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What I'm about to say is based on principled thinking and it's not meant as a personal criticism of any kind - I simply have passion to see the power of God restored to the ekklesia. I realize I'm sticking my neck out and am risking having people think I'm arrogant and judgmental. I'm not. I simply love Jesus enough not to be concerned what  man thinks of me. On the other hand, perfect love casts all fear. My love for the ekklesia is giving me the boldness to speak out and disregard the fear of someone being turned off by assuming I'm arrogant and judgmental.

First of all, let me clarify where I come from. My perspective and framework is not confined or even based on a specific cultural experience or a narrow religious or theological framework. I have now been in ministry for 20 years and have ministered in churches, at conferences and in Bible Schools in over 30 nations on 4 continents. I consider this the favor of Jesus and a tremendous privilege. I have had the opportunity of ministering in some of the world's poorest and smallest congregations, as well as in some of the world's richest and largest ones.

A congregation is not measured by the flavor of one meeting, conference or a program. A congregation is measured by the effectiveness of the work of the Holy Spirit in the people who represent this living and breathing temple, each one being a living stone with its own unique history, present and future calling in the Kingdom of God.

But prophetically, we are able to "take the temperature" of any church when we come into contact with them.

Building a local church is a huge challenge and only someone who has done it for any number of years can relate to the pressures that come with such a task.

Managing machines, computer programs, businesses processes or production lines is actually much easier than managing a community made up of people coming from various ethnic, social, cultural and economic backgrounds, all bound by their common commitment to Jesus and his project on the earth called "the ekklesia" (to me there is a difference between what Jesus and the apostles meant when they wrote about the ekklesia and what most people today have in mind when they talk about "the church").

I want to say all this so it's perfectly clear that the statements and the qualifications I am making are not coming from some uninformed, inexperienced preacher who is all theory and no practice. I've been in the trenches and I know - unless God has called you to establish, grow and lead a congregation, you had better not even try this stuff!  

 

BELARUS, BULGARIA AND COMMUNISM - THE KINGDOM OF GOD BREAKING THROUGH IN TOUGH PLACES.

Strong corporate prayer is a non-negotiable part of the foundation of Christian churches in oppressed countries. I offer some of my observations here.

In the fall of 2008 I had the honor of traveling to Minsk, Belarus and ministering at New Life Church. Belarus is ruled by a dictator called Lukashenko, a man who has established basically a modernized form of communism, has thrown thousands of opposition, democratic minded citizens in jail. Thousands have disappeared.

The government of this corrupt and evil dictator decided to force one of Belarus' leading churches to surrender their building. In his attempt to deprive these believers of their basic rights as people and citizens, Lukashenko demanded the church leave the premises of their building, which they had built with their own money. The Christians refused. This congregation of over 1,000 locked themselves in the building and went on a hunger strike/fast to protest the illegal and immoral actions of their own government.

I heard about this situation and contacted pastor Goncharenko, founder and leader of the church. He invited me and together with my friend and fellow minister John Isleib, we went on a trip meant to minister to these precious leaders and fellow believers.

When we arrived in Minsk, we could feel the oppression in the spiritual climate already starting at the airport. It felt very familiar to me. I was born and raised in Bulgaria, itself a former Communist satellite. Even though I founded our church in Bulgaria in 1990, shortly after the collapse of the Communist regime in Bulgaria, the last 20 years of everything Bulgaria has gone through, have been undeniably marked by the previous 45 years of harsh Communist regime.

I can smell a Marxist from a mile.

As a young leader in the 90's in Bulgaria, I have had my own share of clashes with a government largely operating out of a post-Communist mindset and in a society with very little if any respect for individual rights and freedoms.

In 1994 our church of around 1,000 members was shut down by the Bulgarian government and for 5 years we were treated like law-breakers. Today our church is restored and Bulgaria enjoys more religious freedom, largely due to its integration with the European Union.

When I heard of the situation in Belarus, I immediately knew what this church was going through. I longed for the opportunity to set my feet on the holy ground of their building, the place they had built for God's purposes with their own hands, sweat, time and money. Only someone who has lived in a Communist nation might appreciate what it means for a church to raise their own money and build their own 2,000 seat building, formerly used as a cow-shed. What the Christians of New Life have done is nothing short of a miracle. The Lord is very pleased with this church and he fights their battles.

 THROUGH THE MUD AND INTO THE GLORY

When pastor Slava picked us up from the hotel to go to our first service, we were full of expectation. And we didn't get disappointed.

We drove to the outskirts of the city. It was a chilly November evening. There is a ring road that circles the city and it's the farthest you can go if you don't have a car. From the bust stop there is a road that goes for about half a mile to the actual church building. It's a dirt road that gets muddy when it rains. As the car passed slowly, we watched people streaming from the bus stop on their way to the church building - young, old, families with kids. It was an amazing sight I would never forget. I wish I could have had there with me every American believer just watch this procession of people making their way through the mud and towards their beloved building.

But it's not the building alone that unites all these believers in their commitment. It's what's happening in the building that raises the stakes of this whole operation.

When we arrived, the service had begun. As soon as we stepped through the doors, we were immediately translated into a completely different spiritual climate from anything we felt in Minsk. There was the familiar feeling of liberty, worship, praise, healing, lightness of heart, joy and cleanness. I could sense the glory of God as a liquid movement in the air. The believers were worshipping caught up in a world only born-again Christians can understand. The natural, carnal mind is unable to grasp these things.

We preached, prayed and prophesied. We laid hands, we hugged people, we cried.

When the people began to pray together, it was like an electric current going through the air. Anyone with a little spiritual discernment would recognize that the presence of God has crowned New Life Church, the people who made up the congregation, their building, everything they did.

It was a familiar scene, familiar spiritual climate. It was so identical to what our church in Bulgaria had gone through in the 90's. I felt at home.

To this day, I remain dedicated to the leaders and the people of New Life Church, praying with them for breakthrough.

New Life Church is not the only church where I have felt the power of God released in the spiritual climate through the corporate prayer of the saints.

It was the very same dimension of the Holy Spirit I experienced in our own church in the early 90s in Bulgaria. It was in the Bible School I went to in Sweden in 1991. I felt the same strong presence of God in Malaysia, Singapore and Ethiopia. I can go on and on with many other examples of places and churches where I have experienced and detected the same breakthrough level spiritual power released throughout the corporate prayer of the saints.

WHY NOT IN AMERICA?

Thankfully, I have been in some churches in America where this dimension of God is not unknown. But largely, based on my observations and those of other fellow ministers, it's a rare occurrence.

Most churches lack the power of God when they pray together. In fact, most churches have never experienced strong corporate prayer and intercession. They have been sold the lie that prayer and intercession is only for the select few, possibly some older saints are into the "prayer thing".  

This morning, as the worship ended and the pastor prepared the transition towards the offering, I couldn't help but sense the weakness of the corporate prayer.

In America, I dread the moment when the pastor says something like "Let's pray". It's the worst time of the service. Everyone closes their eyes and mouths, this specific kind of silence falls over the gathering and everyone nods their heads as they listen to the pastor's prayer over the mic.

People have never been taught and trained how to open their precious little mouths, how to release their prayer language and how to begin to flow in the Spirit. They have been robbed, mostly by their ignorant leaders, from one of the most precious and powerful means of releasing the power of God on the earth.

As we experienced again this morning the same identical moment-of-silence-mistakenly-called-prayer in this otherwise very nice and clean congregation, I kept thinking of Belarus and all the other places where I have been. I kept thinking - Why not in America, God?

I don't know how long this will continue, but someone has to tell the church the inconvenient fact that the powerless corporate prayer that's going on is a fake substitute of something completely different God intended for his ekklesia. That it's not a Russian, Eastern European or an African "thing" to do or a way to pray. That there is power when the ekklesia gathers and begins to pray with power to release the Kingdom of God and his glory in the earth.

The time is coming and it is soon, when people will snap out of their meditational modes of powerless intercessory prayer.

Every time I visit yet another otherwise well functioning congregation and I experience their weak corporate prayer, I become even more determined to speak up and challenge the status quo. To knock down whatever tables of politics or ignorance need to be knocked down in the temple in order for us to see the church become once again a house of prayer for all nations. I want to see her become a house of strong prayer for all nations. It is only from a position of strength we will be able to reach our world for Jesus Christ and manifest the glory of God. 

George Bakalov