During the 22 years I was a preacher in a local church, the most difficult question I was asked routinely was, “How is the church doing?” I never knew what to say. How do you measure this? Should we count how many people show up for Sunday worship? How many baptisms we’ve had this year? Whether or not we’re meeting our budget? How many people are truly on a discipleship track? How well are we impacting our city with tangible expressions of hope, justice, and righteousness? How enjoyable or challenging it is to be part of the congregation?

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

We have already established that in discipleship, Jesus is our example. We also established that the end goal of discipleship is to become more like Jesus. Jesus was a man of prayer. He prayed early in the morning. He prayed before big decisions. He prayed for his disciples. He prayed before going to the cross. He prayed before casting out demons and doing miracles. Jesus prayed all the time.