Recently John White sent the following from Gail Graves (gailgraves@msn.com) on conversational prayer:
"...it is my belief that intimacy through conversational prayer is an area that virtually all simple churches need to consider. The molding of hearts together in Christ is tremendously facilitated as people learn to pray this way together. The results are astounding..."Conversational Prayer:
Acknowledge God’s presence in the group. Praise and adoration is always good to help focus the group on communicating with the Lord.
Pray short prayers of one, two or three sentences.
Pray about one subject, idea or person at a time until everyone has shared as much and as often as prompted by the Spirit.
Be reluctant to change the subject as you would in any conversation until everyone is finished with it.
Times of silence can give the timid and the thoughtful time to contribute.
The more the conversation with God is passed around the group the deeper the intimacy grows. In time a small group becomes totally unified and purely transparent.
Watch God’s love flow freely, lives transform and answers to prayer abound.
10 comments:
This is really challenging for me. I have studied prayer and prayed much but I have never taught this method in our small groups. I will try it out in some of our new groups and let you know how it goes. It sounds very powerful.
Aprendí acerca de la "oración conversacional" hace 15 años en un grupo de discipulado que llevaba "El Plan Maestro"... Y aunque la idea me gustaba siempre me pareció artificial la forma en la que la iniciabamos o dirigiamos.
Pasaron muchos años en donde solo la vi como una "dinámica" para orar de manera diferente en nuestras reuniones.
No fue hasta una reunión de iglesia en casa que la puede experimentar de una manera natural...
Bendiciones!
Guy,
I believe that the positive about conversational prayer is the emphasis on relationship with the Lord. For that reason, I can endorse it as a good method.
More important than the method is the purpose in praying. Somehow we need to get our minds around the concept that praying is more about "calling home" than it is about our needs.
Guy,
Just wanted to drop in and say I am reading even though the comments have been limited. Hope all is going well for you these days.
Guy,
Have you ever prayed in a group that spoke multiple languages? It's an amazing experience. Thank you for this post.
Dios te bendiga,
Alan
Strider, "el perro", Kevin, Ken, Alan,
Thanks to all of you for stopping by and leaving your comments. We used this method of prayer yesterday before a confrontational meeting we had with a problem church plant. Before dealing with the problem we read Acts 15 (Jerusalem council, and Paul/Barnabas separation). After the reading of the word we went into conversational prayer for an extended period. Our meeting time was most productive and promises to show genuine healing and further strengthening of the new work rather than division. I also want to thank Tim Rogers who yesterday promised to be praying for this particular meeting and "adopted us" as his missionary to pray for these days.
Prayer works!
An update, we prayed last night in a small group- about 12 people- in the style you described. After I explaned what we would do they all looked at me like I was crazy. We then prayed for an hour and it was a very blessed time. We will do this more often. Thanks again.
Saludos Guy
Celebro las nuevas iniciativas (Más que nuevas , diría las recordadas y milenarias otrora iniciativas)
Pienso que la liturgia debería ser un instrumento y no un impedimento. Esto suele ocurrir con relativa frecuencia en ciertos ámbitos de nuestra amada Iglesia, y en especial los bautistas, sobre todo entre los conservadores.
Creo que mientras se haga todo "decentemente y en orden", y la forma no esté reñida con la doctrina, no veo porque no implementarla.
Paradójicamente, en ocasiones, la Iglesia no encuentra un problema en el fracaso de una iniciativa, sino en el éxito de ella.
Existe la tendencia a recurrir a las iniciativas exitosas e implementarlas como métodos, en ocasiones de manera descontextuada.
Un abrazo.
Desde Buenos Aires, Daniel
Strider,
Glad to hear about the conversational prayer working for you guys. It does take a bit of practice, but once the idea is grasped, it is indeed a wonderful way to have congregational prayer.
Daniel,
Tienes razón al decir que tenemos que cuidar que siempre hagamos las cosas "decentemente" y "en "órden." Nuestra experiencia es que este tipo de oración permite que varias personas participen en la oración y no solamente uno como es de costumbre. La idea es variar la forma en que oramos y no solamente de conformarnos a un solo estilo de orar cuando nos congregamos.
I have very much enjoyed the prayer lives of people here at the University of the Nations. It is unceasing in many ways. Sometimes in the middle of conversations people will simply begin praying out loud for example. When someone asks for prayer it never is, "I will pray for you." Instead, everything stops and people immediately pray.
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