Prayer & Time

This past Saturday at Faith in Prayer (biweekly prayer meeting) we prayed for our Sr. Pastor and his wife who had been at the BGC conference the past week. Some of the prayers were for the Conference–the speakers, attendees, and decisions. However, the whole thing had already finished and Pastor K. had already returned home.

This brings up the question of Prayer and Time. Can/Should we pray for events that are completed? God is timeless, so this should be acceptable, maybe even encouraged. I know a lady who prayed for someone long after they had died because she had never heard of the death. Were all those prayers wasted? I think not. However, I think there are some important factors influencing our prayers for past events. 1) You must believe that your prayers are still effective and God in his foreknowledge, omniscience, omnipotence can bring about change, in the past, as a result of your present prayers. 2) Knowledge of those past events affects how you pray, to the extent that you can’t pray for something to change twhen you already know what did or did not happen.

Church Renewal

The emerging church conversation deals with the question of renewing the Church so that it lives out its mission in/as the Kingdom of God. The “how” is much harder than the “why” or “what”. Many have taken the idea of a new monasticism and formed communities of house churches.

As one who ministers in a church, that isn’t a viable option. However, most if not all in my church congregation have no idea of the conversation and don’t see the need to change, at least not at the level of creating new paradigms. So what am I to do? How do I introduce renewal? Of course, I am not talking about aesthetic features as some have misunderstood what’s happening.  If it starts with me, I must set the example.

• Prayer and worship: These must prevade my life at every level, becoming the driving force for every action no matter how mundane.
• Authenticity: I must be real with others, sharing doubts, frustrations, and struggles with temptations.
• I must be living out my mission in the world, seeking out the needy and meeting them where they’re at.

Emerging Church

I have been interested of late in the emerging church. As one who grew up in the church I relate with many of those who are hungering for something deeper and wider. However, many are unaware of this movement or conversation that is happening on the fringes of the Church, in small house churches and creative urban ministries. So here are a few descriptions that I have found helpful:

From Jason Clark’s Blog review of Emerging Churches, by Eddie Gibbs, Ryan Bolger:

1. Re-centering on the kingdom of God.
2. Engaging culture with out a sacred and secular distinction.
3. Communal: Faith as communal experience.
4. Listening to the outsider.
5. Serving those in need without ulterior motives.
6. Involving participants in worship.
6. Valuing Creativity/Arts.
7. Leading through networks than top down hierarchies.
8. Ancient and Avant Garde

From exagorazo from an article on Urbana.org:

1. Having a high threshold for membership
(high expectations for believers)
2. Being real, not real religious
(being transparent, authentic, with one foot in “the world.”)
3. Teaching to obey rather than to know
(a practical faith)
4. Rewriting worship every week
(Creative, participatory Sunday morning services)
5. Living apostolically
(each believer as a missionary)
6. Expecting to change the world
(aggressively engaged in transforming communities)
7. Ordering actions according to purpose.
(Ruthless aligning of resources with mission)
8. Measuring growth by capacity to release rather than retain.
(Not megachurches but multiplying churches)
9. Placing kingdom concerns first
(in contrast to denomination first. Thus, cooperation with other churches)