8/7/2019 MMW Praying the Plaza

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Praying the Plaza It may be the newest thing since Sliced Cheese but more than that is one of the bestdocumented ways that were used, nearly two thousand years ago, by Jesus to gather followers.

The shopping plaza can be one of the most impersonal and lonely places in existence.We go there for one reason: shop. Unless we go with a friend, we do not expect to findone, and we dash from car to shop and having made our purchase, or not, back to thecar then on to the next stop.

What we do not feel, we cannot heal.  He who we do not know, we cannot love.  It issafer to hide than to abide.  These are very modern attitudes whose main function is thepreservation of our self.

Market Place Evangelism may well be the logical evolution of friendship evangelism butit has its roots in the way that Jesus dealt with the people He came across daily.  Hetook the time to speak with them to help in any way that was appropriate to theparticular person.  People followed Jesus, not that He was the Son of God, but becausethey felt valued by Him, they knew that He loved them personally.

I sometimes wonder if this is a big part of the reason that people are turning from thechurch universal.  If we, the Followers of Jesus, do not demonstrate the same regardand love our Master showed to those around Him then is it any wonder they turn away.We owe to those we encounter us, who have yet met Him, to present the attitude thatwe have received from the Master.  I do not recall judgment from Jesus in my life justlove, and enablement.  This is the reason why He managed to turn the world on itshead.  He and those disciples who kept the revolution alive after Jesus returned to theFather.

The challenge for us may be to find that marketplace where we can be Jesus to the

people who interact at that place.  The Plaza is not simply the shopping centre, it canalso include the workplace, the gym, the club, in fact anywhere that isn¶t church.  If people outside the church are uncomfortable the members of the church will havedifficulties reaching to them.  Often this is one of the reasons that the ³Unchurched´ donot darken the doors of the Church, if we are to reach out to people we need to go towhere they are comfortable, learn to build relationship with then and earn theopportunity to introduce them to our Master.

To return to the premise of this blog ³Praying the Plaza´, it is important that weremember that this is not a human endeavour. We are engaged on a Mission from theMaster against the deceiver of the world.  To be successful in this respect we need touse Spiritual Weapons and particularly targeted weapons.  This is where Prayer comesin, it has been said that if we aim at anything we are likely to hit nothing, and never isthis more so it the realm of prayer.

Targetted Praying is about praying influence into individual people¶s lives, praying for aperson by names links the two of you and alerts Holy Spirit to soften their hearts.  So if there is someone in your life with whom you share encounters why not start to pray thatperson into the Kingdom?