For all the success those in front of the camera enjoy, that success is made possible by the efforts of those laboring behind the scenes. Lighting, sound, makeup, and costuming are but a few of the numerous areas critical to a product’s success on the screen. Rarely-if ever-seen, those in these and other areas are real heroes of a work’s finished product.

It’s the same with God. Too often results are looked at without comprehending the process. The most important parts of any process are people. People like Daniel Nash and Collins Steele.

Father Daniel Nash was a Presbyterian minister who was the main person of prayer behind the highly successful meetings of Charles G. Finney in the early 1800s. Arriving weeks before Finney’s services were to being, Father Nash, occasionally accompanied by another person of prayer, would spend his time in prayer on the behalf of those in need of salvation, and for a move of God in the services.

For all of Finney’s preaching ability, the behind-the-scenes prayers of Father Nash and a few others was what made the real-and lasting-difference. Church historians agree that 80% of those won to Christ under Finney’s ministry stayed faithful to God. But that success would not have been possible had Finney not had the prayer backing of Father Nash.

One measure of Father Nash’s prayers was that after his death in 1831, Finney never had the same evangelistic success he enjoyed from the fruit of Father Nash’s prayers. Another reason we pray for our church services. Their success is so dependent on the prayers of people like you and me.

During Finney’s 1830 meetings in Rochester, New York, nearly the whole town got saved. Even today there is a Charles Finney School in Rochester, named in the honor of one whom God used mightily to win so many in that city to Christ.

Only eternity, however, will tell the part of Father Daniel Nash, the one who never attended Finney’s meetings, choosing rather to pray behind the scenes for the seen to succeed. For me, a real hero of success.

Our next post will cover Collins Steele, another behind-the-scenes hero. Join me.