Preparing for the Prayer Summit

I had the opportunity over the weekend, prior to the opening of today’s Christian Reformed Church Prayer Summit 2015, to meet with several people in California who will attend the summit.

The summit — the third one the CRC has held — takes place at All Nations CRC in Lake View Terrace, north of Los Angeles. All of the summits have been held here. The event begins today at 2 p.m. and runs through noon on Wednesday.

At the heart of what I talked to people about are the enduring power of prayer and the value the CRC is placing on prayer by holding these summits.

People also spoke about how prayer has touched and shaped their lives — and the lives of their churches — in important ways for many years.

For instance, I spoke to Kyu Paek, an elder at Orange County Korean CRC, Westminster, one of the largest Korean CRCs in the denomination.

Paek, whose career is in science/engineering,  also serves on the CRC’s Board of Trustees.

I sat with him during the traditional Korean service at his church on Sunday. I didn’t understand the words to the service but enjoyed and appreciated the powerful singing of the robed choir and the animated preaching of the pastor.

Afterward, Paek and I had coffee together, and he talked about prayer.

“We all agree prayer is more important than anything in the Christian life,” he said. “It is like air. If you don’t breathe, you don’t live.”

Paek participates often in prayer times at his church and hopes to battle freeway traffic from his job this week to attend summit sessions at night.

“I can’t see a day go by without prayer,” he said. “The day has to start with prayer and end with prayer.”

He says he appreciates the fact that the CRC holds the summit, but he also is concerned that more resources need to become available to make sure future summits happen.

Paek’s wife, Grace, is a director of the Global Coffee Break ministry and plans to be on hand the entire time. “The summit is exciting,” she says. “I have had the summit in my prayers for many months now. I love to see so many people come from so far away to participate.”

David Kong, pastor of a small CRC congregation in Santa Clarita, will also be at the summit.

We met in a coffee shop, and he spoke of what is called the Korean style of early-morning prayer, a type of pre-dawn prayer that people will be praying at the summit.

He and his wife get up every morning about 5 a.m. to go to the Lutheran church where his congregation meets on Sundays. For many years, it has only been them praying in the dim church. Now, a few more gather with them.

But they are committed to praying at that time of day. “It is mostly a matter of disciplining yourself to wake up. Now it is automatic for me.”

Kong began doing it many years ago, after he lost a job, and wanted to find a stronger connection to God.

“After I pray early-morning prayer, I feel very clean and refreshed and ready to start the day. Now it is an important part of my life.”

He says he has been surprised by how much he learned in attending the summits. “I have been praying for over 30 years, but the summits challenge me and remind me of the power of prayer, especially when people gather together to pray with one another for certain topics.”

Late Sunday afternoon, I had the chance to meet people at a church that has been able to hold on and transform itself through prayer.

Located in Sun City, Bethel CRC was founded about 35 years ago by members mainly from a Dutch CRC background. The neighborhood surrounding it was primarily of Dutch background at the time.

But as the economy grew shaky and Dutch families moved out, the church fell on difficult times and was faced with the possibility of closing.

A long series of events, including intense periods of prayerful introspection and support from agencies and programs of the CRC, helped the church turn the corner.

At some point, especially through unflagging prayer, this church, the people there told me, came to see that its future involved becoming intentionally multicultural.

“We’ve been growing quite a bit since 2010,” said Micah Bruxvoort, the senior pastor, who speaks fluent Spanish. “It’s wonderful to see what God through prayer is doing here.”

I was there for the evening service in the family center and saw the answer to prayer: people from Hispanic, African, Asian, and other backgrounds gathered for worship with long-time members who were Dutch.

Once people took  their seats, Julius Umawing, an associate pastor, prayed, echoing prayers that this church, tucked in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, has prayed for decades.

“Lord, you know our struggles and fears. You know our needs in every situation, and you are able to deliver us, to show us how much you care, how much you love us.

“Remind us, Lord, of how good you are. Help us, Lord, to see your glory.”

Evening worship entailed singing and watching a segment in a series on prayer titled “In the Dust of the Rabbi,” after which people gathered in small groups to discuss what they saw and to pray. They then had a potluck meal together.

“Our evening service gives people more of chance to learn about prayer and to pray,” said Umawing.

Umawing and two women from Bethel CRC are signed up to attend the this year’s prayer summit. One of them is Cristina Garcia, who says she is looking forward to being there to hear the testimonies, to view the videos, and especially to be in prayer with others.

“Prayer is so important to this church, and what I learn there I will be able to bring back here,” she said.

Kathy Klaasen, a long-time member of Bethel, won’t be at the summit for the sessions during the day.

But she plans to attend the open sessions at the summit during the evening. That’s what she’s done in the past.

For her, as with many others at Bethel, prayer is key — and it has been especially important to Bethel’s ongoing ability to do ministry in its neighborhood.

“Who we are, and what we are, is a result of the story God gives us through his grace and through prayer,” she said. “God has drawn us together, and now people are inviting other people to attend, and we’ve learned to accept and embrace one another’s culture.”

But none of it could have happened, nor would it be happening, without prayer.

As a result, she says, she deeply appreciates the fact that the CRC has committed itself to putting on the prayer summit.

“It’s so beautiful, so exciting that the church is supporting it,” she said. “Imagine this: It is not a conference or a big meeting. It is just a summit for prayer, for people to gather and bow before God.”