LifeTalk Podcast
LifeTalk is the official podcast of LifeHouse Church MOT. Our heart for this podcast is to help our church grow and to go deeper here at LifeHouse. We’ll be interviewing staff members & hearing their testimonies. We’ll be discussing various topics such as parenting, marriage, day-to-day functions of the ministry and so much more from a biblical perspective. Our goal is to help equip our church to glorify JESUS in every area of life.
LifeTalk Podcast
Pray Together, Thrive Together: Building Spiritual Connections
This week, Judy Tapken shares her powerful journey of coming to faith through prayer and how it led her to facilitate a vibrant Monday morning prayer group at church. She reveals how prayer has transformed not only individual lives but also created a tightly-knit community that supports one another through life's challenges.
If you'd like to join the Monday morning prayer group, we meet from 10 am to 12 pm in Conference Room 2 (Prayer Room). All are welcome—come as you are, no prayer experience needed.
We hope this episode is a helpful tool for your walk with Christ!
Catch us every Monday for a new episode!
Visit our website: www.lifehousemot.com
Questions? Email Info@lifehousede.com
Join us in person on Sunday Mornings at 9 & 11 am!
Intro Music by Joey Blair
What's up, lifehouse fam? Welcome back to the Life Talk podcast. My name is Jarvis and today I am joined with our co-host, nate Nate. What up, man?
Speaker 2:What's going on today? Glad to be back, yeah, it's good to have you back.
Speaker 1:And then we're also joined with a very special guest, Judy. Judy, how you doing? I'm doing great. Happy to be back. Yeah, it's good to have you back. And then we're also joined with a very special guest, Judy.
Speaker 4:Judy, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Happy to be here.
Speaker 1:We're very glad to have you and so it's a pleasure and an honor, and so we're just glad to be able to talk about prayer. We'll continue that. Just as you guys have known, we're walking through the Faithfully Different series in our church in the month of May specifically for prayer, and so Judy leads our Monday morning prayer group here at the church, and so we just figured who else better right To to be able to talk about praying and specifically we'll kind of talk about later about praying in community, right With one another, with you know, family, and being able to just talk through that. And so we just see the example that you are and that you set for prayer in that in that way, and so we're glad to have you on.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Speaker 2:It's good to be here. And so Life, talk, family. Like Jarvis said, may is a month, we are talking about prayer and you mentioned really wanted to have Judy on, because I think those who don't know Judy Tapkin, she is so quiet and a lot of people don't know her. So, judy, maybe just share a little bit of your story, how you came to briefly know the Lord, and just a little bit about yourself, because you do so much around here but I think a lot of people probably don't know it.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, I came to the Lord in my early 40s, late 30s, early 40s, during a very difficult trial in my life, through a marriage that unfortunately ended in divorce. But the Lord had a hold of me and I actually had a sister that would call me and tell me how much Jesus loves me and I needed that so much. And so God helped me to get to a small community church where I came to know Him, where I was saved and eventually baptized, and it's been a journey from there. My prayer experiences began in another church in Jersey where the Lord was teaching me how to pray. It started in one environment and it just grew. I remember listening to other women praying and thinking I would like to pray like that.
Speaker 4:And the Lord just begins to build your prayer life. It's not one event, it's over time. So that's kind of how he has developed that desire in my heart for prayer.
Speaker 1:So that seems like it was later in life, right?
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:About the age range. How old were you in that time period?
Speaker 4:Well, in my late 30s to my early 40s. Okay, wow.
Speaker 4:Before I came to the Lord. I did not grow up in a— I grew up in a loving home, but not a Christian home and I didn't know that I needed the Lord. Wow, and it was through. As I said, a sister of mine. She's home with the Lord now, but she would just tell me Jesus loved me. A sister of mine and she's home with the Lord now, but she would just tell me Jesus, love me because she knew I needed that I needed that foundation right there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, wow, because when you don't grow up knowing the Lord, you don't know His love. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's where that foundation needed to be built first, and that's how the Lord used that, yeah. Awesome. So coming to know the Lord is great. Maybe talk to us a little bit. You know how you really came into seeing the power of prayer, you know. I know you shared a little bit when we were pre, before we jump on the mics. You know just the impact of some individuals in your life and events and how just seeing prayer, you know, build in your life and become so important.
Speaker 4:Well, I go back to my other church because that's where it started and I went on a couple of missions trips and was around other people praying. And it's when you're around other people praying that you see that desire and that need for it. And I remember being at an event for some women and she's a dear friend of mine now and she was praying. I thought, wow, her prayer language is so beautiful. And I remember the first time I prayed it was shaking hands. It was an experience that I had to grow into. But as I began to pray I wanted to pray more.
Speaker 4:I began to see the deep need that I had for prayer through life experiences and my prayer life began to develop there and I think I shared with you that I was growing in prayer and one of my pastors would ask me to pray corporately at times. And it's corporately but you're just praying to the Lord. You might be in a group, but it's just you and the Lord when you're praying. And that's how that began to develop there. And when I came here, there was a more intensity for prayer. I felt even more, and I don't recall when that started, but I started to go to prayer times that Tammy would have and through that time she had developed was trying to develop a Monday a group for during the week, for people to meet and she had asked me over time, would I consider facilitating that?
Speaker 4:And I said I would love to, but I didn't know what I was doing, you know.
Speaker 4:so the teacher, had to teach me basically and he's still teaching me, trust me, and so through that we put out an invitation. A lot of ladies came out and then that we did a little bit because they had other areas that God was calling them. And it is like Jesus has called them one by one over this time. One will come in from one direction, one comes in from another direction and it has just grown. The Lord has grown it. It's not anything that I'm doing, it's just as a gift he's allowed me to have to do that, facilitating.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of where we are now yeah, and I think story I heard one time for charles spurgeon I think. I think jarvis brought up spurgeon on previous episode, but breathing in and breathing out with prayer, so keeping that theme, I think there were people went to visit his church and they were asking him you know, like, why is your church so amazingly, you know, successful, and things like that. And he said well, well, come on.
Speaker 2:And he took him down to the basement or you know wherever there was, and they had a room and it was just people praying and he's like this is the engine of the church, and so I just want to give credit. I think your group for those who don't know, Judy gathers with anywhere from 10 to 20 ladies on Monday mornings praying for the church. You guys just spend literally a few hours and I know you were sharing just the communication you all have. So maybe you kind of talk about how that got going.
Speaker 4:Maybe the impact you've seen you know, either in your previous church or here at Lifehouse, just how you've seen that grow, having that community of prayer, yeah, Sure, when the women come and they have come sporadically through the years as God has brought them we sit down and there's always a little fellowship time because we need that before we get into deep prayer. And then we do the Acts prayer and our reason that we're there is to pray for the needs of our church. That's our specific reason to gather each week and we have a list that's brought together and is used just to work off of that. But then the Lord takes over and we take turns. One woman will lead an adoration and we go to a quiet time of confession. One of the ladies will do thanksgiving, leading us into supplication, and they just, who's ever asked, they're always willing to do that and then we just as we go around the room.
Speaker 4:It's like a pop-up prayer kind of thing. So as we want to pray, they can pray five times or they can pray once, but their hearts pour out and the love that we have in that room for this church and for our pastor and his family and you think of all the different wonderful ways in which we pray for all kinds of sometimes it's events get really covered big time, or we will be just doing a missionary that week, you know. So it flows in different ways. I allow the Lord to do it. You know it's wonderful to have a prayer list, but the Lord carries that. But the foundation is to pray for the needs of our church weekly and it just.
Speaker 4:The hearts grow in the love of through prayer for our church and for our pastor and his family, as I said, and for our worship team and all the different areas. There's so many areas that need prayer within the church family here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I would say we definitely can feel it right Like being on staff, both me and Nate. I mean we have the blessing to see you guys in here every Monday and I would say for me, just even seeing you on Monday mornings super encouraging, like to know that, knowing that that's your primary goal right is to pray for the needs of the church and, like you said, you lift up other things that arise right, you are bearing not just the church but you're bearing the needs of the people in that room. But just knowing, right that there is a group of ladies, just people in general right, that are committed to seeking God on behalf of our church, on behalf of our leadership, on behalf of the health and the just work of God in and through the church, is super encouraging. I'm blessed every week when I see you guys in here and so I'm super thankful for you guys.
Speaker 4:Well, that's encouraging to us and that door shuts. That's what we're doing. This is a prayer and everybody prays a little differently. That door shuts. You know that's what we're doing. This is a prayer and you know everybody prays a little differently. And you know, sometimes women will come in for the first few times and they feel like, oh, I can't pray out loud, but over time, as they do, they just meld into this group.
Speaker 4:And yeah, and there have been times we've had to stop if someone's having a really hard day and we may need to stop and stand over her and pray over her, because we don't want to keep going on. If someone is suffering yeah so that occurs, um, um.
Speaker 4:I was telling nate too. We we take opportunities where so we can pray for each other, uh, where, if it's a labor day or memorial day, there's little holidays and we will meet at one another's homes and that's time for us to pray for each other, because that bonds us and we need that, and so we really do love that time. We'll have lunch together, we'll fellowship, and then we pray for one another. And that happens sporadically throughout the year and special events like today.
Speaker 4:We were out doing a prayer walk today for VBF and that gives us opportunity to be out there in groups praying for the specific needs of VBS, which there's a lot, and my friend Ann takes care of that. She sets that all up, so that's a nice different thing for us to do too. So for me, I love that the Lord keeps us fresh, because we don't want to be redundant, we don't want to just be sitting there and doing the business of prayer like we're ducks in a row. We're there to pray and so I love that the Lord keeps it fresh all the time. I was telling it also that one of our ladies, angela all the time I was telling it also that one of our ladies, angela, saw that we have so many that want to share music and teachings and things like that. So we have one side of our text thread it's called Signal Group for prayer only, and then she developed a Koinonia group so that women can share and we all benefit from that because, throughout the week.
Speaker 4:We're staying in touch and today I shared a song. Somebody might share a teaching, so that's been a pouring out of that also, that kind of birthed out of just meeting on Mondays. So we're not just women coming to meet, we have bonded and we're friendships and we know we're there for one another and for the needs of our church.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one thing you mentioned maybe you can dig into a little bit people who struggle to pray in a group. You know that's a pretty common thing. I know even. You know meet people one-on-one and even one-on-one like I don't want to pray. You know you pray Like I. Just so how have you seen that? You know people come who struggle with that. You know people come and struggle with that. You know kind of the Lord moving. You know people maybe do struggle to pray in a group. You know what would kind of your exhortation to them be?
Speaker 4:Well, I think I shared this with her. We had one gal that I was sitting with her to quip and I'd sat a couple few weeks with her and I just felt led to invite her and she said I can't pray out loud, I can't pray out loud, I can't pray out loud. I said, well, just come. And she came and she was quiet. I don't know how many weeks, but after a bit of time she started to open her mouth and this beautiful prayer came out. She didn't even know and I just loved to hear her pray. And we have had one lady in our group she likes to bring scripture with her and We've had one lady in our group she likes to bring scripture with her and as she prays she reads the scripture and prays for that person or that group or whatever it is.
Speaker 4:We've had a few ladies that didn't feel like they could pray out loud. So I said, laura, I don't know what to do. You got to show me what to do here, and so the three of us met and I knew they would pray out loud with me. They were comfortable with that, that. So we did that for a few weeks and then I brought one of our ladies from the prayer group in, and then another couple weeks I brought another lady in. So they learned to just pray with a few ladies first and never any pressure. There's never any pressure. So when they come back to being in the prayer group, you know they might be quiet for a little bit longer, but all of a sudden, sudden they begin to feel like they have something they want to pray and it's just beautiful.
Speaker 4:So I would never want anyone to feel like, oh, I can't pray, so I can't go. I would never want anyone to feel like that. If they felt that the Lord was calling them to come and join us, I would welcome that, because we're all here to be there for one another. It's exciting really, if you think about it. You know they step out in faith and they come and they find out. God just blesses them for their desire to be faithful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I feel like you see that often. Right, like you said, you're in prayer, right, you're communing with God, right, and you're praying not to the other people around you, right, but like with God. Right, and you're praying not to the other people around you, right, but you're like you said, you're praying to God, but yet God uses those moments of prayer and of you know, the growth in our heart and just our trust and dependence and all the things that we're acknowledging about God and to God, and all of those things to bless other people. Right, like you said, you were blessed by that lady's prayer, even though she felt like, oh, my prayer, this isn't any good, no one cares, but you're saying that doesn't matter.
Speaker 4:Well, that's a lie of the enemy, exactly.
Speaker 1:We don't need it to be this polished super. You got a doctorate degree in prayer in order for you to come pray with us. We just want to hear the burden on your heart and you to communicate that with God, and I think that's one of the things that I see within that prayer group with the ladies is these are just ladies, women who are seeking to just honor God in their prayers, no matter what it sounds like, no matter what it looks like, but as they seek to honor and honor God in their prayers, like God is being glorified, and so I think that's why it is. I mean, there's, that place is packed out, if you're ever here on a.
Speaker 1:Monday. If you're listening, if you're ever here on a Monday, around 10 AM, 10 to 12 ish uh, come, come, check out the room that's packed out, and I think it's so contagious because they're seeing the goodness of God through the communication of the prayer, right, uh, through prayer. I've used that, like you said, uh, we, when we talked about god's word, that charles spurgeon quote of uh, charles spurgeon was asked you know what's more important, reading the bible or praying? And he says back to the person well, what's more important? Breathing in or breathing out? To signal, to show, right, like, they're both just as important. We need to be doing them both in order to thrive.
Speaker 1:Um, and, and yeah, I'm just so, uh, encouraged and really like, uh, motivated to pray more when I see you guys praying right and so and I think that's the reality of what prayer does is it shows like, and we can, I too, right, whoever it is that joins or walks by or whatever, it is like I too have access boldly to God through prayer and through these things. And so what is it kind of like, tell me about? I don't want to say just the feeling of the room, but, as you're bearing each other's burdens, what does that look like for you?
Speaker 4:You know, when we're in there and we start praying, it's like you leave everything else behind. The Lord, the Holy Spirit, meets us there in great ways.
Speaker 4:And as he does. It's not one person praying over another, it's not any of that. It's just the buildup in their heart and they release it through prayer because it's a way to praise God, to honor him, to give Him glory. And a lot of times somebody will have something they want to share when they come in, something they've read that morning. We let them read that, because that often is the adoration that leads us into prayer. So, as we're praying, I just sense that the Lord carries it. If one person doesn't pray that day, sense that the Lord carries it. You know, if one person doesn't pray that day, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Now I might reach out to them. Make sure they're okay, you know, because there might be something, especially if they're continued. They normally do, yeah, Right.
Speaker 4:And there might be a burden that we're not realizing. And again, like I said, if someone is praying and they start crying, you know when we finish we might need to come around her. It's just the Lord. It's just the Lord, it's the Holy Spirit meets us there and in unique ways, and he just pours out through the women that are there, and so that's why I think it is contagious, because there's nobody prompted to pray a certain way. You know, you just pray the way the Lord allows you to pray, and so it just has grown into, I believe, elevating the Lord. We come in not with expectations, but allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us and God is glorified through that, and every woman, I think, begins to feel like they can be a part of that. So you know, it's just a great work of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you feel like people and I feel like it's an obvious answer, but I guess you could kind of talk about it maybe a little bit more Do you feel like people are missing out on the benefit of prayer and community and even just by yourself? Do you feel like that's a present thing that people are missing out on?
Speaker 4:I do, and I'll give you an example through that we have bonded strongly all of us.
Speaker 4:Now, if I don't think to reach out to someone in that group, someone else will do it. So we're always, always bonding together. There's a friendship. I call them my friends and if I have a prayer request, that's generally where I go first. It's only that girls can pray for me. Now many know that right now we're in a journey with my daughter, my granddaughter, and she has a brain tumor. These women have sustained me in prayer. They have helped me so much and they just I know they're praying and they might offer up a song or a teaching that's directed right to what I need to hear right now and I needed to.
Speaker 4:I wasn't there for a few weeks. I came back today. It was like I hadn't I've been gone, but I felt so at home again with them. So no one ever need fear that they, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be accepted or that they couldn't do it. That's just a lie of the enemy and we have built strong fellowships. One gal told me I could share her story, so I'll do that, rita. She came in one day this was several months ago and I met her for the first time and she sat and prayed with us and she finished. She said I was actually supposed to be in the discovery class next door.
Speaker 4:I thought this was the discovery class.
Speaker 2:God had a different purpose.
Speaker 4:God had a different purpose and she said but I'm coming back, and she did, and she's with us and she was here today. So you know, god works in his ways and he brings each woman as he brings them, and we have just built great friendships through this and I treasure each and every one of them. Each one is truly a sweet blessing and I don't oh my goodness, I mean, they're there. I can't imagine not being there. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So I don't think anybody, I don't want anybody ever feel like they would miss out with it is such a strong community that would always be accepted to come in. You know, we we love more to come in. But be prepared because you're going to be part of a community that prays together, seeks God together, worships together and lives life together basically. So it's a great blessing.
Speaker 2:I think summarizing if you're not praying in community you're missing out. You're missing out, that's exactly right Our connect groups. You know, that's why God makes us to walk together, that if we don't have people we're praying with and for, it just draws our hearts together.
Speaker 4:Well, listen, you need a sister or brother praying with you period. Things go on, you know, and we all and we've seen it in that room all kinds of different things are going on, and they know that we're going to pray. So if a person just sticks to themselves and prays, that's fine. But why would you not want community to pray with you? We need that support system. God built us to need that. He didn't build us to be an island, he built us to be in community. So I would definitely say, whether it's through connect groups, whether it's through the prayer group, find your place, because it's a lonely road if you don't. And God calls us to be in community to help one another, to be there for one another, for him to be glorified in our times together. And all of that happens within community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was talking to a young adult recently and they were sounds off topic, but it's not.
Speaker 2:they're asking about going somewhere with this.
Speaker 1:They were asking about dating. And just in the aspect of dating, you know, is it okay if I read the Bible with my girlfriend? Is it okay if I, you know, pray with my girlfriend? And I told him like I would be very careful, right, why the intimacy that it bears is far more than you need to need to bear in dating. And so, like, when you hear you know people going through marriage struggles and you know pastors or people around them ask, why are you, are you praying with your wife? Like, are you? One of the reasons is because it's so intimate and it bonds one another together that, like, that's needed in order to have a deep, meaningful relationship. And so you have a deep, meaningful relationship with these ladies because you're opening your heart in prayer and honesty and all of the things, and you're gaining that together and it's so important. So, yeah, again, to summarize, if you're not praying in community, you're missing out.
Speaker 1:You're missing out on the benefit of God.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because you know what In that room and I can speak for that, we're particularly talking about prayer group there has been many things that these women may not take anywhere else, but they know they can take it there and we'll pray for them whenever they need it, but it's not out there because they need it to stay there and that's what that community does, and the church needs it, because we're a big church. So you have to find your place, a community where you can be with people that will pray with you and for you and vice versa, and live life together.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, you know this. This is a community within itself and the women love one another. Yeah, so.
Speaker 2:And I think one thing I do that you kind of mentioned earlier, that I do want to make sure everybody who's listening gets, is everybody's prayer is beautiful and everybody's prayer is unique. And I think you already mentioned like it's a big lie of Satan that you know like my prayers are inadequate or I need to pray like somebody else, and so I think, especially being in the group, you can probably share.
Speaker 2:you know people have overcome and you know you shared the example of the most beautiful prayers come from people who don't expect it. So I think people need to know that and maybe just encourage you. Know any other examples you have where you've seen that, like your prayer is a fragrant aroma to the Lord, just doing it in your heart posture.
Speaker 4:That's right. You know, praying out loud for the first time it can be nervous I remember myself but I would encourage any woman that wants to come to that to please come. We're not in a competition there, we're just praying together and everybody, when they pray every woman that prays, it's different from the next woman, but it's so beautiful and you know they might think that they don't play beautifully, but they're not hearing them.
Speaker 2:We are.
Speaker 4:So if someone comes in and says well, I can't pray, Well, come in and give us a chance. We'll help you.
Speaker 4:God will work that out. God, the Holy Spirit, is going to help them. He's the helper and we're just there to be a support system to them. So it's really really neat when you watch them growing in their prayer life, when they find that they can pray out loud and they can share their heart for the Lord through prayer with other women, can share their heart for the Lord through prayer with other women. So no one needs to feel intimidated because we're all just friends praying together, basically, and the community that they will have from that will far outweigh any fear that they have coming into it. And sometimes they might just have to listen for a few times. That's fine, but you know they're going. The Lord's not going to let them sit there too long. He's going to let them. You know they're going to want to pray and I think that that's where you know we can talk about that. You know being afraid and being a part of something they truly can be.
Speaker 1:It's not an exclusive group, it's for whoever wants to come. Yeah, and so that meets Monday mornings in conference room two of the prayer room. There's a sign, you know. If you're looking for it, it's down that back hallway there's a sign that says prayer room. It starts at 10 am, correct, and goes to about 12, right, yeah, and again, like you said, there's a time of fellowship and to kind of bond in those areas and then kind of walking through the prayer time. And so if you are listening and you want to get involved and join, we would really encourage, as Judy had said, like do it.
Speaker 4:Just give them a chance. Come on out, give them a chance. Yeah, can I say one last?
Speaker 2:thing, of course.
Speaker 4:When we all meet. We haven't seen each other in a week. Now we're women. We can get really chatty. So I have to give them that time just to bond through just talking. So if you come in and just see us talking, you're going to feel at home anyway, because you're with a bunch of women and we like to chat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we have talked about a lot of the ladies, but we do want to encourage the men too. We have connect groups, discipleship Like man. This ain't just about the ladies.
Speaker 4:That's right.
Speaker 2:I think the sad thing is the ladies put us to shame. So, like guys, you should be praying in a group, whether it's three, four, five guys. Like men, you need to be. That's right. If there's one message we want everybody to get like pray together as God's people.
Speaker 1:I'd love to see a men's group of prayer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we should have prayer room one and room two. We need some guys out there to step up, you know. So the ladies are carrying the prayer.
Speaker 4:I think that's great because you know men need men to pray alongside them. Their trials are our trials. Just it's guys and girls. So, yeah, I would encourage anybody to be within a group, whether it's, you know, a Bible study or connect group or whatever it is where you are drawn into prayer, because we really need that. God made us to pray together and that's how we support one another and we praise him. We glorified him through prayer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. Well, judy, we're so glad that you could join us today. We're thankful for all the work that you do, laboring in prayer for us right, for our church, for our families, for the church families in general, and just. It truly is an example, and so we're so glad that you would join us today and just share a little bit about what God's doing in that room over there.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you so much for having me. It's a blessing to be here.
Speaker 1:We look forward to having you on again. All right, okay.
