At thirty-two, I was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and tongue. I was terrified. Surgeons removed half of my tongue and the left side of my mouth's floor. Using chest muscle they reconstructed my tongue and neck. I worried, "Would I speak again? How clearly?" For a year I labored in speech therapy.

Facing death, married with two small children, I began to pray like a child: helplessly. All I had was prayer. Wonderfully, God met me where I was. Five years later I was pronounced cancer-free, and was able to speak clearly!

Through suffering, God taught me to pray. This prayer-passion deepened as I went into the Christian publishing industry. At training conferences, I asked pastors, “Where is prayer enjoyed and done well?” Overtime, I found almost no churches where people were trained in prayer, much less energized by it. Most had no prayer meetings at all.

The church in our day is great at many important things: preaching, missions, small groups, worship, and building inviting facilities. But when the church lacks prayer, the church is living in self-imposed spiritual poverty.

A vibrantly praying church reads Scripture more carefully, worships more sincerely, gives more liberally, loves more sacrificially. Building up people to pray, is building up the church, and that's why we do what we do.