Prayer: How praying together shapes the church (1)

Review

Quick update from Greg about the Saturday Outreach event

Recognize the guests we had in service

Encourage LifeGroups to have activities that help them build friendships around God’s Word and His mission in this world

Continued stedfastly

Of the things we do not know about the church service or order of the early churches we know they were devoted to prayer

Acts 1:14 “14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”

At the end of Peter’s famous sermon at Pentecost, there is a similar act of devotion to prayer by the new believers Acts 2:42 “42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

It is these devoted prayers that God works through to accomplish His will. Acts 6:4 “4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”

Big realization: There is ministry that takes place in our church that is not supposed to create more margin for more work but is designed to create more space for prayer.

Book Recommendation: Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church Copyright © 2018 by John Onwuchekwa

Must confess I find it easier to read a book on prayer than to pray

It prayer is as vital as breathing to the Christian, why isn’t it as natural.

“So we come to one of the crying evils of these times, maybe of all times—little or no praying. Of these two evils, perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salvo for the conscience, a farce and a delusion. The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time we give to it.” - EM Bounds

Simple step and challenge today.

No more “only transitional prayers” in our church

Our prayers in the church too often feel like prayer before a meal: obligatory and respectable, but no one really gets much out of it.

Our church prayers get reduced to a tool for transitioning from one activity to the next.

Little eyes are watching and listening

Let us make sure in our prayers we make it clear to them that we need the Lord

Where prayer is present, it’s saying something—it’s speaking, shouting. It teaches the church that we really need the Lord.

Where prayer is absent, it reinforces the assumption that we’re okay without him.