Praying together.

At our last meeting, I challenged the Session to participate in the following:
1) Pray daily for our congregation at 8 a.m.
2) Study the Bible at least weekly

This past Sunday, I challenged the congregation to do the same.

The reason for these challenges?  Because the leadership of Northside should be growing in our own faith, and we should be setting an example for the rest of the congregation to emulate. 

PRAYER
8:00 is not a special time, it's just a time when I figured most everyone would be awake and ready to pray.  It doesn't need to be a long or elaborate prayer, it just needs to be a prayer.  James, the brother of Jesus, reminds us that 'The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (Jas 5:16).  Since we have all been made righteous through Jesus Christ, our prayers are both powerful and effective.  Praying together, even if we are not in the same place, is then a corporate act of worship that has a powerful effect upon us as a church trying to bring the hope of Jesus Christ into our world.

Prayer both petitions God and shapes the one who prays.  It's a formational experience.  We already know that God desires to make God's love and grace known among all people.  Praying that God would use our church to do that in our city makes us participants in what God is doing here.  It takes us out of our normal routine, just for a minute, and allows us to glimpse the ministry God is going to do through our church. 

So pray with me each morning.  Pray with your session.  Pray with your church.  And may all our prayers be the same:  God, do amazing things in and through Northside Presbyterian Church.  Make your love and grace known more and more.  Amen.