Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Coming Together In Prayer As Community

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Matt Stone

2010-05-29

I had some encouraging conversations tonight. It feels like a group is slowly coming together within our community—people who are feeling a real call to pray intentionally for the community as a community. There’s a sense among us of making more serious commitments to both God and each other, leaning into a more disciplined, focused life of prayer.

Even more encouraging, several of these people are also deeply mission-minded. We’ll be gathering on Sunday week to explore what this could look like, how we might shape this into something meaningful and sustaining. If you have a moment and feel led, I’d be so grateful for your prayers for this gathering.

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2 responses to “Coming Together In Prayer As Community”

Lucy J

2010-06-07

Sorry, we’ll be in Melbourne on the weekend that I think you are gathering, otherwise, we’d be really interested in coming, Matt. However, our prayers are with you and the group.
I’ve just read some profound insights about prayer over the past couple of days. They’re profound to me because I love it when an author articulates something of my journey and learning experience regarding a current issue that I think God is encouraging me to know in a real way.
Eugene Petersen,in his book, The Jesus Way, talks about prayer as the simple language we use in our communication with God from the time we are born anew and throughout our maturing process during which God’s character is worked out in us over our subsequent lifetime… if we’re not communicating (talking and listening to God) we’re not becoming more Christlike, and obviously, therefore, not missional! Petersen also strongly champions the importance of community.
Phil Pringle, in his 2008 book on prayer, whose title escapes me just now, mentions that if we don’t commit to prayer – intentionally make time and place to do it – we “drift”. My experience is that prayer anchors us to the centre of the universe i.e. God around whom everything rotates (everything – no matter there is so much turmoil around us, as things that are so far from God are being pulled back into the correct alignment!)
I’d love to hear the outcome of your first exploration gathering on this exciting project!

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Matt Stone

2010-06-07

Well, we met last night and it was a really positive experience. We’re keen to make some core commitments to God and one another in terms of prayer for the community, as a community, and we’ll be praying through what these should be over the next few weeks, though it’s already started to take some shape. Real sense of God in this, guiding this process.

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