Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail OUR CORE VALUES From Gateway Today The e-magazine of Gateway Church WINTER 2005 Gateway is a prayer-driven church Seeking God's direction, provision, and protection through prayer must be a constant focus for us, individually and corporately. Prayer is intended to be foundational to every other aspect and ministry of Gateway Church. What did Jesus do? Jesus is our supreme example for prayer. He spent nights in prayer (Luke 6:12); He often rose before daylight to pray (Mark 1:35); He engaged in focused prayer, preceding the crucial times in His life and ministry (Luke 6:12; 22:39-46). Even in the midst of His busy public ministry, Jesus consistently spent time alone with His Heavenly Father. "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16). If prayer could have been unnecessary for any person, surely it would have been Jesus, the sinless Son of God. Yet prayer was one of the dominant habits of His life and a frequent theme in His teaching. What Scripture says about prayer We are to pray all the time (1 Thessalonians 5:17) for everything (Philippians 4:6-7). We are to pray for needed workers. "He [Jesus] told them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field'" (Luke 10:2). We are to pray for provision of resources. "You do not have, because you do not ask God" (James 4:2). "Ask and it will be given to you… everyone who asks receives" (Matthew 6:7-8). We are to pray because we are engaged in a spiritual battle that requires spiritual weapons (Ephesians 6:12, 18). The testimony of the saints Throughout the history of the church, those serving in leadership have recognized that prayer is not simply important but essential, both for personal spiritual growth and for the advancement of the kingdom. As individuals and as a church, therefore, we must pray consistently for every aspect of our lives and ministry. "The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from our prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray." - Samuel Chadwick "God shapes the world by prayer." - E. M. Bounds "It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone." - Hudson Taylor "God does nothing but in answer to prayer." - John Wesley This article was adapted, with permission, from The Compass, a publication of Crown Financial Ministries. To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us