A church in Ft. Lauderdale has begun offering drive-thru prayer services for those in need. Good idea, right? After all, who couldn’t use a little prayer?
The Pentecostal congregation has been offering drive-thru prayer services every Friday for the last month, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Outreach Pastor Sol Levy says many who pass through have never been inside a church and are often at the end of their rope. The volunteers offer to pray with them on any issue, big or small, from a rough day at work to divorce and foreclosure.
Church leaders say the initiative is starting to gain popularity and has served about 150 people so far.
I fear initiatives like this because of the implications it has for promoting an easy, feel-goodism related to God. Where is the relationship? Where is the obedience to follow Christ? How about the call to deny yourself, take up yourself and follow Christ? I know, I know…some will say that these people coming for prayer aren’t there yet, so something should be offered to “reel them in.” I get it. I don’t buy it.
I’m afraid that all this will do is give them just enough “Jesus” to inoculate them from a real relationship with Him. Why should they ever follow a Jesus that calls them to total self-sacrifice when all they have to do is shoot through a window and place their “order”?
Still, some will say that you have to depend on the Holy Spirit to get them to that place. Exactly! Since it’s the Holy Spirit that draws in the first place, why offer something that needs to be preceded by a prayer of repentance and surrender anyway? I think it is important for us to think and re-think our (well-intentioned) methods of reaching people that, in the end, may cause them more spiritual damage and provide more spiritual baggage than they arrived with.
That’s my view. Feel free to let me know yours.
