The Invisible Ministry

An invisible ministry of the church is the ministry of prayer.  When it goes off to some distant part of the world to do mission work, or when it stands behind a counter serving food to the hungry, or when it gathers for worship, the church stands in a way visible to the world.  When it prays, as it must if it is to be faithful to its mandate, no one sees and quite often no one gets excited.  The last chapter of James is one of those Words from the Scripture which make it clear that prayer is not an option for the church, but a part of its divine mandate.  

A church that does not take seriously the work of praying is destined to become a powerless and empty church.  It is always interesting that when we encounter someone who is sick or struggling and in need of prayer that we will finally say, "I don't know what to do.  All I can do is pray."  We phrase our words as if there are surely more important things we could be doing than praying when the exact opposite is true.  When we pray the prayers from our own heart and when we pray the prayers of the church, we are kneeling in an intersection made by raw human need and the unleashed power of God.  At such an intersection there in limit to the possibilities which are unfolding before us.   

When we are asked by some sufferer to pray, we are being asked to do the most important work.  It may not be a work that is visible to our need to be involved with some helpful act of service, but it is an invisible ministry which might be likened unto throwing a stone in a lake.  Even as we can never see where the last ripple touches, so is it true that we cannot see where the rippling effects of our prayer ends.