Becoming a People of Payer: Introduction

A couple of weeks ago I threw a question up on Facebook that I was hoping our church family would respond to and start a discussion with me. The question was simply this: When would be a good time to host an early morning prayer meeting for those of you who work “traditional” hours in the business world. In that post I did the most dangerous thing that any would be, leader can do – I asked for feedback. Let me tell you this: nothing keeps you as humble, and deflates your sense of self-importance as quick as soliciting feedback online – If I’m ever at risk of starting to think I’m a somebody in this world I only need to ask that one question, because the response to that inquiry was abysmal. Almost nobody responded!

Which led me to think about and re-read a series of messages that I preached in Estevan back in 2011 – a series of sermons on becoming a people of prayer. It led me to remember that I started that endeavour with a similar exercise – except I had asked the church on my blog about their feelings pertaining to our then practice of corporate prayer in the church and I received similarly little feedback.

But even though I received very little feedback on the blog, comments started trickling in through Facebook and emails and face-to-face conversations about people’s response to our practice of congregational prayer and sharing in the Sunday morning services. You do have opinions on the matter and by and large those opinions are positive. Some of the encouraging things I’ve heard from people include responses like:

“The prayer time is my favourite part of the worship service”

“I love hearing people share about what God is doing in their lives”

“I never would have known they were suffering without the sharing time. Now I know how to pray for them”

“I feel like this sort of thing really builds community”

Most of what I heard was exhilarating and encouraging but some other common threads started to emerge in the responses that weren’t nearly as positive.  Specifically I heard from a number of people that there were some not-so-insignificant doubts about the appropriateness of participating in corporate prayer in the church.  I heard about reluctance to stand and share and a fear about what it might or might not accomplish. And after consolidating the responses I identified a number of issues that I think transcend that congregation and that time in history – things that apply to my current context and congregation and circumstance as much as it did back then. And so over the next few weeks as we gear up for another exciting fall at The Bridge Church, I want to share with you some highlights from those messages on corporate prayer and perhaps inspire and challenge you to see it for what it is, and renew your commitment to be involved in it in this coming year.

The first section of this series will focus on the lies that keep us from engaging in corporate prayer. We will look at, one post at a time the following lies and their implications:

Lie #1: My needs are too unimportant to bother the church with

Lie #2: My situation is too embarrassing to share in church

Lie #3: Sharing answered prayer is insensitive to those who are struggling with real needs

These are lies that Satan would want this church to believe about the fellowship of prayer that can cripple the good things that are happening in our congregation. Things that can build walls of distrust between us and silence the voice of the Holy Spirit as he wants to speak to us through his own people. I hope that through looking at these claims against the Holy Scriptures we can dispel these lies and come to a freeing knowledge of the truth.

The second section of this series will focus on the pattern of corporate prayer. It’s based on a sermon entitled “Surviving and Thriving in Corporate Prayer.” The purpose will be to examine the ways in which the first Christians approached prayer while paying attention to the pitfalls of prayerlessness in the church.

And the third and final group of postings will draw from a sermon I preached entitled  “All Eyes on Jesus.” Which is an examination of our priorities and intentions when we pray publicly, along with some (I think) helpful guidelines for keeping a corporate prayer meeting both on topic and accessible for people who are less comfortable with the idea of praying in front of others.

I hope that as you progress through this series this month you will hear my heart for prayer in the church and will feel challenged to join me as we pray for our church, our community, the coming of the kingdom, the proclaiming of the Gospel to all nations and the glory of God.

The journey starts tomorrow.