For a fine dinner with our spouse, you will go our of your way to clean the dining room, set the fine china, light the candles, and remove any distraction from this event. God appreciates our "setting the table."

What happens when we set the table? God arrives for dinner with his expectant worshipers. He moves in the hearts and lives of believers. He provides jobs, grace, hope, help, and cheer for all occasions. Our God lives. Our God reigns.

For a church to set the table means: praying over the facilities and events prior to the event. It also means: inviting people to this special event. From your own perspective, you must believe that the event is special, or you will have nothing to invite friends to. Strangers will not be attracted to a special event that you are not inspired to be a part of.

For a church: conflict is a distraction to worship. The Gospel of Peace must be shared by believers who live in peace with the Savior and one another. Any church caught in conflict does not share the Gospel message. You will not invite people to a conflict. You will invite them to worship.

Are you distracted? Or is the church actually caught up in conflict? Seek God for the right heart attitude toward your worship and your church.

For the church: Our commission is to share the Gospel of Peace with the world. The world of future believers begins right outside my door. Before you guilt yourself for not sharing. Ask God for something worthy of sharing. Something that only God could work out. Something only God can make happen. Something marvelous, miraculous, and personal from the hand of God to you.

Share what He has done to give you joy. Bless people with your Christ moments and experiences. Others will not debate what you have personally verified. The may debate truth, the Bible, the church, but they cannot deny what you have lived.

Set the table. Feast with Jesus. And don't keep the blessings locked up inside the church building.

Bob Sjogren is a long time friend of mine who is well known in mission circles for his training on the Biblical Basis for Mission, or the Missionary Basis of the Bible. His book Unveiled at Last probably best capsulizes that particular training and I'll guarantee you won't regret getting and reading it. Additionally, his seminar, Cat & Dog Theology (and book by the same title) will rock your world as you discover how you are often more like a cat than a dog in how you relate to God -  and that's not a compliment (sorry cat lovers!).

    So where does Prayer to Go come in? Well, Bob has also created a excellent web site with free prayer training mp3s in various categories for both young and old. Check it out here and take a spin around the site and to see for yourself how this tool has considerable potential to jump start you into a life of prayer. It's like having a prayer mentor on your mp3 player.

    If you try it and actually take it to heart and put it into practice, please come back and let us know the benefit it has been to you ... and beyond you, through your prayers ... or how it might be improved or used in a different way that is already recommended. Finally, let Bob know as well and pray about partnering with him in the spread of Prayer to Go.

Blessings!

Dave Imboden

Phil Miglioratti recently stirred my reflective juices by asking for my perspective on how prayer, evangelism, and discipleship are related.

    It's a worthy question, especially for people who are so involved in any particular aspect of ministry that it becomes their primary, almost exclusive, frame of reference. Should prayer, discipleship, and evangelism be separate ministry silos? If so, what are the implications? If not, how would you describe their connection?

Here is my 3-paragraph perspective:

• Context. Prayer, evangelism, and discipleship are parts of a larger context: our relationship with God. True life revolves around Him -- not us. Human beings were created and designed to worship God; that is, to “honor Him in ways that He accepts.” We are most fulfilled and He is most honored when we live and function as designed—as true, vibrant worshipers of God.

• Lifestyle. We "worship" God -- i.e., we honor Him in ways that He accepts --  by loving Him, abiding in Him, and serving Him. Imagine those as 3 concentric circles with loving at the core, abiding next, and serving as the external circle. In general, the 3 circles represent a Christ-follower's heart, head, and hands. ~~~ A core process in producing this lifestyle is our constant cultivation and practice of Christlike character. ~~~ Examples of this concept in the Scriptures include 1 Cor 13, Jn 15, Rom 12, and the entire book of Ephesians. ~~~ Our lifestyle worship is the way we meet Christ’s challenge in Matthew 5:14-16.

• Connection. Prayer is one way we “abide in” Him. Evangelism—with and without speaking evangelistic words—is part of our “serving.” Discipleship includes much of what we mean by “abiding in” (or "walking with" in Ephesians) Him, such as our spiritual disciplines, Bible study, and obedience.  

Your thoughts?

 Isn’t it exciting to have your precious grandchild come running into your arms with hugs and kisses? Your six-year-old granddaughter calling to tell you she lost her first tooth and the tooth fairy is coming to her house or your seven-year-old grandson thrilled to tell you how many goals he made in his soccer game. Last Saturday my two youngest granddaughters came over to visit and we enjoyed making cookies together. Just as you enjoy your relationships with your grandchildren, God enjoys your relationship with Him.  

     This month as we celebrate Valentine’s we are reminded of our relationships, a time when friends express love to each other. However, it can also be a great reminder for us to express our love to our heavenly Father for the privilege of having a personal relationship with Him.

      Prayer is about a relationship, our relationship with God, and those for whom we pray. God gave us the gift of prayer so we could communicate with Him because He loves us and desires our communication. God does not want us to make our prayers a great production. He wants us to have a personal, intimate conversation with Him from our hearts, sharing our fears and struggles.

      Paul Miller writes in his book, The Praying Life, “American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray, we are so busy that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable. We prize accomplishments, production. However, prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we are wasting time.” ₁   Our heavenly Father rejoices when we take the time in our busy, hurried life to communicate with Him in prayer, expressing our love to Him, since relationships thrive on communication.

      The enemy, Satan distracts us with our busy lives hindering our walk with God by distracting our thoughts, making our prayers shallow, hurried, or rote. We face a great deal of stress, difficulty, and disappointments in life for which we need to be deliberate in setting a regular time to pray for our loved ones and ourselves, not just when we have a crisis.

      Our lives will be less stressful if we bring our needy hearts to God asking Him to work out His agenda in our life and in the lives of our loved ones, instead of trying to figure out our own agenda. As we see our prayers answered, we will grow into a more intimate relationship with God and experience more boldness in our praying.  

      Our Enemy knows a family’s faith can be lost in one generation. However, we as grandparents can be their prayer warriors to defend their faith in Jesus Christ by praying for them. Our children and grandchildren do not inherit our salvation. Nevertheless, we can pray that when they are presented with an opportunity their hearts will be prepared to step into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

      Do you sometimes feel like you are too busy to pray?

      Are your prayers hurried or repetitious?

      When you pray do you find it hard to connect with God in our distracting world?

      How is your relationship with God?

      Jesus tells his disciples in John 15:7, 10, 11, “If you love me, you will obey me. . . . If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you . . . I have told you this so that my joy will be in you and that your joy will be complete.”

      Send your heavenly Father a Valentine telling him of your love for him by your obedience to him.

 Dear Father, I choose to make a daily appointment with

You to pray intentionally for the hearts of my children, grandchildren, and myself. I want to have an open intimate relationship with

You so I feel comfortable bringing my needy heart to You. I am going to trust you that the seeds of prayer I sow today will bring forth a harvest of blessings in the days ahead.

In Jesus Name.

Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life, (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress  2009), 15. Used by Permission of NavPress, All Rights Reserved. www.navpress.com

 © 2012 Lillian Penner

Author of the book Grandparenting with a Purpose.

An excellent resource to challenge grandparents and suggestions

of how to pray for their grandchildren.

I have often wondered why so many believers do not pray much, if at all. (Statistics show that more than 80% of western believers would say they have a poor prayer life.) Before I go any further I need to get right out front, that I am not a great man of prayer either. I have certainly improved greatly over the years, but I struggled for the first 30 or so years as a believer to pray almost anytime other than when a crisis was in my life (or the life of someone I cared about).

Prayer has always been something that easily gets forgotten in the church and in the lives of believers. Only decades after the early church was birthed in a prayer meeting in Acts, leaders were challenging, even begging, people to pray. James has to remind people to pray when they are in trouble and when they are sick. Paul tells them to pray for each other, to pray with thanksgiving when they are anxious.

Why does prayer get lost in the shuffle at church and in our lives? Why don’t we pray more? There are lots of reasons—in a discussion on this topic with several national prayer leaders a few years ago we came up with more than 15. But I want to focus on four major reasons.

1. Many believers do not pray because they are not really converted. In any church today—no matter what the denomination—there are people who at one point in their life prayed a prayer, went to a confirmation class and/or were baptized, but it “didn’t take.” They did it because it was the right thing to do, not because they were truly surrendering and giving Christ their lives. With no Holy Spirit indwelling them, they only pray when desperate, out of guilt, because it is expected or for show.
2. Other believers do not pray because they are no longer surrendered to God. They maybe once truly gave their hearts to Jesus Christ, but now they are back in control of their lives. An unsurrendered believer will not pray much. Why? Because all true prayer is an act of surrender. It is saying “I can’t do this; I need You to do something.” And when we say that, we are giving the Spirit the right to take over. An unsurrendered person finds that difficult to do.
3. Still other believers stopped praying out of disappointment with God. They prayed for something they wanted to see happen—perhaps even desperately prayed—but what they prayed for never came about. So they got angry or disappointed with God. That disappointment and confusion caused them to walk away from prayer.
4. Finally some believers do not pray because of the attack that comes. This often happens to people who have been at times strong intercessors or people of prayer. But the relentless attack of the enemy on a praying person has taken its toll on them. It is easier to pray less and let things stay “quieter” around them. I once had a believer tell me she did not want to pray in a situation because “that just riles up Satan.”

Actually, Satan uses numbers one through three in every one of our lives from time to time to keep us from prayer. As believers who want to pray more effectively, we need to continually stay aware of the things that are keeping us from it. I encourage you to regularly ask the Holy Spirit to draw you to prayer. Encourage others to get past these hindrances, too. Despite the struggles, the rewards are worth it!

Jonathan Graf is the publisher of Prayer Connect, the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network, and the author of The Power of Personal Prayer and Praying Like Paul.

© 2012 www.prayerconnect.com. For information on subscribing to Prayer Connect, click here.

It’s been said that the family that prays together, stays together—but do you know just how true that really is? Seriously! A 1993 Gallup poll revealed that among married couples who attend church together regularly, the divorce rate is one out of two.  How sad. That’s the same statistic as for marriages anywhere. But get this: among couples who pray together daily, the divorce rate is one out of 1,153. [i]What a difference!

One of the best gifts a couple can give their children (and each other) is the gift of a strong marriage and family life knit together through prayer. Prayer builds unity and intimacy. We become intimate to whom we pray, for whom we pray, and with whom we pray. Prayer is the key to unlocking extraordinary blessings for children and families the way a key unlocks a gate.

Years ago, my husband Doug came up with a slogan for our family that, in our house, prayer should always be “the first response, not a last resort.” I’d go so far to say that prayer has not only been our lifeline to heaven (and sometimes to sanity!), but it’s also been our greatest and most valued parenting tool.

What that's meant for this mom, specifically, has been to make every effort to pray first, open mouth second. I've had to work on it even harder as my kids have grown and become adults.  More often than not, my role is not to fix, not to correct, not to express an opinion … but to pray.  And then step back and trust God. (Yes, hard to do I know. But He always comes through and I’ve learned to trust Him.)

Proverbs 31: 27 says, “She watches over the affairs of her household.” I skipped merrily over that verse for years until one day I just happened to read it at the same time as I was reading elsewhere in the Bible that day. Isaiah 62:6-7 says, “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest.”

That jumped out at me. I’m a word person. Both roots of those words—watches and watchman—have similar meanings, “to peer into the distance, observe, watch; to hedge about (as with thorns), guard, protect, attend to”[ii] They can also be translated “lookout” or “doorkeeper.”[iii]

How very cool.  I realized way back then that prayer is one of the most powerful roles a mother can play in her children’s lives. So much more can be accomplished for my kids from my knees than from my mouth! Correction, instruction, suggestions, and advice are all very well and good—and necessary.  But years of experience tell me (and I know many other praying moms who will agree with me) that some of the most powerful breakthroughs I’ve seen with my children have been when I prayed instead of only trying to fix a situation with natural means.

My friend Cindy has a sign posted in her family room, where she can see it every day, that says PRAY BIG. I love it.  I think it's the perfect mom-slogan. :-)

Have you PRAYED for your kids today?

The Big Impact of Small Churches

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Shawn McMullen 10/03/2011

© iStockphoto.com/ImagineGolf

4 Proven Insights for Thriving in a Small Church

What are you running these days?

It’s the question church leaders hear—and dread—usually at conferences or seminars, anywhere Type A personalities have gathered to talk about ministry and their churches. Unfortunately, in our American church culture, the measurement of how good you are as a person and as a pastor seems to rely on your answer to the question—that one telling number we define ourselves by.

I still remember a pastor who had brought me in to lead an an evangelistic meeting for the small church he led. While I was there, I spent several days as a guest in the pastor’s home. In the late afternoons, he and I would sit on the family’s front porch and invariably people strolling by would stop to talk, often expressing their appreciation to the pastor for his counsel or encouragement. One morning, we walked into a nearby diner for breakfast and this personable preacher stopped at every table (I’m not exaggerating!) to talk and laugh with someone he knew.

This man and his family were making a profound impact on the people in their small community. But when the days’ meetings were over and we sat on that same porch in the quiet of the evening, the preacher’s gregarious voice grew soft and subdued as he talked about the discouragement he felt in his ministry. Many of his seminary classmates had gone on to serve much larger congregations. By comparison, he felt as if he’d failed. I sensed a similar feeling of inferiority among some members of his congregation.

For lack of a better phrase, this pastor and his church suffered from low ministry self-esteem. In their thinking, because they weren’t big, they weren’t successful—or effective—or healthy. >>>

Seek God for the City is designed to empower entire churches and even citywide movements to unite their prayers for a special 40-day season. Now the children’s companion guide is available—providing a way to equip children to pray along with each other and their families. The kids’ version of Seek God for the City 2012 is available as a free downloadable PDF file. You have permission to photocopy all that you need. Find it online at www.waymakers.org/childrens-guide.html.                          Put another tool in the hands of moms and dads that will help them teach their children to extend their prayers and passions beyond their own needs.

This year the children’s companion version has been entirely rewritten. Of course, the prayers are framed with clear, simple language, making it easy for kids to express heartfelt prayer for others. Every one of the prayers springs from the same Bible verses as the adult version, making it easy for a family to read and pray together. Don’t let the simple language fool you. The prayers are focused on Jesus, making them richly appropriate for people of any age.

Check out the new pages on our website. www.waymakers.org/childrens-guide.html. You’ll see a short helpful video by Trudy Landis, the author of the kids’ prayers. There are other practical ideas for Sunday School teachers and parents to help young minds learn to express prayers of hope for their community.

Be sure you have plenty of booklets for the adults. Our supply of Seek God for the City 2012 is moving rapidly. It’s not too late to get copies of the English and/or Spanish booklets. Call us today 800-264-5214, or find us online www.waymakers.org/seek-god-for-the-city.html.

On a couple of occasions recently I've been called to lead a time of corporate prayer for ministries I'm involved in that face some real challenges. Of course I asked God how He wanted the prayer times to be led—and He gave me a picture. In my mind's eye, I saw Jesus, similar to how He is described in Revelation 1, walking among these ministries. He was talking to us, sometimes smiling, putting a hand warmly on a shoulder, sometimes looking serious and concerned.

Continuing my reflection, I turned to Revelation and meditated on the first three chapters. With what I read there along with the picture God gave me, I sensed how He wanted the prayer times to be led. The format was very simple. It went like this:

Start with worship. In Revelation 1, John has a vision of Jesus that literally causes him to fall on his face. Although John was probably Jesus' closest friend on earth--intimate enough that he rested his head on Jesus' bosom--this is the glorified Jesus John is seeing now, and his response is holy fear, awe and worship. Worship is an excellent way to start a time of prayer for your church or ministry. Whatever challenges it faces, a vision of Jesus in His glory puts things into perspective. During one of our prayer times we started the worship part by singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" and then offered short prayers of praise and worship.

Thank God for the good. When our churches or ministries are going through hard times, it's easy to lose sight of what's going well. In our recent Revelation-based prayer times, we recalled that as He walked through each of the seven churches in Chapters 2 and 3, Jesus commended the good He saw there. He noticed how different churches had exhibited hard work, perseverance, faithfulness, and so on. So we asked Him to help us see the things in our fellowships that bring Him pleasure. We listened quietly for a while, then thanked Him for what the Holy Spirit brought to mind. There were some surprises--joys we'd nearly lost sight of in the midst of the more recent challenges. Being reminded of and expressing gratitude for those goodnesses gave us courage and hope.

Repent of personal sin. However, Jesus did not only commend the good. He also had things "against" the churches. When He looks at our fellowships, I'm sure He also notices where we're falling short. Often it's easy for us--okay, for me--to think the "problem" is everybody else. But guess what, I'm part of the body, and I make my contribution to its dis-ease. So in our prayer times, we allowed everyone a chance to invite the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and then confess what He revealed. Many of us confessed sins in our reactions to the problems our ministries are facing. Reactions of bitterness, detachment, discouragement, pride, anger, frustration, fear-of-man, arrogance, futility, and so on. It was really good to receive God's forgiveness for these. Doing so put is a much more humble and understanding place to move on to the next part.

Intercede for what is not going well. In each case, those of us who gathered for prayer had ideas of what we each thought was out of line. But as we prayed with this Revelation format, asking Jesu to show us what He saw, some of those ideas were adjusted, others dropped, new ones added. How Jesus saw us was not exactly how we had seen ourselves. He revealed heart attitudes, spiritual warfare, seemingly trivial actions--things we hadn't seen or considered--and led us to confess them on behalf of the body and intercede for repentance.

Close with confidence. At the end of Revelation 3, in a verse familiar to most of us, Jesus says that He is knocking at our "doors." If we will hear Him and invite Him in, He will share a meal with us--He will fellowship with us. Knowing this gives me great confidence. Whatever challenges and distress our ministires find ourselves in, Jesus is still knocking, not giving up, wanting to come in and be with us and lead us into life. So we closed our prayer times with declarations of our confidence in Him--His love, guidance, truth, help, rescue, healing, and so forth.

It's too soon to know the big-picture outcomes of our prayer times. But I do know that all of us who participated went away knowing we'd connected with Jesus, and that inspite of our struggles, He was still with us and for us and and working among us to make things right and whole. If you lead prayer for a ministry that is facing tough situations, perhaps you'd want to try leading a prayer time with the Revelation format. Let me know how it goes.

. . . 2013 begins right now.

I know, the new year of 2012 has just begun. We’re still paying for all those presents we gave away a few weeks ago at Christmas. Ninety percent of this year remains to unfold before we have to think about 2013; lots of living to be done before this year is complete; why think about the next one so soon?

Because the goals we set for 2012 will determine how much more prayer-capacity our teams and congregations will have when we venture into 2013.  Unless we have a destination in mind, we may spend the next 12 months wandering in a wilderness of simply repeating the same kind of prayers and recycling the same type of prayer experiences. [Note: If your prayer team or congregation has nowhere to grow, then you are dismissed from needing to read on. Really.]  [Note to those who can be dismissed: PLEASE let us know about your team of church so that we can share your story on the CPLN! Really!]

Early in my ministry I devoted significant time to researching the role of leaders and the responsibility of a good leader to set good goals. Two helpful teachings have traveled with me since then.

1) “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” For me, that statement lifted goal-setting from a self-manufactured idea of what I want to accomplish to a loftier objective revealed through the prayer partnership I was developing with the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit can and often has used preachers or speakers, books or workshops, to reveal that objective but the best goals I set for our teams or congregation came directly from the mind of Christ. Lesson learned? When it comes to a question about what goals to set for prayer, the first step is always to pray:

a. Ask – a question

b. Seek – be still and listen

c. Knock – open that door and move forward

Deadline? Obviously that refers to establishing a target date by which to accomplish the objective. If a specific date is not appropriate, consider paraphrasing to: “A goal is a dream with a destination” so that you can be confident as a leader that the journey you are asking your members to take is headed in a specific direction--a place worth the efforts it will take to change/learn/grow.

2) “Every goal must be ownable, reachable, measureable.” Stating a goal is often not adequate. A set of strategic questions will help us dig deeper to strengthen the transformational potential of the goals:

*Is this goal ownable? Will the members of the team or the leaders of church or the members of the congregation buy into the purpose of this specific idea? Will they be able to see a personal benefit to their discipleship? Will they have participated in the goal-setting process?

*Is this goal reachable? With Christ, all things are possible, but have we set a standard (of time invested or persons impacted, for example) that we would like to achieve but will probably not aspire to? Are we over (or under) reaching? Sometimes less is more, if it accurately reflects the level of faith and opportunity He has given to us.

*Is this goal measureable? How will we know when we’ve succeeded? If our goal is to allow for more participation in the prayer experience, (weeknight or Sunday worship prayer) then it will be simple to assess our progress. If the goal is to deepen everyone’s personal relationship with the Lord through prayer, we will need to involve our members in the assessing and evaluating process. In order to measure a goal, the leader must establish a process that includes the persons for which he/she is establishing the objective and create a safe environment for honest discussion, reflection, even failure.

Bonus!  “If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time.”  When the calendar turns 2013, what will those you steward in prayer say you aimed at?  And don’t forget, if you’ve aimed and hit the mark, give credit to the Spirit and celebrate the success!

It seems to me, 2013 begins right now.

Phil Miglioratti

Originally published in Prayer Leader Online

Church Prayer Leaders Network

Several days ago, I came across a really helpful interpretation of James 1:5-6, about asking God for wisdom, believing and not doubting.  This was in Chris Tiegreen's "One-year Walk With God" devotional (which I highly recommend, by the way).

James tells us to ask God for wisdom, but then warns that when we ask, we must believe and not doubt, because "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind".  I've always thought that the belief referred to in this passage was belief that God would answer the prayer, but Tiegreen takes it a step further.  He interprets the belief as meaning "believing that God's answer is wisdom" and implying a prior commitment to following God's guidance.

If we believe that God's answer is true wisdom, Tiegreen argues, we will be committed to following that answer - whether or not it agrees with our preferences or our own thoughts about the right direction.  This commitment doesn't allow us to consider God's path as one of many directions to follow.  If we ask God for wisdom and then just throw his answer "in the pot" as one of many options, then we fail to trust God's wisdom to be true wisdom.  This is what leads us to be "blown and tossed by the wind". 

In fact, Tiegreen argues, if we don't have this prior commitment to obeying God's direction, he won't answer the prayer for wisdom.  He does not give advice to be considered - He gives wisdom to be heeded, direction to be followed. 

Thinking about it this way, I can look back over my life and recall some key decisions that I made without a lot of prayer.  I think that I instinctively realized that I had made up my mind which way I was going to go, and wasn't really open to a different leading from God, so I never bothered to ask Him for wisdom.

I'm older now, but only wiser when I commit myself to following God's wisdom.  Based on Tiegreen's conclusions, I no longer see a prayer for wisdom as something I would just toss up on the spur of the moment.  To really pray for wisdom, I need to be committed to following where God leads, to holding my own desires and thoughts with open hands.  A prayer for wisdom is first and foremost a prayer of surrender - which makes it both much harder and much more meaningful.

Just a week ago, I spent a day at an interesting church. Rising out of the corn fields of central Iowa is the town of Newton. Hard hit by the recession, Newton’s main employer having gone out of business. On the edge of Newton stands a dynamic praying church of 800, Community Heights Alliance Church.

After preaching in the morning services and teaching in Sunday school, we were holding a concert of prayer that evening. The pastor was a little anxious about who would show up. It was the kick-off to their fourth annual week of prayer. We were using a large side room called the Gathering Place. As the people kept coming, more chairs had to be set up. Eventually close to 200 people filled that room for what became a dynamic beginning to the week.

The highlight was watching 20 or so kids lined up down the center aisle, with all the adults laying hands on them or lifting their hands toward them as we prayed over them.  And they weren’t safe, tame “Lord, bless them,” prayers. They were prays that were praying down the Kingdom of God on them!

I was struck by several things that day. First, the hunger of the people to connect with God was palpable. They were excited by what God was going to do as a result of prayer. I was also struck by something lead pastor Cory said to me. He had been at the church only four years, so this was not primarily a result of his ministry. “I have never been in a church before where we have seen so many adults come to Christ,” he told me. It was exciting as they watch lives and families be transformed.

They recognize that it is the result of prayer. They regularly and consistently pray for specific people to come to Christ; and they pray that the person who gave the name for prayer would become the one to lead the individual to Christ. It’s working!

The last thing that struck me was something I had never seen in a pastor before—at least not on a busy Sunday. I watched Cory talk with people (individuals and couples) before or after one of the gatherings—a typical thing for a pastor to do. But four times I watched Cory put his hands on the person or couple, bow his head and pray for them. My host, an intern named Mark who was over the prayer ministry, told me that Cory challenges his staff every week to not just talk with people, but pray for them on the spot. That is absolutely what you expect to see in a church that views prayer as important—people doing it without it being “prayer time.”

God is up to something at Community Heights; and it is coming out of prayer. What might He do in your church is your people caught a vision and passion for prayer?

--Taken from www.prayerconnect.net, the website of Prayer Connect magazine.

I am looking for VBS lessons that teach prayer to children.  I have found some helpful material, but am looking for actual VBS lessons that teach prayer to our children.  My research has come up empty handed so far--with the exception of some supportive material that can help build a lesson.  The VBS director at my church has requested me to help, and wants 4 short lessons on prayer (5 minutes) then the prayer activity is for each child to place a prayer on a prayer wall for people of the church to see and pray over.  In response, I have put together 4 possible lessons, but would like to examine others.  Does any one have some lessons that are shareable or a source that one can look up? 

The last few months have been very busy and hectic for me, my life felt weighed down and cluttered. However, I have been focusing on getting my life, home, and grandparenting ministry in order.

We are often weighed down with clutter in our lives, focusing on the many petty tasks before us. However, Jesus asks us to rest in him forgetting the worries of the world and focus on Him. If we focus continually on Jesus throughout the day, His presence will bring order to our thoughts, infusing peace into our lives. If we begin each day with Jesus, we will experience the reality of his presence with us. As we spend time with Him, the journey before us opens up step-by- step. He is waiting to smooth our path as we make it a priority to hold his hand and deliberately depend on Him.

Our children and grandchildren can also be weighed down with clutter in their lives with their homework and activities just like us. The enemy is watching for vulnerable spots and the unguarded door to their hearts.

Pray for your children and grandchildren to guard the doors of their hearts, placing their focus continually on Jesus. Then God will guide their lives step-by-step and your grandchildren will experience the reality of His presence.

Finding Daily Renewal in the Lord Jesus Christ

Daniel Henderson 

We are all searching for happiness, a blessed life, but too many don't know where to look. Finding happiness is really no secret but it does require seeing life differently than how the world does. Of course, when you consider the state of the world and the fact that we don't find much happiness there who really wouldn't want to uncover the "Secrets to a Blessed Life."  

It's pretty simple really. The answer to our happiness is on our bookshelves or somewhere else tucked away in nearly every home in America - God's Word. The problem today is too many, Christians included, don't know God's Word. American's are a Biblically illiterate people as we seek our happiness in ways that are at best only temporary. For far too many the Bible is an irrelevant antiquated relic instead of the guaranteed source of joy and wisdom for living today.

In Psalm 119 however the Psalmist begins with these words: "Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart..." (v 1 & 2). Blessed is the highest form of happiness attainable in this life. The Psalmist understood that only by walking with and seeking the LORD through His Word and in Prayer can we find what we are looking for - lasting happiness.

In the "The Secrets of a Blessed Life," across 22 days, we explore what the Psalmist understood to be true about God's Word - that only by living out God's Word, in spite our obstacles and adversities, can we find lasting happiness. "Secrets to a Blessed Life" digs into Psalm 119 looking at how the Psalmist describes God's Word, the attitudes he approaches God's Word with and benefits that are his as he seeks to know God's Word better. Such can be ours as well.      

You can download "Secret of a Blessed Life" free as a PDF, or for your kindle or iPad by clicking here. Hope you will find it a blessing!  

A recent study of eleven major symphony orchestras revealed how orchestra members perceived each other. Percussionists were seen as insensitive, yet fun-loving. String players were perceived as arrogant and stuffy. Brass players were judged as loud.  Woodwind players were described as quiet, though a bit egotistical. With this diversity of feeling for each other, members of the orchestra arrive for the concert. Each tunes his or her own instrument, often oblivious to those around them. The combination of sounds creates discord, not harmony.  So how does such a group with such diverse feelings for each other, and such individualistic sounds of preparation, play beautiful music together?  The answer is simple: regardless of feelings for each other, regardless of warm-up chaos, orchestra members subordinate their biases and their uniqueness to the leadership of the conductor. When Jesus spoke of His followers agreeing in prayer under His direction (Matthew 18:19-20), He used the Greek word, “sumphoneo,” a word normally used for diverse musical instruments harmonizing together under the Maestro.  So, which prayer is God most likely to hear, the discord-like prayers of our individual wants and desires or the united prayers of a group, under the direction of the Master?

From "Dr. Dan's Monday Morning Memo" which can be seen at www.discipleallnations.org/blog.