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Praying together |
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The Holy Spirit and You > Prayer > Praying As a Church
One of the most central things Christians do when they gather together is pray. They gather to hear the Word, and to cheer on the new members. The Spirit knits them together, and brings them Christ Himself. They hear, see, taste, smell, feel, and sing God's love. And they respond in prayer. Prayer is what most sets a church apart from a social club or labor union or school or service agency.
What's more, public prayers teach each believer a lot about what private prayers are about. In public :
They learn that there is great spiritual power where believers pray together with unity of purpose (also known as 'in agreement'). Their prayers are at the core of their relationship with God, which feeds, nurtures, and energizes them, and ties them in with believers of then, now, and to come. And it is in the congregation that they learn how to pray when, say, their business goes bankrupt, they fail in college, their factory closes, or their spouse leaves. And most especially, where death and life meet. Prayer is the most common or 'ordinary' of the ways that the holy and the human come together. Thus, a church's prayers together are something far bigger than any one person, or even any one congregation.
When church growth specialists started to look at energetic churches to see what made them so vital, one of the themes that came up over and over again was that those congregations did a lot of praying. What they found was that these vital congregations prayed and taught about prayer: what it is, what is done through it and in it, methods of prayer and related devotions, and prayer in all settings.
Their church leaders :
For these vital parishes, prayer was a part of every activity of the church, yet it was not allowed to become routine. The staff and council and committees prayed together -- real prayer seeking guidance and the power to do as guided, not rote or superficial 'prayer' that's done as a matter of mere duty. They prayed for support. They prayed for individuals' and groups' needs to be met. They prayed for boldness for the Gospel. They prayed for specific healing. And, there were people in the churches whose chosen ministry was prayer. They led prayer chains, prayer teams, prayer circles, prayer watches, prayer walks, prayer retreats, prayer visitation, prayer vigils, and prayer during worship services and events. There were even special prayer sessions of gathered friends for healing or for help with a burden. The congregations were praying without ceasing. They prayed as if prayer really matters, because they knew it does.
Prayer was not allowed to be just a female enterprise, any more than leadership was allowed to be just a male enterprise. Males, including those without official roles, were brought (dragged??) into the prayer ministries. In fact, since prayer is something anyone can do, prayer activities proved to be a great place for people to start stepping forward in faith and start taking part in congregational life.
Such churches are well aware that God gives gifts to those who keep on praying, most notably the power to get God's purposes done. And they are keen on tapping into a realm that is too deep for our bodily senses to pick up on, but that is there in everything and everyone.
Some of these churches have grown rapidly. But don't think of prayer as a road to numerical growth: many churches have grown large and rich without a lot of praying, and a lot of praying churches stay average or small in size. (In statistical-talk: an emphasis on prayer has only a weak correlation with numerical growth or financial donations.) God gives a different gift to churches that stress prayer: they're more vital:
It sounds simple, but it's not. On the one hand, if the church is to become (and stay) a praying church, prayer must be an obvious priority of the church's leadership. It takes more than just praying, it takes teaching and encouraging prayer. On the other hand, too much talk about prayer will eventually become so much blah blah blah, in one ear and out the other. (Watch the teens; they're the first to yawn.) And constant chatter about 'modeling' a prayer life can quickly mutate into a concern for keeping up an image as praying people - something Jesus came down very hard upon. Wisdom calls for modesty, honesty, and balance.
"Once we spent a whole night in
prayer and praise : and many a time, at midnight and at one in
the morning, after I have been wearied almost to death in
preaching, writing and conversation, and going from place to
place, God imparted new life to my soul, and enabled me to
intercede with Him for an hour and a half and two hours
together ..... I cannot think it presumption to suppose that
partly, at least, in answer to prayers then put up by His dear
children, the Word for some years past, has run and been
glorified, not only in England, but in many other parts of the
world."
from George Whitefield's Journals (1960 edition, p.91,
from 1737)
You are getting the idea of starting or reviving a prayer ministry at your church. So what's the first thing to do?
PRAY. (...surprised?...)
But what do you pray for?
Pray for discernment and guidance:
What next?
PRAY.
Pray for colleagues and support :
What next?
KEEP PRAYING. (....got it yet??....)
As you do, look for signs of confirmation (taken together, not each one on its own) :
Also, hone down the vision, so you can easily share it with others, again and again so that it sinks in or catches fire.
Please, be in no hurry. When it happens, it happens. God's timing is what counts. Get others to lead and take initiative. This is not something to be done alone. And, be ready to accept the idea that someone else may be called to lead the way. Someone else may have the special set of gifts that takes the prayer ministry forward in depth, member involvement, and effectiveness. They'll need your support. Most of all ....
(... hopefully, by now you can say the
rest of it ....)
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The world is not general. Specific things happen in specific places at specific times to specific people. When God incarnated, it was not as a 'generic human'. It was as a specific human being, Jesus, in a specific culture of a specific time and place who, while He walked among us, addressed specific situations of specific people. Prayer needs to be detailed and specific, too, as specific as each of us. As detailed as is feasible, without violating confidences. It needs to be our usual way of praying.
As an example: In Sunday worship services one week, there is a line in the Prayers of the Church where the congregation prays "for the Sunday School, its teachers and students". But when the parish education committee and others who are involved with Christian education meet later that week, they pray for:
Specific praying changes the way you see what you're praying for. You'll start paying more attention to each part of the picture, and care more about parts you didn't think about before. There might even be less infighting and petty squabbles (no guarantees, of course). But the most important thing is that every aspect of the church and the collective lives of its members is raised up to our Lord, the One to whom it all belongs. Our prayers turn our life together into an act of worship.
A site user asked :
>> We ask that if anyone has a need for prayer to meet
at
>> the back of the church after the service and a
member
>> of the team will pray for whatever need is asked
for.
>> The problem is, nobody ever asks for prayer.
>> The members of the team always wait for a response,
but we
>> never have any takers.
There may be several reasons for that. You'd know which apply to your church much better than I would, and how much :
(1) When service ends, many people are mentally already out the door. The end of the liturgy goes something like this:
Pastor : "Go forth and serve the Lord."If that's the attitude, anything done after the service will have a sharply reduced pool of potential users.
(2) Your church is part of the Presby/Reformed or US Baptist traditions where intercession is not usually done this way. So noone's used to it; it's a case of "we haven't done it this way before." It may even feel vaguely Catholic or Charismatic to them -- no matter how well-rooted it is in historical church practice. The sides or ends of the altar, or prayer stations in the sides or back of the sanctuary, during communion time, is where such prayer is usually done. The request to come forward for prayer is made before that person takes the bread and wine, and after the person receives communion they go off to where the lay prayer ministers are. The option of special intercession during or after communion feels especially alien to churches which bring the elements to the pew instead of the people coming to the altar.
(3) There isn't any preparation for it. The format was simply announced and done, seemingly out of nowhere. The congregation may need to adjust to the role of the intercessory team, both inside and outside of worship settings, and see the elders and pastor behind it and involved in it. The intercessors may have to earn acceptance and trust before taking such a forward place in congregational life.
(4) The team needs to pray in earnest about their own role, asking God for direction, effectiveness, and the action of the Spirit in what they do. Maybe in doing so, a new direction may emerge, or something else good may happen. It helps to have others in the congregation regularly pray for it. It also helps if some of the people who are leading the worship service are brought into the prayer ministry -- the pastor, assistants, organist, music director, altar guild, even acolytes.
>> I would not like to suggest that our church
doesn't
>> believe in the power of prayer, but we just can't seem
to
>> get this program on its feet. Any suggestions?
What Christians most need to learn is that while most people are not called to a lay ministry of intercession, all Christians pray intercessions as an outgrowth of their caring about others. For instance, even for those who refuse to go to church or never much think of God, when their father is sick, they pray for him, because they love him and find themselves turning to a power beyond themselves to bring healing. In most churches, only one or two lonely souls have taken the next step: holding all aspects of the church's ministry and its people in prayer before God. This is where a prayer team comes in. The prayer team's duty is to stand before the Father in Christ's name on behalf of each church member, each loved one, each need, each ministry and challenge. They may even have to pray for the gift of love they need to hold people in prayer. But another part of the team's work is to encourage and invite the church members to do their own interceding, to take what they really care about before God, and to work from that start to expand the circle of love in their hearts to include their brothers and sisters in Christ. Then, the congregation will find it easier to understand the value of the team, and to turn to it when they themselves are in need of prayer, or are being moved to repentance and need someone to pray with about it. It takes time for the whole wide field of prayer to make sense to people who don't do it and who have not seen God work through it.
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| ver.: 12 February 2012. Congregational Prayer. Copyright © 2002-2012 by Robert Longman. |