turn him from an angry recovering alcoholic to a spiritual life pastor . `` It changed my perspective on prayer from being ask , ask , ask to building a relationship with God , '' Johnson said . `` It went from God being a vending machine to actually having a relationship with him , acknowledging who he is as opposed to what he does . '' Such is the demand for the prayer summits that Henderson speaks at 20 to 30 churches and to as many as 13,000 college students annually , he said . Even pillars of the Christian faith struggle with prayer . `` As for me , the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see , listen and do not hear , '' Mother Teresa told the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet in 1979 , expressing her concern about decades seemingly going by without her prayers being answered . Henderson cites The Lord 's Prayer in the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew as the blueprint for Christians , containing what could be called the four Rs of prayer . He breaks down the passage this way from
Atlanta , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- After 2,000 years of Christian prayer , many faithful still do n't know how to pray effectively , pastor Daniel Henderson says . `` Most Christians pray out of crisis or pray a grocery list , '' he said , making `` God a lifeline of last resort . '' Henderson teaches that prayer should be about worshipping God , having a one-to-one relationship through prayer . `` Every believer wants to be intimate with God and experience his power in a personal way , '' he said . `` Many are hungry to be more effective , because they have n't been taught . '' Teaching is what sends Henderson across the country . He 's on `` The Creative Prayer Tour , '' a series of workshops that will have stopped in 14 cities by year 's end . Henderson also is an author and head of a group called Strategic Renewal , based in Forest , Virginia , which aims to strengthen churches through worship-based prayer . The prayer workshop was life-changing , said pastor Jeremy Johnson of Arcade Church in Sacramento , California . Johnson said the training helped