Prayer Meeting Poll

[justsam]

Gary, I feel like you and I are arguing about some things that we actually agree on. I know that your church had a time of fasting and prayer recently, and I think you would be confident that any church I pastored would represent itself well as far as being clean, in good repair, and treating everyone (visitors and members) in a friendly loving way.

I started this thread because I asked a question on the "first impressions" thread that didn't get answered and because there was some objection to the topic on that thread. I don't consider prayer to be a spiritual gift, nor do I think a Biblical case can be made for that concept. I believe it is the responsibility of all Christians to intercede for the lost and for the growth of their local church, and I feel that our task requires an equal emphasis on both the mechanical aspects of church management and the spiritual aspects of bringing those dead in sin and trespass back to life.

Much greater emphasis is placed on the marketing efforts in modern American Churches than the necessity for prayer. Marketing might help draw a crowd: but souls are birthed only through travail. In addition, I have found that declining and stagnant churches are usually both a mess spiritually and administratively, and an over-emphasis on one or the other is not going to get things turned around.

God Bless You- Sam Smith

[Pastor Gary]

Possibly a clarification is needed as to what constitutes a Spiritual Gift of Prayer ? and James saying pray ye one for another, or as Sam pointed out Praying for laborers ? One might draw from the above statement that Prayer is for a select called group and others need not concern themselves with it because they have other gifting.

Every Christian prays --- I start from that assumption, as a given. Here's my point: We have a corporate time weekly defined as "Worship". (That's a discussion for another time...) and we all assemble and some songs are played and sang, but you and I both know there are some people who are WORSHIPPERS, above and beyond others. They don't love God more, they just are wired to worship... a special anointing? A GIFT of worship? (I don't mean to get bogged down in semantic hair-splitting.)

Simillarly, some people are specially anointed for prayer, above and beyond the normal believer. These are the people who have callouses on their knees and pull all-nighters. I confess, Paul -- that's not me. And that used to make me feel awful. I tried a few times to go to all night prayer events, and --honesty here -- after about 15 minutes of a half hour I had said everything on my heart (twice) and was feeling fulfilled and ready to leave, while the PRAY-ERS were just getting warmed up!

Once God freed me from the guilt of trying to live by measuring myself against the false-standard of comparison to others, I realized that God heard and answered my fifteen minutes, and He honored and answerd the all-nighters, and He loved us both equally. That helped me stop trying to force people into molds and stop trying to be what I am not.

I guess I don't understand the tendency we all have to think "I emphasize X, and I can find scriptures to prove I am right! YOU need to emphasize the same thing I believe is primary."

[lady4jc]

Intercessory prayer meeting every Thurs. night 7pm
Prayer warriors meeting Saturday nights 7pm

[paul]

Possibly a clarification is needed as to what constitutes a Spiritual Gift of Prayer ? and James saying pray ye one for another, or as Sam pointed out Praying for laborers ? One might draw from the above statement that Prayer is for a select called group and others need not concern themselves with it because they have other gifting.

Every Christian prays --- I start from that assumption, as a given. Here's my point: We have a corporate time weekly defined as "Worship". (That's a discussion for another time...) and we all assemble and some songs are played and sang, but you and I both know there are some people who are WORSHIPERS, above and beyond others. They don't love God more, they just are wired to worship... a special anointing? A GIFT of worship? (I don't mean to get bogged down in semantic hair-splitting.)

Similarly, some people are specially anointed for prayer, above and beyond the normal believer. These are the people who have callouses on their knees and pull all-nighters. I confess, Paul -- that's not me. And that used to make me feel awful. I tried a few times to go to all night prayer events, and --honesty here -- after about 15 minutes of a half hour I had said everything on my heart (twice) and was feeling fulfilled and ready to leave, while the PRAY-ERS were just getting warmed up!

Once God freed me from the guilt of trying to live by measuring myself against the false-standard of comparison to others, I realized that God heard and answered my fifteen minutes, and He honored and answered the all-nighters, and He loved us both equally. That helped me stop trying to force people into molds and stop trying to be what I am not.

I guess I don't understand the tendency we all have to think "I emphasize X, and I can find scriptures to prove I am right! YOU need to emphasize the same thing I believe is primary."

I agree that if prayer is something that is FORCED, or is presented that It is a HOLIER CALLING, or used to compare spirituality. We defeat our purpose.

I personally see it as a time to become more intimate with my Heavenly Father, talk to him, ask of Him, inquire of Him things I still don't understand, and listen to Him. It aids me in hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and many times for me will lead me into a deeper prayer in Tongues.

This is apart from my times of intercession for laborers and nations.

IMHO, without this time in communion with the Lord, I fall short on all my other responsibilities. It is a sad thing that Prayer has been represented by some in the past as some laborious chore to be dreaded, rather than a sweet time of fellowship with our Lord.