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... a community of Christians
praying towards reconciliation ...
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Support the Austin House of Prayer
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As AHOP grows, God continues to stretch & grow us financially.
We are thankful for this process. We would like to extend the opportunity
for you to partner with AHOP in the mission to see 24/7 prayer established
in Austin. Jesus said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be ...
so if you would like to have more of a heart of prayerful devotion, one
significant step would be to put some of your treasure towards prayer!
Every donation, from 20 cents to $20,000, will be used to:
- Pay rent, insurance, and utilities to keep the prayer room open
- Purchase necessary items for hospitality, maintenance, and administration
- Support the AHOP staff who are giving themselves as intercessory missionaries in Austin
For payment method, we prefer that you bring or mail a check made out to "AHOP" to the following address:
Austin House of Prayer
2830 Real Street
Austin, TX 78722
Alternatively, you may want to donate online. You can use the button below to donate via PayPal:
Austin House of Prayer, Inc. is recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization by the IRS.
All donations are tax-deductible, and we will gladly provide you with a receipt for your donation.
We are also committed to integrity and openness, our financial reports are available for review
to anyone who would like to see them.
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Why give money for prayer?
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By Thomas Cogdell, Summer 2008
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I sometimes get the question, "Why should I give money for people to pray and/or a prayer room?"
This is a good question, worth investigating and answering. The purpose of this short response
is to suggest that it is not only biblical and reasonable, but perhaps even strategic to give financial gifts
to support a dedicated prayer room and individuals called to be "intercessory missionaries" --
young men and women who desire to give themselves full-time to prayer and worship in the prayer room.
Usually the assumption underlying a resistance to give money towards prayer is that all
Christians are called to simply blend in prayer with their daily lives, so giving money to a group of Christians
who are devoting themselves to prayer sends a wrong message that prayer belongs to the elite few, and can only be done
in a special prayer room. (The exact same reasoning could be used to resist giving to ministries dedicated to evangelism and missions,
and to acts of charity such as feeding the poor, but these activities are typically held in higher regard in the
American church than prayer.)
I agree that all Christians are called to pray. In fact, the average American Christian spends much more time
(and money for that matter) on entertainment than prayer -- an indictment on our experience of God's beauty!
And I also agree that there are other worthy causes, so I don't encourage diverting money to AHOP
that would be otherwise be given to missions or feeding the poor.
But I do believe AHOP and other prayer ministries (both inside churches and city-wide) are as worthy of funding as missions & charities.
Below are two biblical examples of the community of faith financially supporting people to pray and worship God.
- Old Testament Example. David established a 24-hour house of prayer called "the tabernacle of David" -- you can read about it in
1 Chronicles 6:31-32, 16 (whole chapter), 23:4-5, and 25:1-8. In Nehemiah 12:46-47 Nehemiah re-establishes this and makes it clear
that the singers and gatekeepers were separate from the Levitical order, but like them were supported by the people for
their duties of praise, thanksgiving, prayer & hospitality:
For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers.
They also set aside the portion for the other Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron.
- New Testament Example. In Acts 6, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem were supported by the church community. They make it clear
that prayer is one of their two primary responsibilities, and delegate other responsibilities such as feeding the poor in order to focus
on prayer.
So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them
and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."
In both of these examples the community of Christians supported financially those who were dedicated to lives of prayer & praise.
Why would this be a good idea in the economy of the kingdom of God? Here are four thoughts:
- God answers persistent prayer. Putting prayer and "active ministry" in opposition to each other is misguided.
Jesus himself withdrew from ministry opportunities in order to pray -- and He was the smartest person ever!
Perhaps our lack of attention to and support for prayer in the body of Christ shows a lack of wisdom and foresight?
Jesus promises in Luke 18 that God will answer day & night prayer. He told this to
his disciples specifically to encourage persistent prayer, because it will be answered. What if the elders at Antioch hadn't bothered to give themselves to prayer & fasting,
would Paul have been set aside for ministry? The history of the church would be very different without that prayer meeting! And Paul himself devoted time in
each of his letters to pray for the communities that he was writing to, and usually said to them "I pray always for you ...", so he clearly believed
advocating to the Father on behalf of the church was an effective use of time. Could it be that God is simply waiting for us
to ask Him to act, and if we did we would see a tangible effect in the good goals that we labor to achieve?
- God is worthy of extravagant devotion, and He seems to like it! A young person wants to take his or her life, which could be given to a respected career, or a life
of active ministry to the poor, or the like, and instead spend it in the prayer room, ministering to God in worship, seeking Him in prayer, and interceding for others.
Is this valid? Is it a waste of time? Is it really
an excuse for living a lazy life of ease instead of working hard? Or are there perhaps strategic times where a life of extravagant devotion
that appears wasteful to the "practical-minded" is actually honored and greatly used by God? Consider the example of the mighty men of David, recorded in 2nd Samuel 23 --
their extravagant devotion to David led to one of the most outwardly foolish acts of courage recorded in the Bible, as they broke through the
enemy lines to retrieve for their king a single drink of water from the well of Bethlehem, his home town --
and to honor their gift David poured the water out as a drink offering to God. Consider the example of Anna, recorded
in Luke 2, who gave herself to a life of fasting and prayer in the temple, which prepared her for the one key moment of welcoming the baby Jesus.
Consider the example of Mary, who took a bottle of perfume worth a year's salary and poured it all out on Jesus -- the disciples thought that
this money could be better spent elsewhere, but Jesus said "Leave her alone, she has done a beautiful thing by anointing me for burial." Consider
that when David wanted to buy a specific field for thanksgiving to God, the question was not whether this was a reasonable expense of money, but
who would pay for it -- the owner of the field wanted to give it, but David insisted on paying him. Finally, consider that John records the extravagant
expense of time and money for worship in Revelation 4, as the living creatures do nothing day and night except cry out "Holy Holy Holy", and
the 24 elders take their crowns (any one of which would probably fetch a fairly large amount at a Lloyd's of London auction) and simply cast them down at the
feet of God.
- Giving to prayer softens the heart of the giver. Very simply, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you struggle in prayer,
and want to have a heart more receptive to the intimate love of God, try sending some of your treasure that direction!
- Jesus counsels that lukewarm churches buy "salve for the eyes". In Revelation 3, Jesus characterizes the church of Laodicea as thinking that they
are rich, well dressed, and visionary, but actually being poor, naked, and blind from God's perspective. Could this description not apply as well to the American church? If so, he goes
on to counsel how to move out of this condition. Here is my interpretation of his counsel -- to buy from God (using time, money, and energy) gold refined in the fire (faithfulness, e.g. local
church life), white clothes (virtuous acts, e.g. evangelism, missions, and charity), and salve for the eyes (prayer). If the American church gave
extravagantly to these three purposes, what would be the response from heaven? The reward that Jesus offers in Rev 3:21 is
well worth pursuing!
Hopefully this gives you food for thought if you were resistant to giving money to support prayer and intercessory missionaries.
It's also worth noting that in addition to simply giving themselves to prayer and hospitality, the AHOP prayer room and
staff also work hard to encourage prayer in and between local churches --
this activity is called With 1 Voice.
And if you still have questions or want to discuss this further, don't
hesitate to contact me (thomas@austinhouseofprayer.com or 968-3364).
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