After Lam Wai Chan moved from his native Singapore to pastor a church in Japan, he panicked. The church had barely twenty members. In a nation known as a “missionary graveyard,” where about one percent of the nation’s people are Christian and many churches sit empty, Lam felt “like I was taking over a sinking ship.” Crying out to God, he sensed the answer: Offer the church back to Me.

Rather than “update” worship or music, Wai Chan asked members to pray—for their needs, family members, and friends who didn’t know Jesus. Slowly, the church doubled in size.

Their faithful praying is a living, biblical model of how to build a community in Jesus. First, pray. “In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,” Paul wrote, “present your requests to God,” and do all of this without worry about anything (Philippians 4:6). In this way, we offer our ministries, churches, and programs back to God. We may plant seeds and water them, but as the apostle said, “Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Corinthians 3:7). He was imploring believers at Corinth to stop quarrelling about which church leader they followed (vv. 3-6).

As Paul said, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (v. 11). Let’s prayerfully give our churches back to Him. Then, watch them grow.