When most of us think of prayer, we tend to think of it as a private and personal discipline. At one level, this reflects Jesus’ teaching on the subject. In Matthew 6, in the passage immediately preceding the Lord’s prayer, Jesus specifically instructs his disciples to ‘go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen’, lest they (or we) be tempted to treat prayer as an act of performative spirituality. Private prayer is a vital part of our personal communion (relationship) with Christ. Without it, I suspect many of us would dry up in our affections and simply find ourselves trying to squeeze out obedience in the Christian life.
Whilst individual prayer is vital, I’m convinced most of us undervalue the importance of praying with others. Starting next Sunday (26th Feb), we’re going to be reestablishing pre-service prayer for the whole church. Everyone is invited to join us for ~30 minutes of prayer together before each service (10.15am / 4.15pm). I’d love you to consider joining us.
Let me give you five reasons why I think we should pray together:
Personal encouragement. I find it incredibly helpful to pray with other people. When I hear others articulating their worship of Christ, or simply asking God to work, it propels me into prayer. If we find our personal prayer lives flagging, there’s nothing like being with others to stimulate us.
Welcoming the work of the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts describes a number of communal moments where the people of God gather together and the Holy Spirit is poured out upon them. There’s something significant about God’s people lifting their voices together and asking God to move amongst us. And it’s right that we hunger for more of the Spirit’s deep work in our life together.
Prayer changes things. The great paradox of prayer is that God uses our prayers to change the world. It’s a mind-boggling reality but the (often) unspoken assumption in scripture is that God chooses to work through the prayers of his people to enact his purposes. Pastor EM Bounds argues, “God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be”. I suspect our prayerlessness reveals we often don’t really believe this.
Prayer displays our dependence. Corporate prayer, by its very nature, is a picture of our dependence on God. As we cry out to God together, we’re signalling our fundamental need for God’s work in our lives, both as individuals and as a body.
Prayer as service. One of the best ways we can serve someone is by praying for them. As well as re-establishing pre-service prayer, we’re also putting together a prayer team to pray for folks after each service. We’d love to encourage anyone to come forward for prayer for anything that’s going on in their lives. Please do allow us to serve you in this way.
We’ll be praying in the staff room (opposite the toilets) from 10.15am and 4.15pm every Sunday from next Sunday (26th Feb). We’ll pray for 25-30 mins, finishing by 10.45am or 4.45pm, so we’re ready to connect with others over coffee. Everyone is welcome to join us.