March 6, 2008
Praying in Prayer Meeting
Radical concept, huh?
My experience in churches on two continents, however, indicates that prayer occupies a very small part of that service called "prayer meeting". The church where Itacyara and I attend here (which is an outstanding church with a wise and godly pastor) is no different. We have fourty minutes of songs and prayer requests (not to be confused with actual praying), fourty-five minutes of preaching, with fifteen minutes of real prayer sandwiched inbetween. And I have my doubts about the "real prayer" part.
John Piper in his book "The Pleasures of God" makes the point that the Kingdom of God is supported by the preaching of the Word, and that the preaching of the Word is in turn held up by the prayers of God's people. He follows this with a stirring call for the church to return to a "military footing", developing a motivated and powerful prayer life.
With these convicting words ringing in my ears, I went to our pastor last Sunday and offered to take the young people and pray with them separately. At our church the young people have traditionally clustered together, spent a few minutes in prayer, and the rest of the time chatting. And actually, who can blame them. Better to chew the fat with friends than go through the motions with their parents.
Pastor graciously accepted my proposal, and yesterday a group of young people gathered with me in one of the upstairs rooms. I started the session my allowing as how we did not have much time, and had a lot of serious business to cover. I asked everybody to kneel, and spend a few minutes getting right with God--confessing sins that needed to be confessed and putting themselves in a right spirit for prayer. There was a good spirit of cooperation in the group, and everybody participated--at least outwardly.
Following this, we had a period of spontaneous praise. I asked them to praise God for one of His attributes, something that he is. Our "gimme" mode of materialistic praying is hard to break, and at first some of the young people had a hard time not adding requests to their praises--or praising God for something He did for them. However, as time went on, I got teary-eyed as I listened to the concert of praise that flooded the room.
After this praise session, I asked them to stand, and shared with them that we were going to focus now on praying for requests that had to do with the advancement of the Kingdom. I assigned different people to pray for specific issues--opposition that our church is facing in the community, the step-father of one of our young people who is dying without Christ, a missions trip our church is planning for this fall. We also spent time praying for the pastor, and for the Holy Spirit to work on the hearts of the unsaved who visit on Sunday.
We were in the middle of this session when the bell rang for people to gather back in the sanctuary for the message. The collective response of the young people was "já?"--"already?" Instead of looking at their watches to see how much time was left, they had been thoroughly engrossed in prayer. At a prayer meeting. Go figure.
I feel like yesterday was a good start, but we have a long way to go. There are several things that I would like to do--things like incorporating praise songs in the worship segment and spending some time sharing what God has done in response to previous prayer sessions. Some of these will require more time, and I have determined not to try to change the overall routine of the prayer meeting. I am a Baptist, and I know the consequences of messing with the routine. They are dire.
God willing, however, we will make the fifteen minutes allotted for prayer count for something.
Posted by Andrew on March 6, 2008 7:57 AM.
Comments
Posted by: pregador27 at March 8, 2008 3:13 AM
I was amazed as I read your blog on prayer. I lead a College & Career group at our church on Wednesday nights. Recently, we decided to devote our entire night to prayer. Instead of taking prayer & praises request, everyone was ask to pray their request outloud to God. We were in a circle and as I was prepared to start, I ask them to start with praise to God first. Everyone would take a few minutes to praise God for who He is, then after everyone had an opportunity to lift up their praise to God, we went around a second time to lift up others needs. This was a focus strictly on other people's pains, struggles and needs. After that round of prayers, we then followed with each one sharing their own personal needs. I prefaced this prayer time by saying that this was not a mandate that you pray outloud in front of the group, and anyone that didn't feel comfortable praying outloud could just pass and say nothing and after a moment or two of silence then the next person would begin their prayer request. I had no idea that God would use this time to bring us to a whole new level in our relationship with God and with each other. Everyone chose to pray and the Holy Spirit moved in an amazing way as each of us poured our hearts out to the Lord in prayer. No one moved for over an hour as we prayed. There were tears and joy as God's spirit opened our hearts and we focused on the Creator of the Universe and His unconditional love. After we finished praying, we sat there and shared with each other. One young person even felt comfortable enough at that point to share some things from their past and ask for prayer. We left that night change people because we didn't talk....we prayed!
Posted by: Don at March 11, 2008 11:34 PM
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Great report Andrew. I agree totally. It is so easy to take the prayer out of the "Prayer Meeting." I am also guilty of it.
I hope, one day- this side of Heaven, to fellowship with you in Brasil. Maybe on one of our annual trips- before we move there permanently. May the Lord bless you mightily!