Thoughts from Luke 10

Having decided that our next step is to develop a prayer strategy for our community, we've set out a table of streets, grouped by location from our map. We have just over 150 streets in our community and we want to pray for each one of them. It's not that difficult to work out the logistics and a bit of trial and error goes a long way too. But what underpins the principles and ideas? Well I've been reflecting on Luke 10 as I think about this and here's what I've explored so far.

1. Not alone

It's not a solitary mission, but a shared mission. Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs. That's not rocket science, but it is a reminder that taking a partner with you is strategic.

2. No empires

He instructed them to pray for others to join in. This is not about building an empire but sharing a mission. It's not a case of the workers are few so I'll go it alone, but rather the workers are few, let's pray for more workers to join the party.

3. Go vulnerable

Jesus said to go without spare shoes and luggage. When we go it's not about what we can give to the community out of our abundance. Perhaps that's because it forces us to be dependent upon God already being at work. When we turn up with a ready-made solution what room is there for God to do something extraordinary?

4. Always bless

The prayer strategy that we are going to use is simply to pray God's blessing down every street. We're not "treasure hunting" or seeking to drive out darkness. We just want to ask God to bless the people amongst whom we live. There is a time and place to confront darkness and challenge evil, but let's start by blessing people. That seems logical and valid to me.

5. Don't agonise over the response

If a place is not a place of peace then so be it. We're not going to judge, just to bless. whichever way it goes, the kingdom is here whether people notice it or not. I have this intermittent privilege of serving families at a time of loss. That now includes doing the occasional non-religious funeral. I've blogged about that elsewhere. I'd hope that all the funerals are non-religious in a way because religious usually means rites and rituals without any real depth of faith. On the other hand all the funerals I lead are strongly rooted in a Christian faith perspective even when God is not mentioned and prayers are not said. Why? Because I'm there and I pray. Not at the funeral, but at home, in the car, at the crematorium, just not in the service or with the mourners. I don't agonise over the lost opportunity to share the gospel or missing element of fait, I just do what I can and leave the rest in God's hands.

6. Be prepared to be amazed!

God does some extraordinary things. He has the habit of showing up when we least expect him to and doing something equally unexpected.

So, how complicated is it to walk down your street and ask God to bless the homes and businesses in it? Are you afraid you might bless someone who doesn't deserve it or who might be doing something that doesn't honour God? How righteous do your neighbours need to be before they are worthy of your prayer of blessing? I'm sure that somewhere in our community someone is probably making illicit adult films, planning crimes, taking drugs or evading tax. IT seems to me that praying for them is the very thing I ought to do.

Here's one last crazy idea. In our village we have a Kingdom Hall. What might God do if I pray a blessing on that place!

Praying for the community

I guess one of the features of our discipleship over the last thirty years has been a heart to pray for the community in which we live. I can't remember when it began, but I think it has its roots in the Make Way events of the early eighties.

Over the years our approach has morphed into other things, taken sharp unexpected turns, and gone through quiet periods and times of complete inactivity! We're not perfect! We've learnt a lot and seen a lot of different things happen. Some have been big and obvious (there's a vibrant church in one place now and it's good to know our community prayers were part of the planting process), some less obvious.

I'm not sure we've always been understood, too often there's an expectation that there will be "results", and there have been times when it seems that for some our prayers have been neither public enough nor  inclusive enough. But there we go, you can't please everyone.

Our aaron'our new community. Something I've done before is to pray Aaron's blessing every time I turn into a new street when I'm out walking. It's simple and in many ways non-theatening or spooky (spiritually speaking). You see you don't need some special revelation about the family at number four or the old man across the street to pray this way. All you need to have is a commitment to bless people. Maybe there is even a principle about the importance of praying a blessing into a place and not just a spirit out of one.

Although I haven't bought the book or researched the project in great depth, I'm quite excited about a resource that has recently crossed my path called the Neighbourhood Prayer Network. I think we might connect with this and if you're interested you might like to have a look at the website too.

Anything that helps us focus on connecting with our community is a good thing. Right? Prayer is something we can all do, whether we walk the streets to do it or not is less important, although don't despise walking! I've been prompted to pray for things I might never have otherwise thought about just by walking down the street with my eyes open (spiritually and physically!)

A Heart for Libya?

You might be interested in this website if you have a heart for Lybia.

The basic idea is to pray for Libya on a day of your choice at either 10:02 in the morning or evening. It's 10:02 because Luke 10:2 provides the text underlying the prayer: Pray, therefore, that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest field.

I guess you could actually choose any country or community for that matter and do a similar thing. The prayer is "into" the harvest, "for" the harvest and "from" the harvest. See the website for more details. You can sign up to pray for Libya or just make our own commitment to a country or people group to whom you feel drawn.

Early Prayer

Getting up early to pray might be a laudable thing to do, but when the alarm rings and you haven't slept much, it can be the last thing on your heart. Today is the first shot at having a dedicated prayer day in the life of the church. I don't how many people have remembered it, and it probably didn't help that it wasn't mentioned on Sunday, but we're making a start.

I would say we've planned, but the truth is it's my idea and I've suggested a plan of having three times for corporate prayer through the day. The first was at 7:00am, the second will be at 9:30am (although I think some might come for 9:00) and the third will be at 8:00pm. The two morning times are half hours and the evening one a full hour.

My hope is that each month will have a theme or a focus that will shape part of the prayer time together. Today the theme is simple: Unless the Lord builds the house the labourers labour in vain.

Other times I hope we will focus on things like those who work in retail or those in care services, education, the business world, etc.

This morning three of us gathered at 7:00am, if you can call three a gathering! We had a great time. It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful as we shared our hearts with God. In fact I think it was probably the most peaceful it's ever been in church! Sometimes the noise from outside filtered in through the open door, but that simply served to remind us that we are in the world even if we're not part of it as Jesus might say. And yes I'll be honest I was expecting to be alone, so having two people with me was a great encouragement.

For next month I hope to be able to provide some basic information the Sunday before, just to keep everyone in the loop. But we really ought not to need too much paperwork in order to be able to pray.

All this reminds me of something I have buried away somewhere in my study about the differences between a church that is committed to prayer and a church that prays. While the differences might be obvious I've yet to work out a successful plan for making the journey from one the other, from praying to a deeper commitment to prayer. And that's as true for my personal life as it is for the life of the church. It's far easier to not pray than it is to pray. As the sign outside one church read:

Why pray when you can worry and take tranquillisers!

Speaking of which, sine I don't take the pills I'd better get to praying again.

Prayer and Preaching

Here's a useful article about the importance of prayer in the process of sermon preparation.

It's true that prayer often features as a perfunctory step in the process, even as an act of desperation as Sunday morning approaches. But we all know that payer ought to be a central feature not a peripheral part of the process. As the author of the post says:

We need to regain a theological vision in which prayer becomes the posture of the preacher, for before our people can hear from God through us, we must hear from God ourselves. And hearing from God through his Word is the fundamental work of prayer.

But not only is prayer about hearing from God, it is also about something more fundamental too:

The point of prayer is realignment, as our hearts assume a posture of dependence and humility before God. Prayer places our needs in the perspective of God's sufficiency, our problems in the perspective of his sovereignty, and our desires in the perspective of his will. Prayer is not a monologue. Rather, prayer invites God to have the last word with us, and for his Word to shape and define us.

This is true whether you are praying as you prepare to preach or whether you are praying as you prepare to live out your daily life for the glory and honour of God.

National Days Of Prayer & Fasting

I came across this too late for the 30th January, but have put the other dates in my diary. You might want to read more here unless you already know about it all!


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Daily Prayers

Over the course of the last year or so I've developed a routine of daily prayers that I pray for the church. Recently I shared them with the leadership team and we thought it would be good for us to take on board these daily prayers ourselves. We've since presented them to the church and asked them to take up the challenge of praying five things everyday. Here are the five prayers in outline form:

• Renewal and restoration
• That God’s Spirit will overflow continuously in me and the church
• The Growing Kingdom 
• That God will draw into his kingdom those who are far from him
• Sharing God’s mission
• That God would lead us in mission
• Sharing the struggle
• That God will give us his peace, as we help each other through our struggles.
• God-Honouring Change
• That God will guide us as we seek to make changes that honour him.

I can't say how many people have taken up the challenge, or what difference it is making. By God's grace we might begin to see the difference over time. What was interesting was both the process of taking my daily prayers beyond my personal prayer life and adjusting them for a wider group. Not everything made sense outside my world and some of the prayers have lost their sense of personal intimacy because they are wider now.

It took me a while to adapt to feeling that they were no longer my prayers but someone else's. Originally I chose to pray these prayers because I felt a sense of call to do it and a sense of discipline about developing a routine of intercession on behalf of the church. I still feel that way. In fact my list of daily prayers has ten items on it, but in truth I can only every remember these five, the other five I have to look up! And maybe five things are enough. Who knows.

February has been a month of prayer for me for a number of years. I try to write a simple prayer guide for the church so that we can all pray about the same things. Each year I look at the previous year and ask myself which items should remain and which should be reworded or replaced by something new. Each year I also wonder what impact last year's month had!

Anyway, if everyone prays at least the five daily prayers for the month, that would be great. Perhaps there will be stories to share along the way. Maybe this year I will try and blog about the prayer month as we go along. We shall see.

Prayers for the church

Here are ten great prayers for the church, reproduced from a blog post by James Emery White:

Ten Missional Prayers for the Church Today

1. That pastors would see other churches in their immediate vicinity as a co-laborer, not as the competition.

2. That members of churches would see themselves as ministers and missionaries, dying to themselves for the sake of the cause, as opposed to consumers who care most about whether they are fed, ministered to, or served themselves.

3. That parachurch organizations would be church organizations - meaning serving alongside the church while giving the local church the pre-eminence it deserves - and allowing the partnership to reach its full redemptive potential in light of the biblical mandate.

4. That church planters would commit to being a) sent by a church; b) called by a community; and c) eager to go where no one has gone. Instead of a) sending themselves; b) going to where they simply desire to live; and c) remaining blind to the reality that they'll be the 11th McDonalds in a row of ten existing ones.

5. That all seminaries would remember that they exist to serve the church, and that they would serve the church to such a degree that their students would be more on fire to serve and build the local church after they have graduated than before they entered.

6. That those committed to discipleship, and rightly so, would quit pitting it against evangelism as if any emphasis on "reaching out" somehow takes away from "building up", creating a false dichotomy that doesn't exist biblically.

7. That older generations would quit worrying about whether they are being catered to sufficiently, and would become more interested in whether they are passing the baton on to the next generation that is so desperate and hungry for mentoring.

8. That the false dichotomy between a concern for personal or sexual morality, and social justice, would evaporate. Instead, that we would see that being salt and light applies to both concerns: being as concerned for a culture of divorce as much as we are for the AIDS pandemic in Africa.

9. That the pendulum between whether to share the gospel or engage in social ministry would also disappear. That we would see them not as an either-or, but a both-and; we are to give a cup of water and the bread of life, feeding both stomach and soul.

10. That we would understand that lost people are the enemy, but instead the objects of the Father's heart - and thus, they should be the objects of ours. That we would join the Father as He sets out to find His lost sheep, search for His lost coin, and look desperately down the road for His prodigal son.

James Emery White

I have prayers I pray for the church every day, I might have to add some of these ideas into my list!

30 Days of Prayer

Starting today, Evangelism Coach is blogging a 30 days of prayer for personal evangelism. It's aimed primarily at church leaders from first glance, but anyone could adapt it to their situation. I thought today's first entry was very helpful.

Prayer Journal for iPhone

A few weeks ago I came across this app for my iPhone. It works on iPod Touch too, so don't worry, you don't have to get the phone to get the app!

At £0.59 it won't break the bank and it might just inspire you to pray a little more often.

The interface is simple and easy to use. Simply add prayer requests as you go and then choose how you want to pray. There is the option to go through the whole list, a specific person, or a portion of the list.

It is a really helpful and simple application that can only get better. But then again there's not much I would change, except maybe the ability to group items in some way. And maybe a desktop version with synching would be nice but not a reason not to try this app out.

Why I like John Piper's prayer

I blogged Piper's prayer earlier this morning. But I've been thinking about it in the last half hour and wondering what it was about the prayer that drew me to it. As I thought about it, I began to understand why I liked it.

Firstly, it's not about what needs fixing. I've heard a lot of prayers for the local church over the years. A lot of them go something like this: "Oh God how long do I have to put up with this?" They are not always put so starkly, but the underlying theme is not far from this model. Whether it's consumerism or just plain human frailty, church gets the short end of the stick a lot of the time.

Secondly, Piper's prayer doesn't focus on the ministries of the church. In fact it doesn't focus on the ministry of the church at all when you think about it. The focus is upon the work of God. It isn't a prayer asking God to bless what we are doing, rather it's a prayer asking God to do what he alone can do.

Thirdly, there's an element of self-realisation. In other words, when he prays for change in the life of the disciple, he prays things that affect us all. We all all want to be more bold in our witness, more fervent in our prayers, more diligent and engaged in our personal Bible reading.

And fourthly, while it has this element of self in it, it remains a prayer of blessing on the whole church. What better way to pray for the church of which you are a part than to bless it. Even when it's a struggle, there is no excuse for not blessing the church that bears the name of Jesus.

Daily prayers

Some time ago I began to write down a list of things for which I seek to pray daily in the life of our church. If you are looking for a daily prayer to pray for your church then you could try a variation of John Piper's prayer as he begins his eight month leave of absence.

Would you pray with me for a great awakening that results in hundreds coming to Christ, marriages being reconciled and renewed, wayward children coming home, long-standing slavery to sin being conquered, spiritual dullness being replaced by vibrant joy, weak faith being replaced by bold witness, disinterest in prayer being replaced by fervent intercession, boring Bible reading being replaced by passion for God’s word, and lukewarm worship being replaced by zeal for the greatness of God’s glory?

I will pray for you every day to this end . . . and more. Lord, open the heavens while I am gone.

You can read the whole letter he has written the church here.

To see the Kingdom

A simple prayer for this week: "Lord, open my eyes so that I might see the signs of the Kingdom."

As I spent my time this morning praying for all sorts of situations and people and other things to do with the life of the church, I found myself asking God to show me the signs of the kingdom, signs I so easily miss when I'm consumed with my own needs and desires.

When I think about encouragement, it's seeing God at work that gives me the most joy.

Prayer Day (3)

My prayer day is finished and it's been a good day. Different than I anticipated, but then they often turn out that way.

I went for a walk into town and was beginning to think that it was a distraction more than a help. I sat and watched people going by and prayed for them and jotted down a few thoughts. Then, just as I was wondering why I'd come out I noticed something. Shops. Now you might have expected me to notice them before, but I hadn't really paid much attention to them until now.

There's been a recent change on this particular high street. The local department store has opened its doors on a Sunday and it's been quite successful from what I hear. A question came to mind. Do we see this as a threat to our quiet Sundays, an offence to the principle of Sabbath rest? Or do we see it as an opportunity?

Now, if it's an opportunity, then what kind of opportunity is it? I began to pray and think and came up with a few ideas, but I think I'll wait and ask the church if they can see any opportunities. It would be a good exercise for all of us to do.

After that I walked back to the study at church and spent some time praying for the church. My thoughts turned to the day the first temple was dedicated and the glory of God so filled the place that the priests could not go about their daily duties. Oh that God would come down in such measure and fill the church with his Spirit to the extent that normal service has to stop while he sets the agenda.

Well that's how my day came to a close. Lot's of things to write up and  a few things to talk through with the leadership team.

Prayer Day (2)

Well here's how the day has shaped up so far.

As I planned, I spent the first part of the morning in prayer and reflection, reading the ongoing story of David and Saul. One of David's character flaws was his impetuous nature by the look of things. It would get him into trouble on more than one occasion, but this time Abigail comes to his aid. God put people around David who covered his weak spots when he listened to them! I picked up both Blackaby's devotional and one by Bill Hybels (Courageous faith) and reflected on their thoughts for yesterday (I thought it was the 29th for some reason).

After a short break I got out my notebook and began to write down a few things from my journal and a few thoughts about church and prayed about those items. As I walked around the house a little as I prayed I noticed a jigsaw that Anne is working on at the moment.

It's incomplete, and I began to wonder about vision and big picture stuff and how you don't do a jigsaw by picking a piece and then searching for the one that goes with it and then another. Most people I know seem to sort the jigsaw into similar pieces and then build smaller parts of the big picture until they begin to join up. They don't worry about completing one section before they work on another, they just work until they get a bit stuck and then move on. By doing this we build both the smaller pictures by associating bits that fit and rejecting bits that go elsewhere, slowing reducing the number of single pieces until the final picture emerges. No piece is left without a place to go. It's fascinating and I prayed about what it had to do with vision and church.

After another break I went through my pastoral notes and prayed for all the people we've talked about in our pastoral meetings. I have to confess that this took a lot of concentration. It's easy for me to get distracted when I do this and find myself wandering off on a real tangent.

Then I had lunch (it's a prayer day without fasting!) and me new study chair arrived, so I've assembled that and it's rather comfortable.

This afternoon I might go for a walk and sit somewhere in town and watch people pass by and pray about mission and engagement. I wonder if that will be easier with people and things to see rather than just the insides of the house.

Prayer Day (1)

Here's my plan for the day as it is at the moment. Things may change, but without a plan the day will just drift, so a plan is a good thing!

The first thing to do is to make sure I've got my journal and any other notebooks and pens I need. Because I keep a journal on a regular basis it is both a good place to start and a good place to record stuff. But there are some things that might need to be written down elsewhere. I also like to use plain paper to scribble things on. My thoughts don't often follow a linear pattern, and so writing them down in lines doesn't help me connect them up to each other.

The plan for the first part of my day is to spend an extended time in quite reflection and prayer, reading my current Bible passage and maybe a couple of devotional books too. As I go I'll note things down, but I will also keep a list of "distractions". These are the things that pop into my head and  may be a line of thought I should follow but more often are mere distractions that stop me focussing on the important. Things like the need to polish my shoes or to put the cheque I wrote yesterday in the accounts.

After this I will review my journal for the last month or so and see what trends show themselves. There are one or two things that I know need addressing in prayer, so I will do that. I'll also go through my pastoral notes, maybe collate them together and then sit down with the list of members and attenders and pray through that list.

I'll probably take a break then and decide what's next. The big things, so-to-speak, that I want to get to today concern vision and strategy things for church and asking some questions that I remember from a Bill Hybels book and talk about character, ministry and family.

This all sounds like a lot, and I suspect it is! But I'm not looking for definitive answers to many of these big questions, just a sense of where God is leading me and the church. I'm okay with the vague, trusting that the detail will come as the process unfolds. I don't see myself as going up the mountain to collect a five year plan from God to deliver to the deacons and the church! This is after all Upminster not Sinai!

To help me stay focussed I'll use what I've heard called the Pomodora technique. In it's least complicated form it's as simple as setting a timer and working until the timer sounds, having a short break and returning to work. After four rounds you take a longer break. 25 minutes is the recommended time slot and 5 minutes for the short break. A simple kitchen timer is all you need.

Long before I knew it had a name I used a timer to help me pray. Without it, I spend more time checking my watch than praying! Speaking of which, it's time to stop blogging about a prayer day and time to get started. I'll update you later.

Time out

A long time ago, over 30 years now, I became aware of the practice of spending a day in prayer. It was the early days of my Christian life while I was involved with the Navigators. I remember coming across a little booklet, probably by Lorne Sanny the then International Director as I recall.

Anyway, sad to say, it's not as regular a feature of my life as maybe it should have been, but I've always tried to include regular extended times of prayer in my routine. I neither want to boast or be hard on myself about how I've done, but I do want to blog a bit about the process and how it works for me. So I've decided that it's time to have a day of prayer and write about it during the day if possible. Tomorrow I'm going to spend as much of the day( not literally 24 hours, more like the working part of the day) in prayer and reflection as possible and I'll try and do a few updates through the day and a final reflection on what I learn about the process. I hope that might encourage others to think about doing something similar. I thought it might provide me with a sense of accountability too.

If you are interested in doing something similar, then you might be interested in this transcript of an old article that I think may have formed the basis for the booklet I recall from those early Navigator days.

Pondering God's character

I decided to take up James Nicodem's (author of The Prayer Coach) idea of keeping a list of God's titles, attributes and names. I've added, by accident or default I'm not quite sure, the odd theological term like omnipresent to the list. Maybe it's because I think in theological terms, but it's really not that important.

The idea is to use these titles etc. as a launch point for adoration as part of your regular prayer times. He suggests you pick three and spend some time worshipping God as you prayerfully explore the meaning of the terms.

I decided to get a simple wire-bound A5 notebook and simply begin to keep a list. I started by writing down all the titles etc. that came to mind as I labelled every other page with a letter of the alphabet. I came up with 70 without really thinking too hard about it. At three a day, that's three weeks worth of attributes to ponder.

Of course the list will grow as I add words and phrases, and I suspect that I'm not going to find anything to put in the Q, X, or maybe Z part of the book, but we shall wait and see. It's not a race to compile the biggest list, it's an act of worship in itself to recall God's names and character and it definitely reminds me that God is worthy of all my praise.

Worship First

Noticed the new badge in the sidebar? A recent comment on my post on worship and character prompted a comment from a fellow churchman in New Zealand, one Bosco Peters. He has a blog and website about worship at Liturgy.

Clearly Anglican in its emphasis, that doesn't mean it has nothing to say to those of us who follow a different tradition. In fact I found his piece about the Collect really interesting. In a Baptist tradition we often include an opportunity to pray extempore or silent prayers that are drawn to a close by some one at the front "closing" the time of prayer. It would serve us well to think a little more about both the opening and closing of such times of prayers. The form of the Collect may just help us do that.

Praying in the current financial climate

A friend from church sent me the link to this video of Max Lucado praying about the current financial crisis. Whilst this is a US focused prayer, the content is applicable across the nations.