Tough Topic: Hard Times

I don’t know about you…(nah let’s keep it real) I bet I do know this about you because it’s the same thing for me: these are HARD TIMES!  18 months ago I remember joking with my ministry peers during a church board meeting that I sit on. It was the time when everyone began to forecast the blistering recession that we are now in. All of the news pundits were predicting an economic meltdown for the next 3-5 years and I simply said, “Well, that ain’t nothing new, I can just tell the rest of America ‘welcome to my world’ cause I’ve been here for quite a while.” 

Things looked quite different back then as we were ‘heading’ into this season; now that we are in the middle (hopefully) I can say that I’ve never been here before!  People are losing jobs (including myself) on every hand! So many friends who I just knew were secure in their jobs, ministries and calling are being shaken. 

I've personally come to the conclusion that in HARD TIMES WE MUST PRAY HARDER.  Now that doesn’t mean that we have to pray louder, uglier or with more charisma; neither does it imply that we didn’t have a prayer life prior to this season (you know where you’re at—no condemnation) but we know that hard times tend to produce treasures in us that could never be attained in easy times and those treasures are confirmed within us through prayer. 

If you want to run with God then you have to learn how to navigate the deep waters of tribulation and hold steady the rudder communication with him through the storm.  Well, before I start preaching (and I do feel my Holy Ghost stirrin’ up) let me share with you a campaign on prayer that I just finished conducting with at a local church that I minister at.

A good title if you’re interested is: Prayer: the most reliable network (we used the whole Verizon ‘Can you hear me now’ guy for a visual connector.  It worked great!  Below are some tools that we used along with an opportunity to get the raw files for FREE if you’re interested in using them.  Folks here’s the bottom line behind the thrust of this campaign: We as leaders MUST train and encourage our people to become people of prayer.  It’s in hard times like this that so many fall away but if we help our students learn how to ‘pray through’ as opposed to ‘Throwing out’ prayer we will set them up to win in life.  It’s old school but we need it!  Check out the tools and I hope they help.

Tools from Fred

Should The Church Be Cursed (HOOK CARD)

Cool looking card: Side 1 has graphics that show poverty, locked doors, confusion & stress. This is actually a card that we passed out all over Arlington as a tool to ‘hook’ and gain the attention of the community.  The card is blunt with the question: Should the church be cursed? The idea behind the card is 2 Chronicles 7:13 where God explains that when ever there is a famine in the land that we the people of God have an opportunity to call out to him and make a difference.  Yea you guessed it: 2 Chronicles 7:14!  I just decided to approach the idea from the back door with the idea that suggests that if we DON’T pray, we will remain ‘cursed’.   Side 2 provides the answer with hands of prayer and an invite to an all night prayer meeting.  Now we don’t place on the card that the event is a prayer meeting we just provoke people to come by writing, “Come to cast your vote. It’s a great ‘hook’ that raised many opportunities for conversation.

House of Prayer (door hanger)

The door hanger was an idea that inspired people to turn their houses into ‘a house of prayer’.  I designed a prayer ‘floor plan’ and put it on a door hanger that we passed out to people all over the community.  This served as a great resource because it empowered God’s people to pray, gave them a creative prayer resource and informed them of the church.  All for free!  If you’re interested in getting these files in their Photoshop form to custom make them just email me and I’ll hook you up!

We also developed other resources like the 3G Network posters, and a 31 day prayer journal with tons of resources and prayer helps.  I hope these tools are some helps that will encourage you to rally the troops in these ruff times to stand strong.  Be encouraged and remember tough times don’t last but tough people know how to pray harder!

Sharing the gospel from ‘Street to Street’

Fred D. Lynch III
GodStyle Productions

Fred Lynch is the founder of GodStyle Productions. A ministry committed to changing youth culture. For more information on Fred, go to www.godstyle.com or check out his latest project The Script (the gospel of John translated into rap) at: www.gettheepic.com