In my post of the empirical indicators of a missional church Ed C. pointed out how important it is for the missional church to be absolutely dependant on the Holy Spirit as it seeks to be about the mission of Jesus Christ. The 12 indicators did not directly include anything about the HS and this was rightfully a cause for concern for him.
My response was that it seems that dependence upon this Spirit through prayer was kind of the base of all twelve of these indicators. In looking at them again, it seems like prayer is mentioned in almost of all them in some way or another. This to me underscores the importance of corporate prayer for the missional community.
To add to this, I am still working through “Treasures in Clay Jars” by number of authors from GOCN and I came across the aptly titled chapter, “Dependence upon the Holy Spirit.” Seemed like this was kind of pertinent to the topic. A few quotes:
“The Missional Church is incapable of fulfilling its call, save for guidance from the Spirit of God and for the Spirit’s empowerment of the church’s witness to that reality.”
and
“a sent people on missio dei (the mission of God) who do not constantly pray are bound to lurch along in confusion and pain. Trouble will surely batter them; indecision will plague them; evil will terrorize them.”
I think the challenge for communities of faith that are seeking to live together missionally is corporate prayer. It is one thing to encourage people to pray individually, but it is another challenge to spend time together in prayer as a group. This is one of the things that I am looking at with our community: How can we spend more time together in cooperate prayer?
I am pretty sure the answer isn’t having more “prayer nights” because in our context, that is likely going to crash and burn with no attendance. The answer seems to be (at this point) is to make sure that we are intentional about praying together in the spaces where we already gather. It’s so easy to gather together for something and totally forget prayer…this is a tragedy.
Ed C said...
1Good thoughts Todd. Thanks for digging deeper into the Holy Spirit question. I’m glad you’re not going to have a prayer night, but plan on using what you already have for group prayer. That sounds a lot like Joe Meyers: finding out how people already connect and find intimacy and then using that and counting that, never losing focus on your goal.
09/24/05 12:34 PM | Comment Link
Matt said...
2The funny thing about the situation of having a group prayer, is that the weekly prayer nights had poor attendance, and the monthly prayer nights were no better. But when in a group setting time is taken for open prayer, it can turn a study night into a prayer night because of the way the spirit moves through the group. My thoughts are that prayer is something a lot of people have questions about, and people have developed comfortable habits regarding personal prayer time, but the thought of a “prayer night” may make them uncomfortable, whereas the open prayer time in a small group they are comfortable with can open their hearts to the act of prayer. I look forward to finding a group to pray with here in Las Vegas, there is something so moving and powerful about having someone else calling out your prayers to the Lord, and so comforting knowing that when the group departs, every prayer had been heard by each person there and that they might continue to pray for the same things on their own.
09/26/05 10:50 AM | Comment Link
Adam Essene said...
3It seems to me that prayer is not what it is usually seen as in conventional churches. Jesus exhorts us not to pray in public, and this type of asking prayer goes against the teaching “Our Father knows what we need before we ask”.
What is required is for people to come together in group and for God to express through any or each individual in the group, by the Holy Spirit, whatever is expressed in the group.
For this to take place, all members of the group need to be in the Spirit of God rather than the Spirit of the World, which is all about what the little me inside thinks it needs or wants. We can be sure if we are talking about ourselves and what we think needs to be different that happened in the past, then it is the little voice of fear talking, and not the Holy Spirit that knows everything is perfect and the redemption of humanity is in progress in every event irrespective of our judgement of good and evil. In other words, good is being produced by what appears to be “bad” events and that Gods Kingdom is coming in the process of that which is come.
If we as a group meet with the spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Perversity in the same room, there can be nothing but dissagreement, even if this is not voiced it is there.
To purge ourselves of the spirit of perversity so we can meet in groups is completely necessary for God’s Kingdom to manifest at the hightened rate now necessary.
I wish you all well from Germany.
09/24/08 7:27 AM | Comment Link