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Pastors think people come to church to hear sermons. They don’t; they come to…
Pray and to learn to pray.
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Just Next Door .................................
She doesn't live here anymoreIn that small white bungalowNot fifty yards north, just next door.The lights have been lit for two nights now,The car is still alone in the drive.No one's at home and we're left wonderingIf there's something that could have been done.
Some word of friendship, some neighbourly wavePerhaps, some fudge brownies or an invite to dinner.Who knows? She never really spoke to usSo we - we never really spoke to her.And no one really ever saw her.And no one in our house saw the cop cars comeAnd no one in our house saw them cut her down
And no one in our house saw the ambulanceDriving slowly, all too slowly, on its way back to town.And now.She doesn't live here anymoreIn that small white bungalowNot fifty yards north, just next door.
To be a prayer centred and prayer led church
To have a prayer centred and prayer led life.
Language 1
Intimacy and relationship
Names and petnames
The basic language for love
Language 2
Information
Recognising the world
The basic language of school
Language 3
Persuasion and motivation
It makes things happen
The basic language of politics and advertising
“We are well schooled in language that describes the world in which we live. We are well trained in language that moves people to buy and join and vote. Meanwhile, Language 1, the language of intimacy, the language that develops relationships of trust and hope and understanding, languishes. Once we are clear of the cradle, we find less and less occasion to use it.”
“There are short-lived recoveries of Language 1 in adolescence when we fall in love and spend endless hours on the telephone using words that eavesdroppers would characterise as gibberish. In romantic love, we find that it is the only language adequate to the reality of our passions. When we are new parents, we relearn the basic language and use it for a while. A few people never quit using it – a few lovers, some poets, the saints – but most let it slide.”
Prayer is Language 1. It is not language about
God or the faith; it is not language in the service
of God and the faith; it is language to and with God
in faith.”
Help
Here I am
I love you
Touch me
I need you
Abba! Father!
Prayer is keeping company with God.
Clement of Alexandria
Prayer is best when it is a waste of time
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Prayer starts with desire
Desire can be uncomfortable
Speak your own language
– pour out your soul
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and 6 my God.
Prayer is a discipline
Mark 132 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33The whole town gathered at the door, 34and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Prayer is the root of our strength
But it needs to be deliberate
Different strategies
PCC – general life of the church
Homegroups
Teaching
Personal response
You don’t have to be clever.
You don’t have to be ordained
A monk
Or a nun
You don’t have to an
extravert “charismatic
”
You don’t have to be intravert and “contemplative”
You don’t have to be able to play guitar
Language 1
Abba! Father!
Open my eyes that I may see
The Presence that is all about me.
Open my ears that I may hear
The voice that is quiet yet ever near.
Open my heart that I may feel
The love of God close and real.
Open each sense, make me aware of the
Power and peace always there.
