What Message Will We Send Him?

Last Wednesday evening we had our monthly church prayer time. I had some questions I wanted us to discuss before we prayed because I have been very concerned about the decline in attendance at our monthly meeting. I put out word in advance to those who have fairly regularly attended over the past two or three years and asked them to be present so we could have a heart to heart talk about prayer.

Someone once said that in the typical church, Sunday morning attendance shows how popular the preacher is, and midweek prayer shows how popular God is. That’s what has been worrying me!

I will record here what some of my questions were and then some of the comments as we talked. The comments were very good and helpful. I heard an echoing of the same concerns and also at the heart of it all, a desire to pray better, to pray well as a church.

Is corporate prayer even necessary?

·         Absolutely – it’s the foundation of the church and its future.

·         It’s important for us to hear each other pray. We can hear each other’s hearts as we express ourselves in God’s presence. It builds faith.

·         It’s a deeper form of fellowship than chatting in the hallway after church. We need to hear each other pray. It builds unity. You meet people from the other service.

·         We sing corporately, break bread and listen to teaching corporately...therefore we should also pray corporately.

·         Prayer in small groups certainly has an important place too.

·         Maybe we shouldn’t call it a “corporate” prayer time but rather a “family” prayer time. More personal and intimate.

Am I too hung up on numbers?

·         Probably, but in another way it sure would be encouraging and powerful to see the auditorium full of people gathered just to pray.

How to beat the modern “busy people” problem?

·         Mixed up priorities in some cases.

·         We mostly do what we deem to be important.

·         Much of our busyness is church related. But some of it is also self induced. Something has to give.

·         “Busy” is driven by what people value....change doesn’t happen until we see something to be a waste of time and begin to value something else more.

·         Prayer is a discipline and we need to fight against our fleshly desires to avoid it.

Should we try a different approach such as multiple prayer sites?

·         I like home based prayer; it feels more intimate and less intimidating.

·         Smaller settings are easier for some to participate in.

Is there any way to see more of our young adults come?

·         Get some of them leading and promoting.

·         We need to personally invite specific individuals, use our influence, and bring them along. Of course more than one would be good so they have peers present.

·         Some teaching would also be helpful for them.

·         Put them in charge of certain prayer meetings.

Would a different night (or timeslot) of the week be better?

·         Maybe an early morning time slot would be better for some.

·         Probably not. No night is perfect.

How can the prayer times be led better?  

·         Form a “creative prayer leading team.”

·         Designate certain people before the prayer meeting to come prepared to lead out in prayer passionately in order to lead the way and fire up others.

Do we need to include a time of worship in our prayer time and make it a more well rounded service than it is now?

·         Maybe quarterly.

·         No, we’re here to pray. So let’s get to it.

·         Worship would help direct our thoughts and hearts to God and stir us to pray. Prayer and worship should go hand in hand.

·        

Are there means we need to use to attract people to prayer other than just assume they will come because they know they should?

·         Bring a friend – seriously!

·         Talk it up during the rest of the month.

·         People are motivated when they hear other Christians pray passionately.

·         We need teaching on prayer – teach how they prayed in Acts; the importance, power and techniques of prayer.

·         Need some strong teaching on the scriptural responsibilities we have to pray for our church and our leaders.

·         Corporate prayer is a privilege not an obligation.

·         Idea of a designated prayer room on site for 24/7 drop in prayer. Difficult to come by at our facility here at Marden.

·         Perhaps a prayer week or prayer night to stretch us.

·         Pray more in every service, especially in the Sunday morning service.

·         Send regular reminder emails before the prayer meeting; some people simply forget.

·         All leaders (Leadership Board, pastors, ministry leaders) should consider it mandatory to be present. We need to hear our leaders pray and see them set the example. But we do recognize the problem that they are already the busiest people in the church. It’s a sacrifice.

·         Ask more often for impromptu prayers to be offered during the church service. Makes prayer more natural and visible and important to all.

·         Send out an email of the prayer request agenda in advance to those who want it. Even if they can’t come, they could then still pray.

·         Read the book – “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” – about a church in New York which was about to close its doors but decided to make the prayer meeting the most important meeting of the week.

Some say, this problem is everywhere in every church.

So what?? Shall we all sink to the lowest common denominator together? For me, God is always watching us. He works where there’s faith (read the gospels! Read Acts! Read up on where the church is growing fastest in the world today!). A vibrant and well attended prayer meeting says there is faith and hunger here. A standing room only prayer meeting sends God a message – a message He joyfully receives! An anorexic prayer meeting sends a message too. What message will we send Him this year?

John

Hang In There

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”  Hebrews 10:36

I remember reading about a player on the Guelph Storm who left the team a couple of months into the season last fall and went back home. Problem was, it was the second straight year he had done this! I don’t know what personal issues he was dealing with (homesickness? depression?), but for whatever reason, he lacked the mental and emotional toughness to hang in through difficult times.

The word “endurance” as it appears in the above verse from Hebrews 10, is translated from the original Greek word “HYPOMENO.” It means “to not be swayed from a deliberate purpose by even the greatest trials and suffering,” and is typically translated in the New Testament by words such as “steadfastness,” “constancy” and “endurance.” In our common vernacular, it means “to hang in there.”

Last month I was reading through Hebrews and I noticed that I kept encountering the word “endure” in chapters 10, 11, and 12. Let me show you some of those instances, in addition to the verse above:

“By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”

(11:27 – spoken of Moses as a man of faith and power).

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”  (12:1 – a challenge to every Christian).

“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  (12:2 - spoken of Jesus during his crucifixion).

“For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  (12:3 - again, spoken of Jesus)

“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”  (12:7 - another exhortation for us to endure).

The writer of Hebrews wasn’t trying to tickle anyone’s ears. He certainly wouldn’t have won an election running on this campaign – “Moses had to endure, your Saviour had to endure and every one of you needs to endure too!”  This message would probably not fill the pews in many churches today because it calls for sweat and effort, but there it is, front and central in Hebrews, and in many other places in the New Testament as well.  In fact, in the famous passage in John 15 where Jesus says to bear fruit you need to “abide in Me,” the word “abide” (NASB) or “remain” (NIV), comes from the Greek word (MENO) which is the root of the word for “endure” which we have just been studying. In other words, if you want to bear fruit, “be steadfast, remain solid, and hang in there.”

How to grow in endurance? Just a couple of quick thoughts from Hebrews 12 to start you off, but feel free to do more of your own study:

1.       Be aware of the “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) surrounding us. I think, from the context of chapter 11, those witnesses are the saints of old who ran with endurance and have passed the torch off to us and cheer us on from heaven. We are being watched!

2.       Lay aside the encumbrances and the sins which so easily entangle us (12:1). It’s hard to run a race when you are wearing galoshes; it’s hard to persevere when you’re weighed down by faith- destroying sinful habits (whatever they are in your own life).

3.       Fix your eyes on Jesus (12:2) and his example of obedience and endurance. He “set His face like flint” (Isaiah 50:7). Be filled with His Spirit- He is now in you!

4.       Consider Jesus (12:3). Consider what? Just consider him – think long, hard, deeply, prayerfully, worshipfully and gratefully about Jesus Christ! The promised outcome – “so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”

As you and I live life, go to work day after day, worship and minister at church, pray, lead Bible studies, raise our families, go to school and deal with all the joys and trials thereof, let us all frequently be heard calling out to one another to – “Hang in there brother / sister! Consider Jesus! Keep your eyes fixed on Him! The saints are watching us!”

John

Just Can't Do It?

In a previous blog (January 6^th) I was exploring the value of being alone with God. We saw how God waited until Jacob was “alone” before He came to interact with him. God wants our full attention and there must be regular times in our lives when He has it. When are those times in your life? I left off last week by acknowledging the common scenario where people say something like, “I tried being alone with God once or twice and nothing happened. So I’ve given up trying.” Oh oh. Now what?

First question – what did you expect to happen? If you were expecting God to appear and “do something,” you were no doubt, disappointed.  First of all, it is not so much we who are observing God, but rather God who is observing us. Though He didn’t say anything or do anything while you were in His presence, He was observing you and pleased that you were there. Most importantly, He is now observing what you are going to do next. He’s looking for the person who will not give up, but who so wants to encounter God and hear from Him that he/she will return again and again in hope and expectation. When I was a kid I used to fish for trout in a certain stream. There was a deep, dark pool on one side of the stream where I was just sure a big trout was lurking, and I used to spend hours dangling my baited hook there, dreaming of the big one, waiting breathlessly for that tell tale tug on the line. The reward came, but only in due time. It’s part of the joy of fishing.

But what if I’m just not good at sitting still and being silent? I really believe it’s a practice that can be developed, like a muscle, if we persevere and stretch ourselves a little. I’ve been on many one day prayer retreats and have noticed that it takes me some time (more than I would like) to slow down my mental RPM’s to a point where I become much more aware of God. It’s a great place to get to, but it takes some time and perseverance. There have been many occasions when I have taken a day for prayer and have struggled throughout most of the day to pray well (whatever that means). But on several occasions I have experienced that during the last hour of the day I was finally able to really give myself to prayer and it was rewarding and enjoyable. I had no thought of how fast the clock was moving. Honestly, whereas earlier in the day I would have been glad if the day was soon over, now I was regretting that I had to pack up and head for home so soon. I had moved to a deeper level of prayer; God was closer, and I longed for more.

A book well worth reading is “In God’s Underground,” by Richard Wurmbrand. It tells the story of his 14 year imprisonment in Communist Romania during the 1950’s and 60’s for the crime of being a Christian pastor.  For long periods of time he was sentenced to solitary confinement, one of the most difficult things a human can be forced to endure. He noted that it was not uncommon to hear fellow prisoners in nearby cells going mad in these conditions. In order to survive he began to discipline himself to follow a certain routine, night after lonely night. The dark hours were the worst. First he would pray out loud for a while, praying for himself, his family, his enemies and his congregation. Then he would take a half hour and just give thanks to God for everything he could possibly think of, both in his past and in his present circumstances. Mixed in with his prayers he would take time to dance in his cell before God (no one was looking). Then he would sing, and when he had exhausted all the songs he knew, he would make up new songs and sing them to God. Next he would preach a sermon to his church (which no one would hear but God), exhorting them to love God and be faithful to Him. He used to give talks to his wife and son, recounting all the good qualities of each of them and commending and encouraging them as if they were standing right in front of him. Before he knew it, the day was breaking again. After his release, Wurmbrand credits this practice of scheduling those long nights in such a disciplined way with enabling him to do two things:  defeat depression and self pity, and grow more deeply devoted to God than he ever would have otherwise. When I read accounts like this I am motivated to not let myself get away with succumbing to that little whining voice residing in my sinful flesh, “But I just can’t do it.”

It’s just not true.

Until next time,

John

On Being Alone With God

“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak “(Genesis 32:24).

One of my personal practices is to record some notes from my daily quiet times, if I feel there is something worth writing down. (For me, a “quiet time” consists of Bible reading, meditation and prayer.) At the beginning of every year I look back over my quiet time notes from the previous year and catalogue them in a separate file.  From time to time I’ll reproduce some of those thoughts here and hope they might be helpful in some way to whoever reads them.

When doing this last week I came across an entry from January 30, 2010 which began with the above verse from Genesis 32. It comes from the famous story where Jacob, with all his family and servants, is on his way to meet with his estranged brother Esau. Jacob is petrified of the encounter because he’s convinced Esau still wants to kill him for a wrong done to him many years ago. But he knows he has to go through with the meeting. He sends all of his family and helpers and livestock across the river to a safe place and then spends the night to prepare himself for possibly the last day of his life.

Many people would rather do just about anything than be alone. Perhaps one of the most difficult spiritual disciplines for people to practice today is the discipline of solitude. And by solitude I mean no external stimuli – no cell phones, IPods, I Pads, Notepads, Blackberrys, .... just you and the silence. What I first noticed was that God only came to meet Jacob after everyone else had gone ahead and he was “left alone.” God wants our undivided attention. Not until we are alone does He slip quietly out of the shadows and come to us – to wrestle, to speak, to ask questions and to bless. Jacob soon discovered that the “man” who wrestled with him was no ordinary man. Through this encounter he was being prepared to meet with his brother the next day. The outcome was quite amazing.

There is a desperate need for more of us to be alone in the dark with God – a time for God to come.

Warning: I’m not talking about scheduling God into our busy lives, as in – “God, I’ve got a little time between 9 and 9:30 tomorrow morning, so I’ll be turning off all my devices and expecting You to show up. After that I’ll be busy again.” The arrogance of such thinking – sitting imperiously on our thrones, making room in our busy schedules, creating a little opening in our day to fit poor God in. (I hope He appreciates it!)....telling the Creator and Majesty of the universe what to do and when to do it. Instead, how happy we should be if we knocked on God’s door all night and He opened it just a crack, for a mere minute, that we might glimpse a little of His glory!

We need to learn to “wait on the Lord,” and to clear at least some of the busyness and activity out of our lives in order to meet with Him, to treasure above all things whatever He might give or show us of Himself. Remember Paul‘s prayer for the average first century Christians – “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,  and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:17-19). How do we think the first generation of Christians so impacted their world? They knew their God.

“My soul waits in silence for God only...” (Psalm 62:1). “They that wait on the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles...” (Isaiah 40:31). “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts...” (Proverbs 8:34-35). And last but not least – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35).

Thanks for listening. In the next entry I will address the common problem of -  “I tried it and nothing happened.”

John