A Note from Michael Gossett | October 9, 2026

A Healthy Church:

A Church That Prays

When I was a kid, we tried to go on a family vacation every summer. One year in particular was very memorable for me. On our way back from the beach, we stopped in Charleston, SC to tour some old naval vessels and a submarine. I remember going down into the submarine wondering how people survived underwater for so long on deployments. But one part in particular really stood out to me. After going further down the vessel, behind a heavy steel door was the engine room. It is hot down there, and I imagine incredibly loud, and really (if I am being honest), not much to look at. However, I remember one of the guides saying, “Nothing else is impossible apart from what happens in this room. This engine room keeps everything else going.” Charles Spurgeon understood that about the church. When visitors came to London marveling at the enormous crowds and the preaching, he would sometimes take them downstairs to the room where his people gathered to pray, and he would tell them, this is the engine of this church. The real power of that church was generated right there, on its knees, in a room most people never thought to look at.

The book of Acts shows us that engine room running at full power. Peter and John had just been brought before the ruling council in Jerusalem, warned to stop preaching about Jesus, and finally let go with the threat right behind them. But this is what we read next in Acts 4:23-31: 

“²³ After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, ‘Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them. ²⁵ You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant: 

Why do the Gentiles rage
and the peoples plot futile things?
²⁶ The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers assemble together
against the Lord and against his Messiah.

²⁷ For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ²⁸ to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place. ²⁹ And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, ³⁰ while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ ³¹ When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.”

Run to God First

Luke tells us the moment Peter and John were released, they went straight back to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and elders had said. Here is the first thing you and I need to notice. “They raised their voices together to God.” They are all receiving active threats and these are real threats. Not slaps on the wrists, but threats of genuinely losing their lives if they don’t stop. The reflex of this church was not to hide or be quiet, but it was to pray! Out loud. One voice. Together! Nobody had to lead this, it was just instinctive of who they were. They ran to God together and prayed. 

This is why we are committed to a Wednesday night prayer gathering. It is not flashy, it is not showy, there are no lights, smoke, choir, orchestra, band, none of that. Just a few songs organically played, God’s people, and prayer. This is the ground that you and I must stand on in every moment of life. It is really hard to make the commitment, but it is worth it. 

For these believers, it was their first reaction for everything in life. Whether in challenging times, or good times, their first response was to go to the Lord in prayer. 

The Lord is Sovereign

Now listen to how they pray, because the words of their prayer really help us as well. “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.” Before a single word about the threats, they remind themselves who they are speaking to, the sovereign Maker of everything that exists. Then they reach for Scripture and quote Psalm 2, how the nations rage and the kings of the earth take their stand against the Lord and against His anointed. Then they say something incredible. They look straight at the worst injustice in the history of the world, the crucifixion of Jesus, where Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and Israel all conspired against God's holy servant, and they declare that even that was done to accomplish whatever God's hand and plan had predestined to take place.

Church, feel the comfort that is almost hidden in that sentence. The same hands that nailed Jesus to the cross never once caught God off guard. In their rebellion they were carrying out the very plan God had purposed before the foundation of the world to save us. If God was sovereign over the murder of His own Son, and brought our salvation out of it, then he is sovereign over every modern heir of Herod and every threat they could ever make. Calvin called prayer the chief exercise of our faith, the way we actually lay hold of the riches God has promised. That is exactly what these believers are doing. They are preaching the sovereignty of God to their own frightened hearts, and it is steadying them right there on their knees. A church that prays to a small god will always be a timid church. A church that prays to the God of Acts 4 can walk straight into the firewithout any hesitation. I know that I want to be that man. I know I want to be a part of that church. Storming hell with water pistols is my desire. This takes more than a moment of courage, it requires a life committed to prayer in private and in public.

Ask for Boldness

Now here is the part that should really make us think. After rehearsing the power and the sovereignty of God, listen to what they actually ask Him for. “And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness.” You and I might well have prayed for the threats to stop. Lord, make these men back off. Lord, keep us safe. Lord, deal with our enemies. They prayed for courage to keep preaching the very message that had just gotten them arrested.

I am not sure that I would have prayed in the same way. Their great concern in that horrific moment was that the word of God would keep moving forward. They took their very real fear, laid it in front of a sovereign God, and asked Him to make them brave inside the danger. A healthy church does not pray mostly for the removal of every hardship. It prays for the boldness to stay faithful in the middle of it, because the gospel going out matters more to it than its own comfort.

Earth Shaking Prayer

And God answered. “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.” The very thing they asked for is the very thing God handed them. They prayed for boldness, and He filled them with His Spirit and sent them right back out into the streets speaking boldly. God shook the building, and He emptied His people back into the city with the gospel on their lips.

Prayer like this is the power supply for the mission, the room where the courage to go is generated. Martin Luther, who carried a staggering workload, is said to have reasoned that he had so much to do on a given day that he could not possibly afford to pray any less than three hours, because the busier and more pressured he was, the more desperately he needed God. That is a man who had found the engine room. A church learns the very same thing down on its knees, that the work is too heavy and the opposition too strong to attempt in our own strength, and that everything begins to change the moment we finally stop and ask.

Let’s make this our rhythm of prayer. When the pressure comes, run to God first. Pray to a God big enough to be sovereign over the cross and over every threat in front of you. Ask Him for the boldness to walk the hard road faithfully, and then watch what He does. A healthy church is a praying church, and a praying church is unstoppable, because its power was never its own to begin with. I want us to be a people found often on our knees in the engine room, so that we walk back out the church doors and speak the word of God with all boldness.

This coming Sunday we move into Luke 17:1-10, where Jesus gets super practical about the ordinary, daily life of a disciple. What does a “Kingdom Life” really look like? He warns us in the deepest ways about causing a little one to stumble. He calls us to confront sin honestly and then to forgive a repentant brother again and again. When the disciples hear all of that and cry out, “Lord, increase our faith.” This is for us! All of us need to know, in a deeper way, what Kingdom Life really looks like. 

Let’s continue to take steps together of growing in our faith and in the likeness of Jesus. 

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday at 9:30 or 11:00. 

Worship Pastor Candidate to Be Presented October 18

The Worship Pastor Selection Committee, chaired by Darryl Flynn, in agreement with Pastor Michael and the Executive Staff, has unanimously voted to invite an out-of-state candidate to come in view of a call for Worship Pastor on Sunday, October 18.

More details about the candidate and the upcoming opportunity will be shared in worship services across all three campuses this Sunday, October 11.

You are loved and prayed for!

Michael Gossett