Empowered for Endurance: PRAY
Written by Rev. Dr. Jervis Djokoto, Senior Director of Church Health
In Part I, I reflected on God’s empowering presence as revealed in our capacity to endure, forgive, remain kind, and continue loving one another. Our relationships cannot be separated from the health of the church. I have found that churches struggling most with issues of health often carry unresolved relational conflict. This became particularly clear during our 2025 revitalization pilot, and it highlighted an important reality for me: church renewal and interpersonal renewal need to happen together.
Before we talk about processes, tools, strategies, or practical steps for revitalization, we need to begin with a fundamental precondition of church health: restored relationships and rightly ordered affections.
Only God can ultimately make this possible.
Before we seek to change behaviour, we need God to renew our hearts. Before we redesign structures, we need to restore relationships. Before we ask what the church should do, we need to rediscover whom we are called to love. We cannot build a healthy church, ministry, or program on top of unhealthy or unhealed relationships.
Relational health is not something to address later in the revitalization process. It is foundational to the work itself. Psalm 133 speaks of the goodness and blessing that accompany God’s people dwelling together in unity. Unity is not merely a nice addition to church health; it creates an environment in which the life and mission of the church can flourish.
For this reason, relational renewal needs to be treated as an essential first step—not simply something we address along the way.
It deserves intentional time, prayer, and attention before a church moves into Step One of our revitalization pathway: “See God’s Plan.”
Establishing a foundation of relational health creates an environment in which the rest of the revitalization journey can take root and flourish.
Because ultimately, revitalization is not simply about getting a church to do something different. It is about allowing God to make us different—to empower us to love differently, endure differently, serve differently, and participate together in His mission.
The same power that raised Christ from the dead is still at work in His people.
And sometimes, that resurrection power looks like a person choosing patience instead of anger, kindness instead of retaliation, forgiveness instead of resentment, and love instead of giving up. That, too, is the work of the Spirit.
That, too, is empowerment.
Over the next couple of months, we give you a deeper look into the PRAY framework that acts as a guide for the Church Health Team who are developing tools and resources that promote church health. In today’s video, you will hear from some of the Church Health Team about how prayer undergirds the entire Revitalization Process. We believe that prayer is the spark of renewal that God uses to restore relationships that are essential to church health.
