My pastor recently asked me to consider rekindling the Wednesday night children’s ministry in our church as well as an outreach to unchurched families in our town. After some praying, I felt the Lord wanted me to serve in this way.
We began the trellis work of gathering volunteers, developing curriculum, and organizing. It was soon time to have our first training and planning session.
Because of what I believe so strongly about Christ building His church, we started and hopefully will continue, as a prayer meeting in motion: that is to let active praying carry the active service. I voiced my heart to the volunteers that I wanted them to be fulfilled through their praying together as a team and then witnessing God at work.
For starters, I chose some signature passages of Scripture which I felt were clear and would build a framework for our thinking and service. Then, I asked my secretary to print them out on one sheet of paper and make copies for everybody. When we gathered, we read the passages one at a time, interacted with insights that were outstanding, and then we prayed those truths back to God in His own words, moving back and forth across the room with short sentences in conversational fashion. We observed together, responded together, agreed together, and believed together.
It was delightful. We were on sure footing, we shared hope, we put our expectation in objective truth, and we were refreshed. Then, we moved to the next passage.
Such praying is so easy and to the point. No one was praying long, exhausting prayers of repetition. We weren’t praying clichés nor gossiping in prayer or making up stories about what God or others might think. I encouraged them to begin each sentence with “Thank you,” and we finished ready to “birth a plan” instead of “plan a birth.” We did the same in our second meeting with a different set of Scriptures.
When we pray on the foundation of objective truth, three things happen: