By examination of the historical views of prayer and prayerfulness we discover a dynamic intimacy with the heart of God through expressions and thoughts that are lost to us or diluted by time.

As we have examined the historical views of prayer and prayerfulness we have seen a dynamic intimacy develop between the heart of God and the prayer. Some of these dynamics are confronting.

Julian of Norwich for example prayed to experience all sufferings that a person on the brink of death would experience and to then be restored to health in order to better understand the depth of her salvation. Such experience goes much deeper than a cerebral understanding of the mission of Christ "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) To a partnership with Christ "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."(John 3:17)

Martin Luther offers us a systematic approach to prayer that does not constrain the prayer but liberates their prayer life by asking the believer to look back on the faithfulness of God in the past both to help inform us of His will in our lives, and to strengthen and encourage us by seeing how God has answered our prayers in the past.

John of the Cross develops an understanding of prayer as a technique of growing spiritual maturity that is closely associated with the concept of the ‘dark night of the soul’. This dark night marks a transition point that necessitates a deliberate action on behalf of the believer to seek God although they feel anhedonic with their current relationship with God. To use contemporary parlance they need to ‘push through’ the boundaries that define their spiritual relationship and when they do they will find a deeper and more rewarding relationship with the heart of God.

Guyon introduces two patterns for reading Scripture that move us past simply seeking advice in the written word to moving us to an encounter with the living Word.

Douglas Steere brings us a fresh understanding of the life of the intercessory prayer. Though his insight we begin to understand that when we seek the heart of God to intercede in the life of another, we are firstly seeking to align ourselves with the will of God. Intercessory prayer then allows us to work in cooperation with God, it removes the barriers of selfishness and individualism and asks us to put the life and considerations of others first.

It is not suggested that all of these practices must be followed, however they provide a breadth of expression that will no doubt will catch many people within it’s wide net. These practices from the past not only inform our contemporary spiritual practice they may very well enhance it and bring us all deeper into the heart of God.

Douglas Steere is a well regarded academic and scholar. Called a brilliant thinker by some he studied at both Harvard and Oxford and in his early life was a Rhodes scholar. Steere was a Quaker who skilfully authored many devotional books and is part of a small circle of people who have managed to combine their academic integrity with their spiritual authenticity. As a missionary with his with Dorothy Steere is credited with well balancing the contemplative, or inner life with action, or the outer life.  His work Prayer and Worship engages the reader to take up the highly important work of prayer, particularly intercessory prayer while keeping in mind the need to respond to the call of God with actions.

Steere contends that,"Prayer for others is a form of petitional prayer that makes deep demands on the faith of an individualistic generation that has so largely lost its sense of inner community."  If the spirit of our age is, as it is widely reported, consumerist and individual, then prayer that is centred on the other must draw us deeply into a place that is unnatural to us.

When we are holding up the life of another person before God we are putting their needs before our own. We may be praying for their release from destructive behaviour, for the restoration of health or perhaps the strength to resist temptations in the world. When we engage in this prayer for the other "only then do we sense what it means to share in God’s work… only then do the walls that separate us from others go down and we sense that we are at bottom all knot together in a great and intimate family"

In prayer we begin to experience the community of God and the community of the Church. In intercession we are agreeing with God that the needs of others are important and acknowledging that it is outside of our power to bring change to some situations. It is to say that with God all things are possible so to God we ask for the impossible to be done. This is not to say that we can change God’s mind on matters, "Such prayer is only cooperation with God’s active love in besieging the life or new areas of the life of another."

In prayer Steerecontends that it is an active force not only for what we pray but for changing the heart of the prayer. "In all petitional prayer, the one who really prays must be ready to yield."  We may start with clear intention of who we are praying for and what we believe needs to change in their life to see the breakthrough that we desire, but it is God’s active love that will be the final determiner of what needs praying for.

"There can be no complete prayer life that does not return to the point from which we began."  This petitional prayer is an outpouring of love and concern for the life of another of which our expression is a reflection of the heart of God for every soul. This prayer returned onto itself is what Steere refers to as "adoration". "Adoration is ‘loving back’. For in the prayer of adoration we love God for himself, for his very being, for his radiant joy."

When we seek the heart of God to intercede in the life of another we are engaging in an activity that aligns our thoughts with God’s thoughts and our will with His will. We are not so much changing the mind of God but ourselves coming to understand God’s will and acting in cooperation with God’s active force of love.

Born in Montargis, France, Guyon married an invalid man aged over twice her then 15 years. Unhappy in this marriage, Guyon looked for happiness within a devotional life. After living in a convent for a year she was imprisoned for the next 25 because of her religious beliefs. During this time she wrote many books including Experiencing the depths of Jesus Christ from which the following quotes were garnered. Guyon’s spiritual influence was vast.  Watchmen Nee had the book translated into Chinese and recommended it to every new convert. Francois Fenelon, John Wesley and Hudson Taylor all commended this text to the believers of their day.

Concerned with the inner life of the new believer Guyon penned two suggestions for those seeking to know Jesus. The first was to ‘pray the Scriptures’ and the second ‘beholding the Lord’. Both of these methodologies require discipline and a bible in order to encounter God.
Praying the Scripture involves:

"reading and prayer. Turn to the Scripture; choose some passage that is simple and fairly practical. Next, come to the Lord. Come quietly and humbly. There, before him, read a small portion of the passage of Scripture you have opened to... Taste it and digest it as you read."

The objective of this exercise is to slow the reader down in order to focus not on the overall theme of a passage of Scripture, rather to encounter God in the detail. In this method "you do not move from one passage to another, not until you have sensed the very heart of what you have read."  From there you will take that portion of Scripture and turn it into prayer.

This method ensures that at the end of a devotional time very little is read but the essence of what is read is well understood and absorbed.

Beholding the Lord has an altogether different purpose from praying the Scriptures. This methodology moves the reading of Scripture from the centre to the periphery. Its purpose is to provide a springboard into the presence of God. "Once you sense the Lord’s presence, the content of what you have read is no longer important. Scripture has served its purpose; it has quietened your mind; it has brought you to him."

Guyon commends this practice in order to turn our minds from the outwards things to the "deep parts of your being. You are not there to learn or to read, but you are there to experience the presence of your Lord!"

These practices while mutually exclusive in their execution provide a reminder for the use of Scripture to be not simply a conduit of spiritual advice or point of scholarship. No, these exercises of reading the Scriptures are designed to lead us deeply and directly into the heart of God.

Born in Spain, John became a Carmelite monk in 1564. He studied philosophy and theology in one of Europe’s leading universities and was ordained in 1567. That same year his leadership and spirituality was recognised and John was put in charge of the order. During this time he was named "John of the Cross" as a testimony to his suffering and commitment. He spent the remainder of his life in service to Catholic Reform through his leadership and writings. Eventually arrested by those opposing reform, John wrote his most famous work The Dark Night of the Soul in confinement. 

The concept of the "dark night" is now an integral part of understanding the spiritual journey providing a framework in which we might better articulate the movement of God thought the life of a believer from as Paul might term it the "milk" of the new believer and the "meat" of maturity.

"At a certain point in the spiritual journey God will draw a person from the beginning stage to a more advanced stage. At this stage the person will begin to engage in religious exercises and grow deeper in the spiritual life. Such souls are likely to experience what is called ‘the dark night of the soul’... when those persons lose all pleasure that they once experienced in their devotional life. This happens because God wants to purify them and move them on to greater heights"

John’s contemplation strikes at the heart of many pastoral conversations. The question "Why don’t I feel like I used to about God? It feels like he is not there anymore" The contention here is that this experience of the dark night is a deliberate act on the behalf of God in order to develop our spiritual maturity.

This development of spiritual maturity is through the practice of religious exercises. These are practices such as prayer, which deepen the relationship between the believer and God.

In the early spiritual life John says it is as if God is nurturing the soul by the Spirit "like a loving mother, God cares for and comforts the infant soul by feeding it spiritual milk."  During this tender time it is noted that the believer will "begin praying with great urgency and perseverance"

When journeying through the dark night of the soul the life of prayer is also transformed into something more mature. While the prayer life is defined by urgency and perseverance, God purifies because "the devil will often inflame their fervour so that their pride will grow even greater"

The antidote to this spiritual pride is to work in humility, to focus on just how great God is and on how little we can in actual fact do for him. This is born in prayer, developed in prayer and shows its fruit in prayer.

By not avoiding the dark times, the dry times John teaches that we will see God’s will being done in it, growing us to be more Christlike.

Martin Luther is well known as the originator of the Protestant Reformation. Born into a humble family life Luther sought to better himself by pursuing the scholarly life. It was at the age of 20 that Luther began to suffer a deep anxiety about the surety of his salvation, which drove him to join an Augustinian monastery to soothe his religious conscience.

By auditing Luther’s writing we discover that he is not only a man of brilliant theological understanding, he is also a man of deep piety. Luther’s thoughts on prayer are a rich seam of insight born not from theory but from experience. As a theologian however he does present teaching on prayer in a systematic format breaking it down into themes of supplication, petition and thanksgiving.

"In 'supplication’ we strengthen prayer and make it effective by a certain form of persuasion; for instance, we may entreat one to granta request for the sake of a father, or of something dearly loved or highly prized".  As a supplicant Luther suggests that our prayer is reinforced by an appeal to a personal or biblical remembrance such as Solomon praying "Remember David in all his affliction" or Paul "I... entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ"

In Petitioning, Luther encourages us to clearly state what "we have at heart, naming the desire we express in prayer and supplication. Ask... seek... knock."  This is an expression of a simple truth of Scripture, 'how can you receive if you do not ask?’ Luther premises this concept squarely on "Ask...seek...knock" (Matt 7:7)

In Thanksgiving we "recount blessings received and thus strengthen our confidence and enable ourselves to wait trustingly for what we pray."  It is important to be able to look back at our past petitions and to discern how God answered the requests. This has the effect,not of building our self-confidence, rather it has the effect of building our confidence in God "For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matt 7:8)

"Prayer is made vigorous by petitioning; urgent by supplication; by thanksgiving, pleasing and acceptable."

Luther’s account of prayer is an encouragement to hold tight to the promises of God, that He indeed hears and answers our prayers. Our prayers should be predicated on the movement of God in the past and within our lives, which we can identify in thanksgiving.

Julian is one of the most popular English mystics and wrote the book Revelations of Divine Love. Living as a Benedictine nun beside the St. Julian Church (from which she most likely derived her name) her theological outlook is based on a series of mystical experiences.

As you may well expect from a book entitled Revelations, Julian’s writings are a reflection of personal interactions with God in the form of visions and physical malady very much out of the ordinary for contemporary Christian experience in the Protestant and Charismatic traditions.

Her prayer life is confronting Julian experienced a three-fold revelation "The first was a deep recollection of his passion. The second was a bodily sickness. The third was to have, of God’s gift, three wounds” with these revelations finding their centre around the topic of suffering. The tone of Julian’s writing suggests a deep desire to experience pain, to experience hardship, and to share in the sufferings of her Lord.This was not because of some sadist mindset or belief in necessary penance, rather suffering was an avenue in which she could know and experience God more fully.

This desire to experience pain and suffering is an anathema to 21st century life.

The same Julian who prayed for "every kind of pain, bodily and spiritual, which I would have if I were to die - every fear and temptation” also carefully conditioned her prayer asking "Lord, you know what I want. If it is your will that I have it, or if it is not your will, do not be displeased with my prayer, for I do not want anything that you do not want.”

The heart’s desire here is to live better for God, to not shy away from the pain of life and death but to confront it and be cleansed by it. Julian sought the refiner’s fire in her prayer and did not shrink from it when it came. Rather she seemed to identify with the words of Jesus in Scripture that says "And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)

Through Julian’s writing we may discover that prayer is more than a simple conversation with God, rather it is a portal for experiential interaction and an interpretation of life’s sufferings.

"For the highest form of prayer is to the goodness of God. It comes down to us to meet our humblest needs. It gives life to our souls and makes them live and grow in grace and virtue”

Revelations of Divine Love from Foster et. al, Devotional Classics, (Hodder and Stoughton, 2002)

Prayer is perhaps the most intimate of daily Christian spiritual practice. In prayer we have the opportunity to consciously open ourselves up to our creator, to invite His interaction within our lives and to share the most private regions of our heart.

While prayer can be private, it can also be public, supportive, contemplative, confessional, exhortational, intercessional, formulaic or some other form that facilitates communication with the Holy Other. Prayer might not come with words but by the groaning of the soul, through artful expression or through action.

We may offer up prayer selflessly, selfishly, absentmindedly or accidentally but it has been and will always remain an intimate connection to the heart of God available at all times for all people.

By examination of the historical views of prayer and prayerfulness we will discover a dynamic intimacy with the heart of God through expressions and thoughts that would otherwise be lost to us or diluted by time. Through the profiling of historical personalities and their prayer and contemplative lives, we will discover how such contemplation enhanced their relationship with God and learn from them so as to enhance and edify our own prayerfulness.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be profiling 5 historic figures and hopefully we can learn together from their examples.

One of my two favorite parents always asks me to "Say a little prayer for ..." This sentiment has always grated on me and I was never sure why.

In the same way "Hey pastor, why don't you kick our meeting off with a little prayer" causes a cold shiver to go down my spine. Not because I think the meeting doesn't need prayer, but because of how it's termed.

It wasn't until I read this quote by William McNamara that I could articulate why it hurt my ears so much. When asked the same question he replies:

"I will not! There are no little prayers! Prayer enters the lion's den, brings us before the holy where it is uncertain whether we will come back alive or sane, for 'it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God'" (Source: The Human Adventure)

Prayer is not something to enter into lightly, we are communicating, communing with the creator of all that is seen and is unseen. It's a privilege, but that is often lost on my as I bring my laundry list of complaints and requests to him.

Here's today's question, why do words employed in noble pursuit, words employed at the very height of their power render out of the mouth of the pastor as limp, useless, stagnant and stale? Why when we pray does nothing happen?

Could it be that we have uprooted prayer from the good soil that is the Word of God?

As the pastor you will be called upon to pray at the beginning of many things, at birth the beginning of life, at graduation the beginning of a career, at funerals the beginning of a new life, at housewarming, at weddings, at bedsides, at sports games at at at... the beginnings.

We are called on at the beginning of things but unless our words are rooted in the beginning of all things they will fall into the void.

Eugene Peterson says our words have been "uprooted from the soil of the word of God. These so-called prayers are cut-flower words, arranged in little vases for table decorations. As long as they are artificially provided for with a container of water, they give a touch of beauty. But not for long: soon they drop and are discarded."

It should be our hearts desire that our prayers are not cut-flowers, pretty objects that dress the table but are discarded past their usefulness. For our prayers to have power and authority they must be rooted in the life of the pastor who lives in Gods Word. Our words must take genesis in Genesis and provide revelation through Revelations.

Let's explore this together over the next few weeks.

In the last post I discussed the first prayer that in my experience God always answers: Grow me. When we ask for God to grow us he is faithful and will place something in our path that we much choose to use for our growth.

The second prayer that God always answers is "Break me".

This is a dangerous and tough prayer to get past this lips. In my experience it comes with repentance or the need for repentance. When I have prayed break me it was because I had been building up a shell around myself which had hardened and was making me inflexible to the demands of the Spirit.

The biblical writers call this a hard heart. When the prophet Ezekiel was speaking to the nation of Israel about their sin he echoed God's heart to His people with these words:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:25-27 )

Cynicism about people, the trauma of life, disappointment, failed expectations, a rocky marriage, rebellious children, lust, dependence; these and much more cause our hearts to slowly turn hard as stone if we do not deal with the issues properly.

The prayer of break me is in line with the heart of God but it hurts when he brings the hammer down on it. Ezekiel promises the new heart and spirit but my experience is that it isn't a delicate surgery but God smashing through the hardness.

Often that which has made us hard has chained us down into negative patterns of life. It might be a failed relationship that causes us to keep all others at arms length or lust that keeps us chained to the computer screen. I believe God can simple wipe away these negative patterns and free us but this is the road less traveled. Rather, when He breaks away the stone He causes us to confront our sin, decisions and the patterns that occurred afterwards in order to grow us.

Afterwards we need to stay broken to be attentive to the Spirit of God afterall

 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
  a broken and contrite heart,
  O God, you will not despise. (Ps 51:17)

God answers this prayer because he wants to see us broken. Not broken as in disrepair but broken of hardness, because when we are broken we are truly fixed.

When I first came to faith the pastor of the church told me a (true) story about prayer.

He took a young girl (in age and faith) to a Christian bookstore to help her find something to challenge and grow her faith. The girl came across a book called something like "When God doesn't answer prayer", which shocked her because she did not know that God might say no to prayer, it was contrary to her experience of prayer.

In a few weeks time I will be speaking to my new church on the topic of prayer and I so I've been reflecting on the kinds of prayer that in my experience God always answers.

The first prayer that God always seems to answer is Grow Me.

Grow me, stretch me, move me. Whatever way you choose to phrase it, whenever we ask Him to take us out of the comfortable place God obliges us quickly. My "Grow Me" prayer used to be "God, place someone in my path for me today who I can share about Jesus with". Any morning that I prayed those words I would encounter someone later in the day who I could establish a conversation with, share their burdens and then share with them hope.

In actual fact I would have most likely run into that same person during the day (although I certainly believe that God brought some of us together in extraordinary circumstances). So did my prayer achieve anything? If I was going to bump into the person in the lunch queue at work, or still sit next to them on the train anyway, did my prayer change the circumstances at all?

Quite simply the answer is yes, because prayer changes us. When I prayed for someone to share my faith with in the morning I had not only asked something of God but I had prepared myself for it to occur. My thoughts during the day were, "is that the person God?", I lived with the anticipation that James shares with us in his letter to the early church: "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind" (James 1:6)

Grow me, is a prayer always answered, and it's a dangerous thing to ask of God. Try it today.

George Mueller's Prayer

Have you ever heard of George Mueller? One day he looked down the streets of Bristol, England, & saw 100's of homeless children. He was so moved with concern for them that he decided that something had to be done. He had only two pence in his pocket. That's two cents. But he decided to start an orphanage. In 60 years, beginning with two pence, George Mueller took care of 10,000 orphans. He looked out and saw homeless kids. He could have said, "But, I don't have any money. But, there is no way to care for them, to meet their needs, to buy the food." Instead, he looked at them and said, "Therefore, I will reach out and help them." And God blessed his efforts in a mighty way. He told amazing stories of answered prayers. He kept a record of his prayers, and his prayer records filled more than 3,000 pages. His notes show that more than 30,000 prayers were answered. One night there was no food in the orphanage to give to the children for breakfast. But at 3:00 in the morning a baker called him up and said, "I just can't sleep. I'm going down to the bakery to bake some bread. Would it be all right for me to bring some over to you this morning?" One time a milk truck just happened to break down in front of the orphanage on a day when they had no milk. The truck driver came in and said, "This milk is all going to spoil. Would you like some of it?" And their need was met. Time & time again, 30,000 times in 60 years, God answered George Mueller's prayers.

Don't Let Grass Grow on Your Path
Source: Today in the Word, June 29, 1992.

Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path."

Never Stop Praying

Bill Hybels tells about an interesting experience after a baptism service in their church. He writes: "I bumped into a woman in the stairwell who was crying. I thought this was a little odd, since the service was so joyful. I asked her if she was all right. She said, 'No, I'm struggling.' She said, 'My mom was baptized today. I prayed for her every day for almost 20 years. The reason I'm crying is because I came this close to giving up on her. At the 5-year mark I said, "Who needs this? God isn't listening." At the 10-year mark I said, "Why am I wasting my breath?" At the 15-year mark I said, "This is absurd." At the 19-year mark I said, "I'm just a fool." But I just kept trying, kept praying. Even with weak faith I kept praying. Then she gave here life to Christ, and she was baptized today. I will never doubt the power of prayer again."

Sometimes when we pray and pray we feel like we are experiencing the law of diminished returns—so we stop praying. We correspondingly diminish our desires and dreams. We stop believing that God cares and that he will act—that he is indeed a God who wants us to ask. I hope that you will trust God's love and concern for you, and his ability as well. I hope that you will continue to be persistent in prayer, no matter how discouraging the circumstances seem.

Prayer Doesn't Change God
Source: Thomas G. Long, Whispering The Lyrics, CSS Publishing.

In a scene from Shadowlands, a film based on the life of C.S. Lewis, Lewis has returned to Oxford from London, where he has just been married to Joy Gresham, an American woman, in a private Episcopal ceremony performed at her hospital bedside. She is dying from cancer and, through the struggle with her illness, she and Lewis have been discovering the depth of their love for each other. As Lewis arrives at the college where he teaches, he is met by Harry Harrington, an Episcopal priest, who asks what news there is. Lewis hesitates, then, deciding to speak of the marriage and not the cancer, he says, "Ah, good news, I think, Harry. Yes, good news." Harrington, not aware of the marriage and thinking that Lewis is referring to Joy's medical situation, replies, "I know how hard you've been praying…Now, God is answering your prayer." "That's not why I pray, Harry," Lewis responds. "I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God; it changes me."

What Do You Trust?

Dr. R.G. Lee said, "If you trust in administration, you will get what administration can do. If you trust in hard work, you will get what hard work can do. If you trust in your sparkling personality, you will get what personality can do. If you trust in prayer, you get what God can do."

Happy new year!

While my wife and I rang in the New Year in the style we have become accustomed to over the years, surrounded by friends. This new year has given me a great deal to pause and reflect on.

For some time now someone very close to me has been suffering from several persistent and painful illnesses that is causing them much distress. While the doctors have offered little to no explanations to what ails them they have been asking me the question "Why wont God heal me".

My own story of coming to faith begins with receiving healing from God. Others I know have received healing for physical, psychological and spiritual issues. The niece of an elder in my church had one leg shorter that the other and it grew an inch after she received prayer. I'm not talking over time, but visibly growing.

Such talk unfortunately puts me in a camp that some people label "religious nut job" but I can only speak of my experiences and I can not attribute them to the natural.

So why wont God heal this person close to me? It's a horrible question to be asked. When we are the one in pain we generally attribute it to malice, God is being vindictive of punishing a person. If we have never suffered pain we tend to be a little more philosophical, God's ways are above our ways (or God works in mysterious ways).

The answer that I give a person is different to an answer someone else gives because our theology is challenged and shaped by our experiences. The more we get to know God, the more we experience in life and the more we actively reflect on our experiences the better placed we are to contribute to the conversation.

My answer is often wholly unsatisfactory to the person who is suffering because it requires trust.

For my mind, the question isn't, why wont God heal me or even is it God's will for miraculous healing. The question we should be asking is have I surrendered by heart and will to God? Can I truly say "Your will be done"?

I do not believe for a minute that God wants us to be suffering and that it is his will for us to suffer but I can say that those times he allowed me to stay in the pain of my circumstance, I grew.

This does not mean that we should cease praying for healing of the sick and otherwise afflicted but we should also be mindful that God often uses our circumstances to draw us closer to him. I don't believe that makes him capricious, I think that he knows best.

I will continue to pray for healing for the person close to me but I will also continue to pray that their relationship with God grow tighter and stronger through this experience.

I was worship leading this Sunday morning, one of my favorite things in the world. The service was excellent, the songs, prayer, communion and message where all consistent and filled with the Holy Spirit but...

... at the end of the service no one came forward for prayer.

Typically we have about 5-10% of the congregation come forward for some one on one ministry at the end of the service but this week there was no one. At the time I was a little thrown, questions circled in my mind like "what had I done wrong?" but after some time I have come to the realization that I didn't do anything wrong, it's just that no-one came forward for prayer and ministry.

So great service, no response. What do we do with that?

With some reflection I've identified a couple of issues that bear fleshing out.

Consistency. We have a dedicated team of people who pray and minister after the service consisting of any of the Elders in that service plus some ministry heads (pastoral care, prayer etc) who have hearts to be involved in peoples lives and let them know how much God loves them. This week half of this team were away on holidays and I get the feeling that if they were there certain people would have been drawn out for prayer.
We can call that a good and a bad thing for the obvious reasons. It's good that people bond and trust each other but you can't base your whole life on one person always being available to you, that's why we are one body with many parts.

The next point of reflection is expectation.

Some people might read this and think that I'm crazy, stupid or plain ungodly for expecting that there would be people who will come up for prayer. I strongly disagree with that sentiment because if we do not have a point, purpose or expectations on our meeting together then it will be an essentially aimless affair.

Our morning services are geared towards a response from the message (motivation for change), healing and growing in Christ. Nothing wrong with that but the church down the road may have a completely different goal of say people signing up to work in the community, another church may have the call for greater participation in church life. Contrast to our night services where we do not have a clear aim or goal, we run listlessly from idea to idea and wonder why nothing is working.

Whatever the goal we should be clear minded and focused on it because consistency in what we do brings the freedom for people to participate each week and the freedom to not.

I've been polishing up my CV lately in anticipation of applying for a new ministry position somewhere. When I say polishing up I actually mean creating from scratch because I've never really had to apply for one.

So far my paid pastoral employment is as a visiting speaker to churches and a part time wage I draw from my church to support my college tuition. I've held a lot of roles but never have I applied outside of this church for a job.

I'm not jumping ship yet but I sought out some advice about what to put on a CV for ministry and there were some things I didn't think about.

There's experience of course. I detailed different ministries I had been involved with and my role within them. I included a very brief rundown of my secular work experience (my I. T. CV runs to about 6 pages at the moment) as well as something about my passion.

The advice I received from the head of leadership development for my denomination (the guy who also co-ordinates a lot of jobs) was to include two sections. Firstly "What I contribute to the team" and secondly "What I want to learn from your team".

Both of these gave me pause for reflection, this isn't just a job, ministry is a calling (something I actually said in my "Passion" section) so what is it exactly that I believe God is calling me to do? To learn and to teach?

In secular employment you can take a job that isn't a 100% fit because you know you can just move on (very Gen X/Y of me) but being called to a place to minister should take a great deal more of reflection, prayer and introspection, shouldn't it?

So emerging pastor, let's ask the questions, what do I bring to the team and what do I want to learn before we put in that application form. Perhaps God may want to inform us a little bit here.

(Source)

The last two Sunday's have been very confronting for me as a realize more deeply the privilege it is to pray with someone and the difference it can make into their lives.

Prayer is a chance for us to either speak words of death or words of life into someone. I put that in stark contrast because as C.S. Lewis once said, every interaction we have with someone will either draw them closer to God or push them towards the devil (I'm paraphrasing their, leave a comment if you know where it's from), how much more so will be do this when praying with someone.

When we pray with someone the circumstances are certainly not by accident. God has chosen this person to come to you at that time and has privileged you as an agent of His grace to help them say what they can not do by themselves.

One of the things I believe that Catholic church can teach the Protestant church is the art of confession.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

Recently I've had someone ask me to pray with them because they are on the treadmill of guilt and shame. They are doing something that they have a compulsion to do and feel like they do not have the strength to stop. They do, they feel guilt, then shame and after a while they are back doing it again.

James gives us good advise. When we confess our sins, when we give them voice to another and when we pray we can find healing! That is the hope of God that we can be transformed into someone more like His son every day.