by Ken Barner
Associate Pastor at Crossroads Ministires/Library Baptist, Pittsburgh, PA
For several years I have been trying to reach the “twenty-somethings,” but it seemed no one was interested. I thought, “This is just the way it is; not many churches are reaching young adults; it’s a rough time of life; maybe they will come back to church after they have their first child.”
But 2 Peter 3:9 says, “God is not willing that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.” So we continued to pray and began a Bible study at the local coffee house. We call our group “Seven 24” because that’s the time we start the meeting. The group is open to anyone out of high school, married or single, aged 18 to 30. For one year, a handful of people met at the coffee house in an unheated and non airconditioned room. At times there were only three of us.
One year ago our group decided to form a band, do a concert, and reach their friends. On a Friday night last July, they did their concert and 70 people attended. Since then, we meet in the church auditorium every Thursday night. We crank up the grill, the food is good, and the fellowship is high. The band faithfully shows up and seeks the Lord in prayer. They play three or four songs and then we open God’s Word. We have seen over 100 people come through our doors, and there are now about 50 attending regularly. Through the past year, many have been saved, and ten have been baptized. We attribute this to answered prayer. On Wednesday nights, our church prayer meeting lifts up Seven 24 before the Lord. Two hundred people signed up for our church’s Summer Prayer Emphasis and have prayed daily for Seven 24 and other ministries of the church. Today our young adult ministry intern asked the Lord to surprise us, to show His power.
Tonight was a hot Thursday in August, and we felt few would attend, but there were many new faces! God was surprising us as we had asked. There were nearly 50 people, though many of our regulars were on vacation. Greeting people with an attitude of prayer, I was beseeching the Lord for His power on the meeting.
One 25-year-old man, his arms covered in tattoos, sat in the foyer, apparently despondent. I asked him if his friends had “dragged him here.” He said, “Yes,” and told me he was not comfortable being in church. I encouraged him to hang around and give it a try. The meeting started, the band played, and the message was presented. As the invitation was given, 10 people responded by raised hand to indicate they had prayed the prayer of salvation. Then I invited whoever would like to kneel at the altar to pray, to come and do so. And, wow, the tough guy that said he was “dragged to church” came forward to pray! Then another big tough guy came forward, and there was a real move of God. To watch people this age walk to the altar was one of the most memorable moments of my ministry. I stood there with tears in my eyes. As I watched, one by one, God drew these people to Himself.
As the meeting dismissed, one young man, about 25 years old, walked to the front and said, “I have something to say.” He said, “I came to Christ at 16 years of age, but I have fallen away and was on drugs. But I came into Seven 24 a couple months ago and I heard about God’s love for me. God is back in my life. Tonight I am rededicating my life to God. Next Thursday I want to be baptized!”
Then the guy who was “dragged to church” pulled me aside, said He really needed God in his life, and said tonight was the start of something new for him. He received the Lord as his Savior. His girlfriend told me that tonight was the first time he had ever stepped foot into a church. I wept, thanking God for this answer to prayer; thanking God that He has entrusted us with lost people.
I know this is a result of the hand of God and the people of God humbling themselves and praying. Our intern often prays with one young man who has a physical disability. I believe that young man is one of our biggest prayer warriors. He remembers everyone’s name, tries to greet everyone, and is sold out in prayer. I thank God for this guy. I believe God is calling him to a ministry of prayer, and that he will step up to take the place of some of our older prayer warriors when they move on to Glory.
I don’t know what God has in store; I just know that this ministry is His. We are lifting Him up and He is drawing people to Himself. We are praying, and every week we are seeing miracles — people coming to Christ, believers coming back to God, and lives being changed by the power of God. I am thankful to be in a praying church. We know that this is a journey of prayer.