After forty years of pastoring, I've come to a startling conclusion: You cannot legislate or organize unity

Over the years, I've been involved in multiple cooperative efforts in the cities where I've pastored. I have been amazed at the lack of genuine unity I've encountered.

Attempts at creating unity usually center around someone's agenda--a concert, a crusade, etc. Although it may be a worthy idea, it often finds very little genuine spiritual traction. We find ourselves silently thinking, "I wonder what his agenda is? I don't know if I can join with him theologically." So unity is shattered, and God's overall purposes in a city are aborted.

I'd almost given up on the idea of unity . . . until fifteen years ago.

Desperate Prayer

During a desperate time in Little Rock, Arkansas, a group of pastors threw up their hands. A major television network had produced a program indicating that our city had the third highest murder rate in America. A plethora of statistics were rolled out as supporting evidence of the rising tide of evil among us.

And they were accurate. The murder rate was only one of the symptoms.

Despite all her efforts, the church in the city was making little impact. The situation got so bad that the mayor asked the churches to pray.

A group of fifteen pastors gathered to intercede, and the Lord graciously met us. It wasn't Pentecost, but it was a start. Because the need was so great and our desperation so intense, we decided to meet regularly for prayer and invite others to join us.

I must confess, all of this would not have moved forward had not two or three prevailing leaders strongly pushed us to make praying together a priority. They called repeatedly. They yanked and pulled. They even shamed a few of us to the monthly prayer meetings! Once there, these leaders refused to divert from any agenda except prayer for the city.

The prayer movement grew slowly. Within a few years, someone mentioned the prayer summit ministry started by Joe Aldrich in Portland, Oregon. During a similar time of desperation, their area pastors had begun praying together and then decided to go on a four-day retreat to do nothing but pray.

The results were so dynamic that they began to lead other cities' pastors into the same experience. They developed a team of men (now known as International Renewal Ministries) to help facilitate these prayer summits.

We invited them to come to Little Rock.

Undeniable Presence

It was cold on that windy mountain in late January 1998 when a group of thirty-one pastors gathered around a fireplace in a retreat center. As the prayer began, it was also fairly cold inside.

For about an hour, we danced around prayer. Some rehearsed before God their sermons from the day before, while others pontificated a bit. It was awkward. I sat in my chair pretending to enjoy the moment but thinking, "Oh, my goodness, we've got four more days to go!" If I hadn't ridden on a bus with others, I would have found a convenient, spiritual-sounding excuse to go home.

Then, something amazing happened. God graciously walked into the room. The only explanation for what happened next is Him.

Through a few very honest prayers, men began to become vulnerable and open. As they shared their hearts, walls broke down. Lives changed. God's presence was thick.

The next day we went even deeper. The next, even more so. Four days later, I left that mountain with thirty "blood brothers," and we have remained connected ever since.

Nothing brings authentic unity like God's presence in prayer. Nothing.

In God's presence the façades fade away. He melts our pride, destroys our selfish ambitions, and fills our empty places with His accepting grace.

Amazing Power

For the last fifteen years, our pastors have continued praying together. Our consistency has ebbed and flowed, but we persevere, knowing that the foundation for God's work in this city is found on our knees before Him. The substance of our unity is there, and the initiation for strategic plans comes from intimacy together with Him.

Amazing things have happened. Multiple cooperative initiatives have been fostered. We have recently seen 1,000 intercessors join together to pray regularly for God's movement in the city. On different occasions, thousands of believers have served together, "washing the feet" of the city. Currently, over 200 churches are cooperating in a three-month season of service which will culminate in an evangelistic festival on the river.

I have never been in another city with such true spiritual unity. We genuinely rejoice when our fellow churches grow and are blessed. God has given His church in this area tremendous favor.

A recent survey by George Barna indicated that more people per capita attend church in Little Rock than in any other major American city. It hasn't always been this way, though. I am convinced this happened through the unity of prayer. "How good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity . . . for there God commands His blessing" (Psalm 133:1-3, emphasis added).

Patient Waiting

We wait for God in revival, but I often wonder if God is waiting for us. Although we have not yet seen full-scale, corporate revival in Little Rock, God's work has begun, been sustained, and grown with a few leaders who have not given up believing God to do a greater work in this place.

Revival could begin in your city as well . . . with you.