A growing trend

There is a movement of God that has been growing for over a decade to see houses of prayer rise up all over the nations. What is a house of prayer? It is simply a place where offerings of worship rise before the Lord 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is not a requirement of a house of prayer to go 24/7, but rather a goal. Out of continual prayer comes an anointing of the Spirit of God that equips a community to love Jesus and love one another well.

Brad Christerson, a professor of sociology at Biola, was recently quoted in the Los Angeles Times concerning the development of the prayer movement at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo.

“It’s probably one of the fastest growing movements within the broad evangelicalism,” he said.

Being expressive in worship

Biola needs a place on campus where we students can intentionally enter into the presence of the Lord any time of the day to worship him by giving him our attention, our time, our adoration, our lives. To be a people who will impact the world for Jesus Christ, we need to know the man Jesus Christ in an intimate, personal way, and we can encounter this man by seeking him in the place of prayer. The Holy Spirit comes and illuminates all truth of who God is when we simply take the time to ask.

Creating an environment that encourages and nurtures this kind of interaction with God can be done by replacing the stiff ambiance of pews and altars with continual live worship and an open heart to what God wants to do. Practically, it just takes one medium-sized room, a guitar and someone who can play it — and a community of people who want to talk with God. Sorry, but Rose of Sharon doesn’t cut it. Sometimes an expression of great joy or great frustration is needed in order to communicate with God, but Rose of Sharon is not the most expression-friendly environment. The rooms that have been dedicated to prayer on campus are great for a quiet get-away or quick cat nap (don’t deny it) but an atmosphere that encourages the focus and attention God deserves from us can be created by intentionally engaging our minds in worship. There is something about music that keeps our hearts and our minds focused. We have already seen a model that keeps us invested in prayer succeed on campus through the prayer rooms created for Missions and Torrey Conferences, so why not keep it going?

More than enough students were willing to commit an hour or two to worshipping in the prayer room so that the full 24 hours were easily covered. Live worship night and day might not be practical right away, but as the prayer room grew and developed over the long run, more people would join with a desire to keep the fire on the altar burning. It is not about reaching the 24-hour goal, it is about students’ hearts being wooed to a place of intimacy with the living God.

Many ministries on campus are already spending concentrated amounts of time in prayer, such as the Student Missionary Union, Biola Asian Student Association and Revive. A prayer room would unite them in focus and location, while letting each group retain its personal prayer style.

Trusting in God’s grace

Being college students, the immediate question that arises is, “How would we even have the time for this? Don’t we have enough to do as it is?” The point of a prayer room is not to add something more to our to-do lists but rather to create open space to listen for the God who speaks and to receive from the God who desires to give good gifts to his children. Yes, time management is important, but it’s just silly to not trust that the Lord will bless us with the ability to get everything done that we need to after surrendering our time to a sovereign God. “But we already attend chapels and learn about God in our Bible classes. Isn’t that enough?” Those things are required of us as students at Biola University. God desires more from us than what is simply required. Following the vein of checking things off a list to appease God’s will leads to a life lacking grace and being stuck living religiously rather than relationally. In regards to whether a house of prayer should be established at Biola, the question we all must ask ourselves is, “Is he not worthy?”