Archive: “Speak Lord!”

by Steve | Jan 12, 1996 | Archive - 1996

Archive: “Speak Lord!”

By Marilyn N. Anderes

It has been said that “the call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him.” Those who belong to God know his unique voice. He speaks with authority, trustworthiness, and life. Unlike Satan, Jesus expresses no condemnation for the sinner—only for sin. Although listeners are an endangered species, we can take personal responsibility for removing the cotton from our ears in 1996.

Our example in good listening is the Lord himself. Psalm 116:1 tells us that he hears our “voice and [our] supplications.” God hears what we say and what we’re really saying—the cry of our hearts. Consider this example.

“A man with leprosy came to [Jesus] and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured” (Mark 1:40- 42). Outside the city—often in the garbage heaps—banished lepers heard the familiar cries of taunting, fearful citizens. “Unclean! Unclean!” There weren’t many kind words and no hugs. With white, decaying lips the leper said “Heal me!” but with his heart he said, “Hold me!” Imagine the man’s joy as Jesus reached out and touched him.

God heard what the leper said and what he was really saying. And, God desires that we hear what he says and what he’s really saying—the cry of his heart. Oswald Chambers wrote: “Isaiah said the Lord spoke to him ‘with a strong hand’ (8:11), that is, by the pressure of circumstances. Every time circumstances press, say ‘Speak Lord.’ Then make time to listen.”

Psalm 107 offers four circumstances common to man. All of us fall into at least one of the scenarios and each of us can follow the solution offered. As you look at each example, probe your own life. Ask God to reveal where you fit most right now. Use the circumstance to say “Speak, Lord.” And then listen!

Psalm 107:4-9 tells about Wanderers With No Home. These people were lost, unsettled, hungry and thirsty for something. They longed for a haven. The wanderers sent out their SOS and were led by a straight way where they could settle. Their thirst was quenched and they were satisfied. They said, “Speak, Lord” and God showed them the way and they praised him (v. 8). Perhaps you’re looking for someone to settle down with, but you’ve not allowed Jesus to touch your heart until now. He is the way home!

Prisoners In Bondage (Psalm 107:10-16) were gloomy, chained, and seated in darkness. Why? Because they rebelled against God’s words and they stumbled. No one came to the rescue until God heard and broke through the gates and bars. Their heaviness turned into praise (vs. 15). They said “Speak, Lord!” and he showed them the truth. You, too, can make your way to freedom. John 8:31-32 says, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”(NASV).

Psalm 107:17-22 tells about Rebels In Affliction. Because of their many sins, these people were near death. They couldn’t even eat. But, again, they cried to God and he sent his living, enduring Word to heal them. Are you experiencing spiritual ill health; so sick you don’t care for the food of the Word? Say to God, “Speak, Lord,” and as you confess, he will show you life. Praise comes as you listen to his heart (v. 21).

Merchants In Peril (Psalm 107:23-32) were ordinary folks going about their business. They sailed with their wares to faraway ports, but the wind churned the waves. Up and down. Down and up. They were discouraged and their lives seemed as out of control as drunken sailors. Nothing they could think of worked. So, they cried to the Lord. Are you living a rollercoaster life, longing for balance? Are your daily schedules out of control and you’re at your wit’s end? Dare to say, “Speak, Lord” and watch God hush the waters as he guides you into his haven. Praising God, you’ll know the tempest can sound its fury but your heart will be stable because God spoke and you listened.

As the psalm continues we are reminded of God’s sovereignty, knowing he allows pressure-packed days to bring us to himself so that he can bless us. “Consider the great love of the Lord,” Psalm 107 concludes. That’s what happens when we open our ears to hear God address us with a strong hand.

In 1996, if you sense you are a wanderer, a prisoner, an afflicted one, or a roller-coaster Christian, say “Speak, Lord,” then make time to listen!

Archive: Re-Imagining Community gathers in Minneapolis

by Steve | Jan 10, 1996 | Archive - 1996

Archive: Re-Imagining Community gathers in Minneapolis

By Jeanene Hoppe

The 1995 Re-Imagining Conference continued where the previous two conferences left off in challenging basic tenets of the Christian faith. Held November 3 and 4 in Minneapolis, the gathering featured feminist theologian Miriam Therese Winter, Medical Missionary Sister and professor of liturgy, worship, spirituality, and feminist studies at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut. The theme was “Sounding: Re-Imagining the Word.”

More than 400 Catholic and Protestant men and women representing 23 states were led through song, ritual, dance, small group discussion, and drama. Throughout the meeting there were blessings to Sophia, who, according to the program guide, is “a figure who appears throughout scripture as a female personification of the wisdom of God.”

The conference focus was not as much on the biblical word as the personal words expressed by the participants as they were led through a meditation ritual to express the word that is “sounding in my life now” or “words the world is waiting to hear.”

During a part of the program entitled “Listening to ‘Sophiaword,’” a symbolic dance called “Unbind Her” was presented to the tune of “Amazing Grace” in which a woman completely bound in cloth strips is unwrapped so she can again see and move. This led into a presentation by Winter called “Unbinding the Word” in which she explained that before the written word existed there was ritual and experience and centuries of oral interpretation with a lot of “embellishments.” Eventually the stories became text and “these recorded memories are suddenly said to be God’s words.” This, according to Winter, puts us “in a bind,” and when we dare to change the words it becomes a problem.

The real problem, according to Winter, is that relying only on Scripture is “like peering at the universe through a straw,” which is ridiculous. Though claiming to be rooted in biblical tradition, Winter prefers not to be “bound by what is between two covers.” This was illustrated in “Garden Story,” danced and narrated from her book Noah and Her Sisters: Genesis and Exodus According To Women. The Noah in this title is one of the daughters of Zelophehad from Numbers 26, a story told according to Scripture. It was about women overcoming the patriarchal system of their day. In “Garden Story,” however, she begins with the Genesis text, which is “a myth in culture … a legend,” and “doesn’t stay with it.”

Many conference participants found this obvious as they asked for explanations afterwards on who Lilith is? (Adam’s sister), why no sin? (we have enough guilt—the fall is Adam and Eve falling in love), and the serpent? (not a negative but a symbol of transformation). The danger, says Winter, is in “taking a story and making it Scripture.” Referring to biblical stories, Winter says, “With just a little bit of imagination, you can make them your own.”

The ritual of milk and honey was repeated as in the previous annual conferences. However, instead of the liturgy previously used, which stirred so much debate, the following explanation from the May 1995 Re-Imagining Newsletter was included: “The oldest of the communion texts of the early church holds a well kept secret in its ancient rubrics. How many cups? Three, not one … the first cup offered to the newly baptized was a cup of water … those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness were given water to drink for the inner washing of the spirit. The third cup is now our one and only, the cup of the new covenant, the chalice of the fruit of the vine. What is missing from our memory is the second cup, a cup of milk and honey. This missing cup was given to ‘the children of God for the healing of the bitterness of the human heart with the sweetness of Christ’s word.’ So reads one of the oldest worship texts we possess.”

This event was organized by the Re-Imagining Community based in Minneapolis, which was founded in response to the 1993 Re-Imagining conference. The community has one staff person and volunteers who will now begin work on the 1996 Conference where they expect 750-1,000 participants.

Available at this conference was a newly released book from Pilgrim Press called Re-Membering and Re-Imagining—a collection of stories from 95 different people who came to or were affected by the 1993 Re-Imagining Conference and its ensuing controversy.

By Jeanene Hoppe, member of Grace United Methodist Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, where she teaches a Sunday morning adult issues class.

Archive: Too Much Instruction—Not Enough Direction

by Steve | Jan 7, 1996 | Archive - 1996

Archive: Too Much Instruction—Not Enough Direction

By Duffy Robbins

I’ve been involved lately in some intense one-on-one ministry with a teenager in our area. We have spent long hours together, some of it in the midst of real trial, sometimes with heated conversation, sometimes wondering if we are actually accomplishing anything at all. There have been hours of instruction, honest confrontations, earnest rebuke, and even some tears along the way. It hasn’t been easy. But I am committed to the process because I want my teenage daughter to learn to drive our car safely.

Sometimes, after her lesson is over and we are safely back at home, we will laugh about various conversations that unfolded in the heat of the lesson.

Daughter: “Dad, why did you grab the steering wheel like that?”

Dad: “Because, sweetheart, it didn’t look as if the elderly lady was moving fast enough to dodge us.”

Or, Daughter: “Dad, you didn’t have to pull up the emergency brake. I saw the tree.”

Dad: “Yes, Erin, I know you saw the tree. It was laying against the hood of our car.”

Or, Daughter: “Dad, you didn’t have to yell; I was going to stop.”

Dad: “Yes, honey, I know we were going to stop. But remember, the object here is for us to stop without going through the windshield.”

There is some risk involved in this process. It isn’t always completely pleasant for either of us, and there are awkward moments along the way. But in the midst of this process I have discovered something very profound: People do not learn how to drive by going to classes and watching films on highway safety. Nor do they learn to drive by having an instructor who stands in the driveway and yells his instructions from a safe distance.

The only way to really help my daughter travel the road safely is by getting into the car next to her and giving her both instruction and direction. What she needs from me is not another study in driving. She needs to have me get next to her and give her an in-car demonstration. Maybe that’s what we mean when we use the word “incarnation.” It’s not teaching from a distance. It’s living in their midst. It’s not just instruction, it’s direction.

In the last few issues of Good News, we have been looking at some of the reasons so many youth groups suffer from what might be described as “faith failure”—the kind of up-and-down, hot-and-cold commitment that blooms bright and colorful a few times a year, but sits dormant and withering the rest of the year . What steps can we as youth leaders take to build consistency into the spiritual lives of our youth?

Surely, part of our problem is rooted in the fact that we have sought to define Christian education solely in terms of providing solid biblical instruction to our students. We have made the mistake of believing that if we give our youth good classroom instruction, they will automatically know how to travel the road safely for the long haul. Unfortunately, it is a method rooted more in convenience than experience, shaped more by time constraints than by vision and determination.

Jesus didn’t say I can teach the truth—he said I’m it. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Too often we make the mistake of exposing our youth to a Word become word, instead of the Word become flesh. What does that mean in a practical sense? It means we cannot do effective youth ministry from a distance. We cannot expect genuine discipleship to happen only through a Sunday school lesson. We cannot approach disciple-making as if we were some kind of youth ministry lifeguards who sit above an adolescent swimming pool and perform our jobs by blowing the whistle and yelling safety instructions from a distance.

We won’t keep kids from going under by yelling from afar. We keep kids from going under by getting into the water with them. We tolerate the splashing, the wetness, the loss of our nice warm place in the sun—and we offer direction as well as instruction. This is Christian education that moves beyond witness to the messy business of “withness.”

That may mean we have to overhaul the way we recruit volunteer leaders for the youth program, because now we are looking not just for instructors, but for spiritual directors. It will probably mean we have to redefine our role as leaders, because we understand that classroom instruction alone is not enough if we want our students to learn the road. (For a more hands-on discussion of what this kind of youth ministry looks like, see my book, Ministry of Nurture, Zondervan.)

The bottom line is that a lifeguard in the water is worth two in the chair, and a Dad in the car is worth ten in the driveway. If we are committed to helping our students go the distance in their journey with Christ, we must be willing to give them not just instruction, but direction.

Archive: How to start a Prayer Room in Your Church

by Steve | Jan 5, 1996 | Archive - 1996

Archive: How to start a Prayer Room in Your Church

by Jim Leggett

More than two years ago, Good News ran an article by Terry Teykl entitled, “Why You Should Start A Prayer Room.” The article motivated me to start a prayer room in my church of about 100 worshippers (average attendance). Since then, six to twelve faithful intercessors have logged in more than 300 hours of prayer and have recorded roughly 300 answered prayers (interesting correlation!).

I believe our story provides the sequel to Terry’s motivational article. Consider the six steps that we took in starting a prayer room ministry.

STEP ONE: SECURE THE BLESSING OF YOUR PASTOR

There is a spiritual principle of authority here that needs to be respected. No pastor in his or her right mind would refuse a humble offer to have someone else do the work necessary to start a prayer room ministry in the church. Nevertheless, this blessing needs to be secured first.

In my case, I was the pastor. However, since then, I have initiated prayer ministries at a district and a conference level and each time I have sought the blessing of the person in proper authority. No one has yet refused. In fact, those I have consulted gave me ideas I never would have thought of on my own, and I have strengthened relationships with those in authority.

STEP TWO: SECURE A ROOM

The best case scenario is to find a room that is accessible from the outside of the building and that has independent heating and cooling. Those praying in the prayer room will need either to have a key to the door or to know the combination of a door lock.

In our case, no such room existed. We ended up asking the Dorcas Sunday school class to allow us to use a corner in their classroom/chapel which was otherwise being used only on Sunday mornings. In that corner there is now a desk and a chair with a portrait hanging over it of Christ praying in the garden of Gesthemane. Above this prayer desk hangs a printing of what has become our motivational prayer Scripture passage: “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning” (Exodus 17:11).

Other churches have cleaned out junk closets to use as prayer rooms. Still others have funded the building of an elaborate prayer room or chapel. Many newly planted churches are designing prayer rooms into their architectural plans.

STEP THREE: ASSEMBLE PRAYER MATERIALS

We were now ready to supply our room with prayer aids to help the intercessors who would serve their church in this ministry. As we assembled these prayer helps, we realized it would be helpful to organize them according to a pattern that would walk the intercessor through an hour of prayer. We considered three:

1. Dick Eastman’s Twelve Stations—The hour is divided into 12 five-minute stations: praise, waiting, confession, Scripture praying, watching, intercession, petition, thanksgiving, singing, meditation, listening, and praise.

2. The Lord’s Prayer—The hour can be divided into Praise, Kingdom petitions for the world, nation, denomination, city, and local church, petitions for personal daily needs, confession, prayers for deliverance, and closing praise.

3. The ACTS Model—The hour can be divided into adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. The supplication portion is divided into petitions for the world, nation, denomination, city, local church, and personal needs.

We have chosen the latter model, although they all have much in common and require much of the same research and collection of materials. With any of these models, separate notebooks can be organized for each of the major categories (i.e., adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication). Items that we use to fill these notebooks include:

•  the names of national, denominational, and city leaders
•  the names of area pastors and their churches
•  the names of the members of our congregation
•  a listing of our pastor’s personal prayer requests
•  a map of our city with Isaiah 43:5-7 printed at the top
•  prayer letters from missionaries whom our church supports
•  a listing of the church’s mission statement and goals
•  names of visitors to our church

Many of these lists are too overwhelming for a person to pray for in one sitting; therefore, we have devised 30-Day Rotations to break them into “bite-size” portions. For example, we have a 30-day Rotation for National Leaders which includes daily prayer for the President, one cabinet member, a Supreme Court justice, a congressman, and a state leader. Other 30-day rotations include area churches and pastors, United Methodist bishops, personal requests for our pastor, and church membership lists. Other resources included in our prayer room are:

• a copy of Patrick Johnson’s Operation World (well-researched prayer requests for every country in the world to be prayed for on a rotation based on the calendar year)
• a hymnal and other song books
• a Bible and a Bible-promises resource book
• stationery, envelopes, and stamps for the purpose of writing short encouraging notes to some for whom we pray (we have a file of national leaders and others who have written us thank-you notes in response to this)
• a sign-in log (to hold intercessors accountable to their committed time slots and to encourage intercessors that others are praying)
• a file box of up-to-date prayer requests placed in the offering plate, those phoned into the church office
• door hangers which read, “In Prayer” or “Vacant.”

One of the most exciting aspects of our prayer room is a spiral notebook entitled, “The Deeds of God: A Record of Answered Prayers of Our Church.” During their time of thanksgiving, intercessors record answers to prayers that they are aware of—especially those that have been prayed for in the prayer room. It has become a habit of mine to share these recorded testimonies from the pulpit about every three months so everyone can be encouraged.

STEP FOUR: CONDUCT AN ENLISTMENT CAMPAIGN

In conjunction with the pastor, an enlistment campaign can be conducted to recruit intercessors for the prayer room.

In our case, I preached a three week sermon series on prayer. Each week we provided a bulletin insert for people to express their interest in attending an informational/training meeting. It was made clear that attendance at the informational meeting was not equivalent to a commitment to pray in the prayer room.

The training meeting was a simulation of an hour long experience in the prayer room. We conducted it in the prayer room itself, and used the prayer notebooks to show how an individual could pray through times of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. People were amazed at how fast an hour passed! It was not enough time to pray through all the material.

We ended the meeting by coordinating specific time slots for each person interested. We asked for a commitment of one hour in the prayer room each week for a three month period. At the end of the three months, the intercessor could take a break or commit to another three months. Specific time slots were required to maintain accountability, consistency, and privacy.

Although the pastor does not need to lead the organizational process of the prayer room ministry, the success of this ministry will depend largely on the pastor’s enthusiasm for and modeling of the prayer room covenant. In a non-threatening way, those pastors who have not been the organizational leaders should also be asked to consider participating.

The prayer room coordinator’s job does not stop with the organization and kickoff of the prayer room. Accountability and encouragement can be provided through phone calls and letter writing.

When our prayer room ministry first began, I wrote a letter to each intercessor the same week I noticed their attendance in the sign-in log book. I wrote letters of thanks to all new intercessors.

Roughly once each year we plan a new recruitment campaign. We also include the prayer room as a volunteer option on the time commitment portion of our stewardship campaign cards.

STEP FIVE: BRANCH OUT INTO NEW PRAYER MINISTRIES

The prayer room is not for everyone. We are discovering that the more prayer ministry options we offer, the more people we get involved in prayer. Some of the additional options that our church and others have offered include:

• Telephone Prayerline in connection with the prayer room
• Watchman Intercessors: committing to pray during specific time slots at home
• Shield-A-Badge: adopting a local police officer to pray for daily
• Cradle-A-Child: adopting the baby of a teenage student mother to pray for daily
• Worship Anchors: undergirding the worship service in prayer
• Pastor’s Prayer Partners: personal intercessors for the pastor
• Telephone Prayer Chain.

Terry Teykl’s book/workbook entitled Making Room To Pray (Bristol House) is highly recommended. Jesus said, “My Father’s house shall be a house of prayer.” Let’s take tangible steps to make that true in our churches!

Jim Leggett is pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Hearne, Texas.