Apprentice 2 Jesus

Tuesday, March 20, I had the privilege of traveling to Brooklyn Taberncalce in Brooklyn, NY. A group of over 200 people chartered a plane from Minneapolis to take this one day trip. The group included over 50 churches representing over 10 denominations. Grace Church of Eden Prairie coordinated the event. I was fortunate as a student at Luther Seminary to have my trip sponsored by a Thrivent Leadership Grant. My interest in the trip was not just as a student, but also a pastor. This trip was to visit Brooklyn Tabernacle and be a part of their Tuesday night prayer meeting. We would hear from Pastor Jim Cymbala at a lunch meeting and learn more about their prayer ministry.

The one-day trip began at 5 a.m. checking into the Humphrey Terminal. Leaving Minneapolis around 6:30 we landed in New York about 10 a.m. ET. Transportation issues caught us early. The trip coordinator could not get one form of transportation pulled together, so 200 people jumped on city buses for a ride through Queens. We made our way slowly to the subway station, taking it from Queens into Brooklyn. Brooklyn Tabernacle is not noticeable when you walk around the block. It is a refurbished theater built in the late 1800’s. The corner that houses their offices (picture above) is the only spot you MIGHT be able to tell it’s a church. The entrances on three sides of the block do not attract any attention. They are beautiful doors with “Brooklyn Tabernacle” on an awning above them. That is it.

Across the street from the church is their Downtown Learning Center. It is a beautiful three story facility that houses a chapel, several conference rooms and classrooms. We ate lunch in one of the conference rooms, then met in the chapel with one of the staff pastors, then Jim and Carol Cymbala, senior pastors. The Cymbalas have pastored Brooklyn Tabernacle for over 30 years, seeing it go from 18-20 in attendance to over 7,000. The Downtown Learning Center services over 700 people every year, teaching them to read and write, get a GED, learn English, and many other services…all for free to the people of Brooklyn.

For the Cymbalas, and the church, the foundation to all of the phenomal growth has been prayer. Their Tuesday night prayer meeting is the engine of the church. People show up at 5 p.m. on Tuesdays for the 7 p.m. prayer service. If they show up any later they may not get a seat on the main floor of the auditorium. (With the balcony, the theater seats 4000). Their heart for prayer has generated all the ministry they have done over the years. While Cymbala told of the amazing stories of people being set free by the gospel of Jesus Christ, he deflected anything HE was doing. Prayer was the key. When you pray, Jesus shows up. Jesus sets people free.

The night we were at the prayer meeting was special. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir is incredibly well know in gospel music circles. For the first time in 30 plus years of prayer meetings, the choir was going to be in the service (pictured above). Nearly 200 strong, they were present to help lead in worship. Pastor Cymbala told us that every Tuesday night is different. The week before they had been in fasting and prayer. This week the Spirit had directed them to focus on thanking God for the answer. This would be a service of thanksgiving, so the choir had been asked to lead in praise.

We had a few hours in the afternoon to see New York. The friends I was with were not about to get lost in New York, so we stayed right around the church. On one street entrance the church had a “prayer station” on both sides of the street. They would hand out information about the church, let people know about the prayer service, then asked if they had anything that needed prayer. Several time we witnessed people stopping as one of the workers would put a hand on a shoulder and quietly pray for some need in that person’s life.

We arrived at the church a little after 5 and found seats in the back half of the main floor. The old theater was stunningly beautiful. Everything was immaculate. Murals in the lobby depicted gospel stories. The detail in the sanctuary was amazing. In the middle of a very ugly part of Brooklyn sits this incredible gem that says prophetically to people, “Your life doesn’t have to be ugly.” It is a stunning sight.

By 7 p.m. the entire auditorium was full. Over 4000 people were there to worship God and give thanks. The choir began to sing quietly and people in the sanctuary would stand and worship from the depths of their souls. It was beautiful to hear. The service was about worship and thanking God. The songs were about thanksgiving and how Jesus had set them free.

Pastor Cymbala told the congregation about our group. Over 200 people had boarded a plan at 6 in the morning to fly out there to see them. At the end of the worship and prayer, Pastor Cymbala had all the pastors on the plane come to the front. We came forward. He then had the others on the plane to step out into the aisles where they were seated. He then had his pastors and leaders come to the front to pray over the pastors. He called on others around our travel group to lay hands on the ones in the aisle and pray over them.

Brooklyn Tabernacle is not a rich church. Their members come out of poverty, and many still border on poverty. They have come out of horrible life-controlling problems. They are from all walks of life, and from many, many nations. But they know Jesus sets people free and prayer is the key. They prayed over us like we probably have never been prayed over. It was humbling and powerful. And it wasn’t over.

When everyone was finished praying he told his choir and then others who near our group to grab their Bibles, pieces of paper, notebooks, anything, and go to each of us. They were to get our names and places of ministry so they could keep praying for us. It was so incredibly humbling, I am still left without words. People kept coming asking each of us to sign their Bibles. If I signed a dozen Bibles, they were each representing a different ethnic group.

We did not just attend a prayer service, but we knew going away that when we as pastors would preach the next Sunday, we would have quite a few people in Brooklyn praying for us.

This is a church that knows that prayer does indeed change things. They pray and they live it out. They love Jesus and it shows up in their worship and their service.

Our group left the church walking on air! We had to hustle back to JFK for the return flight, and we landed in Minneapolis at 2:30 a.m., but even in the exhaustion of the trip we went home refreshed.