Persecuted Church

             And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.  (Acts 8:1)

This past Wednesday, our prayer meeting was dedicated to praying for the persecuted Church. I want to make this clear: I am completely in favor of praying for the persecuted Church. They need our prayers and it is our responsibility and privilege to pray for them. We should be praying for the persecuted Church.

At the same time, however, I think we must be careful with this idea. We have a tendency to try to divide the needy into the “truly” needy and the whiners, and there are valid reasons for not responding to them in quite the same way. The problem is, we tend to compare the two, and if someone doesn’t measure up to the level of suffering we deem sufficient to be considered persecuted, we dismiss them. They don’t need our prayers, the just need a kick in the seat of the pants and to be reminded how much worse someone else has it. In other words, we persecute those who don’t have it bad enough.

But if we are going to pray for the persecuted Church (and we should), there are other parts of the Church that also need our prayers. There is the sleeping Church that needs revival, and therefore, our prayers. In some parts of the world, the Church is being tempted with power, wealth, and fame. It is being seduced by the world to use the tools of the world to mount a pedestal and bask in its glory. Of course, it’s all for God’s glory… Uh huh. The tempted/seduced/conned/rich-and-powerful Church needs our prayers. There is no part of the Church that does not need our prayers.