How Commissioner James Condon was brought to his knees in retirement
When the renowned 20th-century civil rights leader, Mahatma Gandhi, called prayer the ‘key of the morning and the bolt of the evening’, his words resonated with Christians across the globe. Equally passionate about the power of prayer is retired former Australia Eastern Territorial Commander, Commissioner James Condon, who spoke with Salvos Online journalist LERISSE SMITH about leading the Australia Prays movement and his recent role with the Awakening Australia event.
“God’s not going to work, I don’t believe, unless we begin on our knees. So, I have a passion, a heart for prayer.” – James Condon
James, could you tell us how you became involved with the recent Awakening Australia event and your role?
I wear a number of hats, including being the chairman of the Caloundra Pastors Network. So, that’s where I first met Pastor Daniel Hagen from the local Fire Church and received an invitation to be part of Awakening Australia. I had attended special church services a few times, and they asked me to be part of Awakening’s prayer team.
Tens of thousands of people attended the event at Brisbane Showgrounds. I had never met Ben Fitzgerald (co-founder of Awakening with Daniel), and wow, what a man of God! Our prayer team met about four times a day to pray during Awakening. We also invited everybody who was already in the showground to come out and join us at the front of the stage to pray before each session started. Sometimes, there were as many as 100 people out the front praying before the actual session started. Someone also mentioned the revivalist, Smith Wigglesworth, going back many, many years, always had someone under his stage praying. So, a group of our prayer team went behind the stage and prayed while the event was happening. A couple of times, we marched around the arena, too.
There were more than 1000 salvations at Awakening. People came to be baptised on the first night of the worship. I remember thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ [because] there were so many young people! People from all nations and from overseas attended the event. I’m still living in the shadow of it. It was just such an amazing God time.
The other highlight for me was participating in the national church service on Sunday and having the privilege to pray as part of that service with some of the greats of Christian leadership in Australia, such as Pastor Wayne Alcorn. The number of people who made it happen just blew me away. It’s a huge operation to make it happen. We had a praise party after the event as we did not want to forget to say thanks to God when we saw answers to prayer.
What led you to head up the Australia Prays movement?
I had to appear at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and answer on behalf of The Salvation Army. I was deeply, deeply moved by the stories I heard and the way people’s lives had been affected by abuse.
In 2015, I contacted Warwick Marsh, who was the National Coordinator of the National Day of Prayer and Fasting at the time and suggested to him that there be a time of repentance by the church because of the sins of child sexual abuse while children were in care with the Church – not just The Salvation Army. He thought it was an excellent idea. So, I led an hour of repentance. I was joined by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canberra, the Anglican Archbishop of Canberra, and Donna Crouch from Hillsong Church. I also involved a man who had been involved with The Salvation Army’s boys’ home and was one of the people who testified at the Royal Commission. His life had been wonderfully changed and healed by God.
Just before we went into the Great Hall of Parliament House to have the repentance service, I felt led to have a foot-washing as part of the act of repentance and wash the feet of a former victim who was in attendance, and he gave his testimony. I then got involved with the National Day of Prayer and Fasting and, after Warwick retired, became its chairman. A few years into the role, I thought, well, we do more than just one national day of prayer, so we ought to rebrand and relaunch. So, after prayer, we called ourselves ‘Australia Prays’. We have the National Day of Prayer on Pentecost Saturday. We also call people together to pray when we feel the time is right for whatever it might be, such as a national disaster or something significant in our nation politically. I have certainly gotten known in the prayer circles across the nation, and last year, I was asked to be the chairman of the World Prayer Assembly in Perth, Western Australia, too.
Australia Prays is about encouraging the Church to come together to pray. It’s amazing. It grows every year, and we have Christians and churches from every denomination now involved with the National Day of Prayer. Our mission is that together, we mobilise the Body of Christ in Australia to pray, fast and intercede for the will and glory of God the Father. We have representatives in every state on our national committee.
You mentioned there are many different denominations and churches involved across Australia. Can you speak more about their involvement with Australia Prays?
The National Day of Prayer usually involves communion, worship and prayer, with many hundreds of churches involved with the annual event. There are approximately 90 locations across Australia right now representing up to 10 different churches that gather together at one physical church who support and are involved with Australia Prays. A different domination leads the one-hour slot on the National Day of Prayer. We all discovered Zoom since COVID too, so, we will have a Zoom prayer meeting that is still part of the national event. People can go to physical locations or join us online. We can have around 500 people on Zoom at any one time. We don’t become political because then we immediately ostracise people if we try to become political.
What drives you to lead prayer for the Australian community?
I’ve had an impactful journey as far as prayer is concerned in my life. I was greatly impacted back in the 1980s. The Salvation Army gave me the incredible privilege of attending and studying at Fuller Theological Seminary in Los Angeles, USA. I met Peter Wagner, who was the church-growth guru of the day and studied under him. He took a paradigm shift in his emphasis on teaching and started to teach on prayer and spiritual warfare, and what he called spiritual mapping. So, having been someone who was really impacted by him as a person, as a teacher, my own life took a real change at that time in relation to prayer.
The Bible’s Second Chronicles 7:14 is very much a verse that I’ve taken to heart. God’s not going to work, I don’t believe, unless we begin on our knees. So, I have a passion, a heart for prayer, and that’s for me personally as well. I committed myself to my own personal prayer retreats, and when I was The Salvation Army Commissioner for five and a half years, I used to retreat to the Blue Mountains to pray often and still do to this day. It’s very much part of who I am, taking my own personal time with God on a daily basis but then retreating for a day or two to pray. So that’s something of my journey, my heart, my passion for prayer, and for taking on the chairmanship of Australia Prays.
Do you believe the Australian Christian community believes in the power of prayer?
I don’t think they understand fully the incredible potential for prayer and for the God who promises to do the impossible. I don’t think they fully understand or tap the potential of that in their lives. I know Ben Fitzgerald and Daniel Hagen were just blown away by what God has done with Awakening Australia.
For people who struggle to pray, what would you say to them?
I encourage people to converse with God as they would with anyone else. Many hesitate to pray because they feel unworthy or doubt God ever listens to them. People often struggle with unanswered prayers, especially waiting and in difficult situations like healing. I lead a men’s group called Just Men, and often say to the men that God answers in three ways – yes, no or wait. Prayer remains a mystery, but the Bible urges us to keep on praying. The other thing I would say is to seek someone out and talk it through with them. Ask them to help you in your praying.
And what do you say if prayers are unanswered?
I just encourage people to keep on praying in faith and waiting to see what God is going to do. Unanswered prayers can be an incredibly tricky space to navigate. But the first thing that comes to my mind is the verse that says God’s ways are higher than our ways. Sometimes, we will never fully understand why a prayer is not answered.
But now, here is a great story: Years ago, my wife, Jan, and I were stationed at Mackay, Queensland, and had the most wonderful church secretary named Mary Deas. Her husband was not a Christian and a difficult man. He was the focus of her prayers for 30 years to find Jesus. One Sunday at breakfast, he surprised Mary by saying, “I’ve seen Christ in you, and I have to become a Christian.” They went off to The Salvation Army church in Maroochydore, and he never waited for the alter call. He went forward in the opening song, walked down, and knelt down at the front and surrendered his life to God.
Looking to the future, what are the plans for the Australia Prays team?
We always want to be in that stage in saying, well, what does God want of us now? As Australia Prays, what should we be praying about, what should be our emphasis?
I was recently asked to bring together prayer intercessors from all churches across the Sunshine Coast on October 17th to pray for the Sunshine Coast. Moving forward, I believe people need to be united. We need to support each other, we need to encourage each other, we need to urge other on as far as prayer is concerned. So, in relation to the prayer movement in Australia, and as the Chairman of Australia Prays, I have taken on the mantle of bringing everyone together and raising up an army of intercessors across Australia – the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit.
Click through the slideshow below for more photos of the Awakening Australia event in Brisbane:
