What is the best way to pray for a church that has been “nomadic” for just under 20 years as it prepares to move into a “permanent” ministry center? I don’t know who has the definitive answer on that question, but I can tell you that I have been leaning toward praying for our praying. “Praying for our praying” is admittedly on odd sounding phrase, but what I’m pointing to is a leading to pray for us as a people who come to be dependent upon, changed by, and known for prayer.
We have had some prompts as a church body that can corporately pull us toward prayer. There is Jeff’s challenge to seek out 3 people that you pray for daily and they do the same for 3 months. As we study Philippians together on Sundays, spiritual warfare keeps coming up and we consider the unseen battlegrounds that remind us how essential our prayers are. And with each passage we study, we can see on the horizon later in Philippians 4:6 the great call to turn aside from anxiety with a heart that embraces prayers of thanksgiving and requests. We also have the chance to do a dedication of sorts in our new worship auditorium this Saturday and Sunday mornings, as we write our prayers on the floor there before the carpet is installed.
But in all this, corporate praying is rooted in individual prayers. May we continue to learn to be bold and consistent in our individual prayers. That is why for you and for me, I am praying for our praying. People have all kinds of preferences and complaints about churches, but I don’t believe I have ever heard, “That church just prays too much.” Maybe we should risk being that church. Again, may we be known as a body as a who comes to be dependent upon, changed by, and known for prayer.
-Leadership Board
PS: Don’t forget about Foundational Prayers happening January 30-31 at the new church ministry center!
