About

Except By Prayer and Fasting

The title of this blog comes from Matthew 17:21. While Jesus, Peter, James, and John were on the Mountain of Transfiguration, the remaining nine disciples were dealing with the problem of a young boy who was demon possessed. They were unable to cast out the demon, and when Jesus came down from the mountain the boy’s father begged Jesus to heal his son. Jesus’ reply indicated that the reason the disciples could not cast out the demon was because of a lack of faith. He further said that the answer to their lack of faith was prayer and fasting. Interesting concept. Check back occasionally as we explore this topic and many other random musings.

About Me

Welcome to my blog. I am Lance Johnson, and I have had been the bi-vocational pastor of Iglesia Betania, a Spanish-speaking Reformed Baptist Church in Denton, Texas since 1989. I pastor the church for fun and work as Operations Manager for the Gainesville, Texas branch of Elliott Electric Supply to pay my bills. I truly love bi-vocational ministry, but I have learned that for all its advantages it would be impossible without the power of the living God working among us. For that reason, prayer and fasting is an important part of my ministry. Only God can regenerate the lost, and they come to saving knowledge of Christ more from our prayers than from our preaching.

www.conoracion.com

Often when I give my email address to friends and acquaintances, they ask about my domain name. For most of them I have already spelled it, but they still don’t quite get it. I must admit that expecting others in our mono-lingual English-Speaking culture to understand and spell two Spanish words I have run together is expecting a little much, but for me it is the perfect domain name.

As I said, it is two Spanish words–con, meaning ‘with’, and oración, meaning ‘prayer’. So, my domain name, when translated to English is "with prayer", or perhaps, "prayerfully". Now, some of you may question my translation of oración. You may use oración to mean a ’sentence’, which it certainly can. You may also use the word reza for ‘prayer’. That is also correct, but usually it refers to a prayer of repeated words. Certainly, the biblical words for prayer are the noun oración and the verb orar, so I will stick by my translation. (See Ephesians 6:18 in a good Spanish translation of the Scriptures for an example of both the noun and the verb in the same verse.)

Once I have explained what my domain means, I have to explain why I chose it. If you have read my profile you know that I am a bivocational pastor of Iglesia Betania* in Denton, Texas. Iglesia Betania is a Spanish-speaking Reformed Baptist Church, so Spanish is very much part of who I am. That explains why I chose to use Spanish for my domain name. As for the con oración part, well there is a bit of a story behind that.

I came to Iglesia Betania in February 1989. At the time I was a very green pastor, and I was also trying to work through the sudden and severe illness of my wife, Diana. Iglesia Betania was a new church start that I now understand was not started under the best of circumstances. Needless to say, it was a very difficult time. In February 1992 I invited my good friend and former Spanish professor from Hardin-Simmons University, Dr. José Alcorta, to lead a series of lessons on biblical parenting. It was a good weekend, but did not change the fact that I was struggling both professionally at Betania and personally. On Sunday evening Dr. Alcorta, his wife, Lani, and I ate supper in a local restaurant. While I was crying in my coffee about my struggles, Dr. Alcorta said something very simple, yet very profound. "The church is struggling," he said, "because you are the only one praying." It was as if a light had been turned on. At that point, I knew what I had to do. Over the next couple of weeks, I scrapped all my plans for preaching and teaching and started over. For about three months I preached and taught nothing but prayer. We started a Friday night prayer meeting in which we did nothing but pray. No singing. No teaching. Just prayer. We chose Friday night, because we wanted those present who were willing to put God first, those who were willing to skip Friday night football for something much more important. Well, slowly things began to change. We are still a small, struggling church, but we are no longer as stressed as we were then. We now walk in confidence that while we plant and irrigate, it is God that gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6)

From this I learned some very important things. First, I learned that people come to know the Lord and grow in the Lord more because of my prayers than because of my preaching. That’s an humbling thought! The realization of that was also the first step toward my doctrinal shift toward the doctrines of grace. Second, I learned that in all things God is sufficient. Oh, I knew this before that experience. After all, I had grown up in church. Well, after this experience I really knew what it meant that God is sufficient, and as such, my life must be lived con oración, or prayerfully. Third, I learned the value of a good friend in the Lord.

So, that is the story of my domain name. Con oración. Prayerfully. That is how I strive to live.

Note: As I was writing this I thought about how long it has been since I have spoken to Dr. Alcorta. Until my father died I would see Dr. Alcorta a couple of times a year as I passed through Abilene on my way to visit my family. However, in the past three years I have not been out west and we have lost touch. I am going to have to do something about that. I hope the Hardin-Simmons website has his email address posted. If not, I will just have to get out the telephone.

*Iglesia Betania means Bethany Church. Interestingly, two of the more faithful women in the church are named Mary and Martha. We don’t have a Lazarus yet, but it is a rather common name in the Spanish-speaking cultures, so we probably will before too long.