You may have read the following illustration before: “One of the largest, strongest horses in the world is the Belgian draft horse. Competitions are held to see which horse can pull the most, and one Belgian can pull 8,000 pounds. The strength involved in this is hard to imagine. So then, we can speculate what would happen if we hooked up two draft horses to a load. If you immediately thought two draft horses could pull 16,000 pounds because one draft horse can pull 8,000 pounds, you would be wrong. Two draft horses pulling together cannot pull twice as much as one. They can actually pull three times as much. The two draft horses that can each pull 8,000 pounds alone, can pull 24,000 pounds working together. This example represents the power of synergy. However, if the two horses are raised and trained together, they learn to pull and think as one. The trained, and therefore unified pair, can pull 30,000 – 32,000 pounds, almost four times as much as a single horse.” (Unkown)
This illustration refers to the power of synergy. The root word “syn” means together, and the combined Greek word “ergo” means work. Synergy is working together to do more than we can do alone. As illustrated above, there is greater power and ability in working together. This is obviously true of horses, but only a renewed mind can imagine the possibilities of the power of synergy exercised in the lives of God’s people doing Kingdom work across the entire state of Montana. Praise God! Will you dream with me and others in our state, and will you work together to experience a movement of God in Big Sky country?
I’m convinced that all movements of God begin with prayer. S. D. Gordon said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” Believing in the power and necessity of prayer, I humbly ask you to join me in praying to God for Montana. As part of Go-Montana, and because of our great need for God to work among us, this is A CALL TO PRAYER. I’ve put together a few simple ideas to unite us in prayer. These ideas work together to form a state-wide prayer strategy. The objective is for us to collaborate with one another in order to saturate Montana with prayer for evangelism and church planting, and thus fulfill the Great Commission our Lord has given to us.
Here are some ways we can unite together in prayer:
- The first thing I’d like for us to establish is a day of prayer and fasting for evangelism and church planting in Montana. We will promote this as 406 Prayer & Fasting! 406 of course, is our area code. This ties us directly to the idea of it being a state-wide effort. 4/06/2021 – April 6, 2021 will be our first day of prayer and fasting for Montana.
- Another effort will be designated as Pray 52. – There are fifty-two weeks in a year, and fifty-two Sundays in 2021. In this effort, we will ask fifty-two pastors to write fifty-two scripture-based prayers for evangelism and church planting in Montana. They will be made available in a digital format on our social media outlets. You’ll be able to print them if you like. The idea is for us to be united in praying for lost people every week of the year. It doesn’t matter what day of the week you choose, or how you share it with your church. It’s customizable!
- We will also try to highlight prayer with Go-Montana Prayers. 12 pastors will be asked to make short videos where they will read scripture, emphasize prayer, use powerful quotes or illustrations, and pray. These will be sent to all of our churches at the first of every month.
- Go-Montana Prayer Meetings – (solemn assemblies) Go Montana prayer meetings will be organized for pastors and churches to come together in different regions, simultaneously, and pray. This would likely take place once in the spring and once in the fall.
- Go-Montana Prayer Times – In an effort to try and saturate our state with prayer, we want to pray every day for at least a moment or two in the morning, and in the afternoon. Set your alarm and pray with everyone at the same time! The times are 10:02 in the morning based on Luke 10:2, and 4:06 in the afternoon, again tying us directly to the state of MONTANA. (our area code) Go ahead. Set you alarms and start praying now!
- Go-Montana Online Prayer Meetings – Imagine if over 100 of us gathered online for a zoom call for the sole purpose of praying for Montana. This will be an effort to gather as many people as possible online for prayer. Prayer assignments will be given prior to the activity. We will plan these meeting for once a quarter.
I hope the idea of uniting in prayer for a movement of God excites you in the same way that it does me. The potential for creating synergy in our work across the state is tremendous, and the outcomes are known only to God at this point.
Stephen Covey writes, “Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.”
A great challenge lies before us, but there is strength in numbers. I have no doubt, but that God has called us to work together. We are better together. So, let’s unite in pray across this great state. Let’s share the gospel together. Let’s plant churches together. Let’s ask God for spiritual synergy among our MTSBC family of churches that will penetrate darkness, transform lives, and rescue the perishing.
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