models for others on how to express emotion in their seeking of God.

For thoughts on emotion and prayer watch this and if you want to engage your emotions and are having a hard time start here

10 Reasons Why People Don’t Come To Your Prayer Meeting

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Most pastors will tell me that the most important meeting of the church is the prayer meeting. They will also tell me that it is the least attended meeting in their church. I am told that people will come easy to a pot luck but not to a prayer meeting. But the power of a well attended prayer meeting is vital to a church.

I have been amazed at the connection between the size of the Sunday morning service and the size of the prayer meeting. It is consistently 10 percent of the Sunday morning attendance that is at the prayer meeting. An increase in attendance at the prayer meeting seems to increase attend on Sunday morning to get it back to that 10%.

But people don’t seem to like to come to pray meetings. Now I understand that part of that has to do with spiritual warfare. The enemy would love nothing better than to have people come to the prayer meeting.

That however is only part of the story. There are things as leaders that you can do to help the meeting be better attended. Here are 10 ideas why people don’t come to get you started.

1. The prayer meeting is boring.

People are struggling already that prayer is boring. The last thing they need is to come to a prayer meeting and find that also to be true. Creativity is a key to that.

2. The prayer meeting is a gossip session.

It is too easy for prayer requests from the floor to simply become a means to gossip. This behavior needs to be dealt with and taught how to be avoided.

3. No leadership in the meeting.

Some leaders are intimidated because they are not the best prayer person in the room. What the meeting needs is leadership not for the strongest prayer person to be in charge.

4. People are scared they will be called on to pray.

I try to never call on people to pray who I haven’t asked beforehand. It breeds an atmosphere of fear for new people.

5. They fear no end time.

Every prayer meeting should have an end time that is very clear. You can allow people to stay longer if they want, but people fear getting stuck in a meeting that they can’t get out.

6. It doesn’t seem to be a priority of the leadership.

If you are the leader of the group and this is a priority for the church or ministry you must make it a priority yourself. If the time doesn’t work for you don’t make it the main prayer time.

7. Not engaging their whole being.

Sitting or standing for the whole time will cause people to check out. Engaging the head and not the heart is not good, and so is touching the heart but not the head.

8. They fear a meeting with no variety.

If the prayer meeting is exactly the same forever and ever with no life people will not come back.

9. The prayer meeting takes place in the dungeon of the church.

Too often the prayer meeting is held in the most sad or distracting room of the church. Think through where you meet come up with some ideas to switch it up.

10. Long winded prayers without power.

Charles Finney encouraged people in the meeting to pray short prayers with passion. He would only have people pray who he knew would lead people in prayer. Key decisions about a meeting can be who ends up praying.

If you would like to dig deeper on a strategy of building a church that prays I recommend the Prayer Saturated Church by Cheryl Sacks.