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To prepare for Village Missions’ celebration of sixty years at staff conferences, Lisa West has been digging through the archives.  She found the first issue of a publication called “Village Missionary,” the forerunner, I believe, of what became Tempo Magazine and now is Country Matters.  This first issue was dated January 1956, only eight years after the beginning of our Mission.

Helen D. Baugh and Mary E. Clark, founders of Stonecroft Ministries and co-founders with Rev. Walter Duff of Village Missions, wrote the lead article, called “A New Year’s Message.”  They began:

Traveling as we do, from coast to coast, we are appalled and alarmed at the complacency and utter unconcern on the part of so many Christians for those who know not the Way of Life.  So general is this attitude, even among spiritually minded people, that it has become a burden on our hearts.

What is their solution to the terrible complacency they have observed across the country?  They call on members of the Stonecroft and Village Missions’ family to pray:

Prayer has always been the most essential part of this ministry.  In this new year of 1956 we are asking the Lord to give us thousands more Christians, both men and women, who are willing to keep a “daily appointment” with the Lord, to join us in this mighty movement of prayer.  Pray is power and “…the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits” (Dan 11:32).

Now in this 60^th anniversary year we are issuing this same call to pray.  We are asking the entire Village Missionary family, Stonecroft Ministries, Village Missionaries, the church congregations we serve, and partners, to pray earnestly for the spiritual needs of this country and Canada and for Village Missions and Stonecroft Ministries to be more effective in meeting those needs.  The theme of this year’s staff conference will be “Celebrating 60 Years: Advancing on our Knees.”  I am convinced that the only way any Christian organization can advance is on its knees.

Helen D. Baugh and Mary E. Clark knew that times of difficulty and crisis call for times of prayer.  Our theme verse for staff conference, Ephesians 6:18, teaches this.  Paul writes this verse after calling on the Ephesian believers to be “strong in the Lord” (Eph 6:10).  They are to “put on the full armor of God” in order that they might “stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph 6:11).  Paul then describes the true nature of our struggle.  We face a struggle whether as individuals or as a Mission that is not against the things we observe.  Instead, it is a spiritual struggle against a host of spiritual forces arrayed in battle against us (Eph 6:12).  We will experience an “evil day” in which we must have on the “full armor of God” in order to “resist” and “stand firm” (Eph 6:13). 

Paul then describes all that is involved in wearing the full armor of God.  The picture is of a Roman soldier, fully clothed in armor and with his shield (the shield of faith-Eph 6:16) and his sword (the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God-Eph 6:17).  He is ready for battle and ready to stand firm in the evil day.

But what is this soldier to do?  He is to drop to his knees (my picture of prayer) and pray!  Having all our armor on, we join the battle with prayer.  We will not be strong, we will not stand firm, we will not resist in the evil day without the ongoing prayer that Paul describes in Ephesians 6:18.  It will be prayer that includes all forms of communication with God as well as earnest requests (prayer and petition).  It will be prayer that is part of the warp and woof of daily life (at all times).  It will be prayer that recognizes what it means to be a new creature in Christ (in the Spirit).  It will be prayer that is perceptive (be on the alert with all perseverance and petition).  It will be prayer that extends beyond the boundaries of personal concern (for all the saints).  With the full armor of God, such is the type of praying we must do in the evil day.

Do you have any doubt that we are in an evil day?  I recently read an article in World Magazine titled “Spirits of the age” (Feb. 8).  In this article, Joel Belz describes a conference that considered how spirituality other than Biblical Christianity is replacing secular humanism.  He mentions that the fastest growing religions today in China are Buddhism and Taoism, not Christianity.  He writes:

From Islam came frightening themes.  That religion’s emphasis on “subjugating the enemy”-whether a foreign power or your own wife-seems strangely to be attracting the interest even of non-Muslims around the world.  From Africa comes word of reversion to witchcraft and darkly pagan practices.  If these packages come wrapped with superstition and even violence, so be it.  Conferees heard from a former practicing astrologer who described some of the inroads that field is making even into evangelical churches.  And they heard how pagan spirituality has wormed its way into both modern feminism and the ecological movement.

If we are to advance against the spiritual forces of wickedness in this evil day, we must pray.  Will you pray with us?  You can subscribe to prayer updates from us on our home page.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 9:59 am and is filed under Christian life, Knowing Christ, Village Missions, church, prayer, rural, small church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.