Series
Discipleship
- The Life of Being an Apprentice
Prayerfully Engaged
This is a
useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one
conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching in this series is
discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper
and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
Last
week we talked about our third mark of a disciple - Being Prayerfully Engaged. In our vision we state that we want to
be a church that is responding to the heart of God. What does that look like?
Our marks define what that looks like. Thus far in the series we have talked
about being relationally healthy and being biblically measured. Last week and
this week we looked at being prayerfully engaged. We believe that prayer is
both personal and corporate. Without one or the other we are not a healthy or
biblically functioning church.
What is your prayer life
like?
Both wings?
One wing?
No wings?
Here
are some questions to discuss as we get started.
§ What is your experience
with corporate prayer?
§ Did you grow up in a
church where corporate prayer was prioritized?
This
Sunday I started out by talking about climbing mountains. We all have
“mountains” to climb.
§ What are some of those
“mountains” that you are currently climbing?
§ Does corporate prayer
play a role in helping you climb? If so how?
Let’s
check out five pictures of the early church and how they climbed together. As a
group make your observations. Some good questions would be…..
§ What was the need that
caused them to pray together?
§ What characterized their
corporate prayer?
§ Who was gathered?
§ What were the results?
Let’s
be honest, sometimes we pray and still someone loses their head. You will see
this when you come to picture #5.
§ Does this corporate
prayer focus describe your experience of doing life together in community? If
not what is holding you back? What are the obstacles?
Picture
#1
Acts
1:1-14
Picture
#2
Acts
1:15-26
Picture
#3
Acts
2:42-3:1
Picture
#4
Acts
4:23-31
Picture
#5
Acts
12:1-19
Now
go to Acts 6:1-7
There
are many things to note but for the sake of this study, note the prayer
priority in v4.
§ What does context tell us
about the kind of prayer that is being talked about?
Note:
One writer has said that nothing in this passage refers to anything personal,
only ministries. Note the ministry to widows, ministry of the word. Also note
prayer. Is this referring to the personal prayer lives of the disciples?
Perhaps it includes their personal prayer lives but based on the context,
corporate prayer is likely the key focus.
Note
that every occurrence of prayer in Acts preceding chapter 6 refers to corporate
prayer. Acts 1:14, 24; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23–31. Every verse pictured the apostles leading others in prayer; not once is
their personal prayer life recorded. In every instance we see the apostles
involved in leading the people of God to pray together. These stories confirm
that Acts 6:4 speaks of a corporate ministry of prayer.
Source-
Franklin, John (2005-11-01). And the Place Was Shaken: How to Lead a Powerful
Prayer Meeting (p. 9). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
To
build this case for corporate prayer you can flip through the pages following
Acts 6 and see that while there are several examples of personal prayer (which
is the other wing on the plane and thus crucially important) the corporate
prayer priority stands out LOUD AND CLEAR!
Can
you take some time to pray for the corporate prayer priority of Bethel? Ways to
pray:
§ Pray that people would
not climb “mountains” alone.
§ Pray that corporate
prayer would be a safe place for people to climb with others.
§ Pray for a growing vision
on how God is leading Bethel to prioritize corporate prayer
§ Pray that God would wake
up not only Bethel but the big C church to the priority of corporate prayer.
§ Pray that God would be
most glorified in the corporate prayers of the body.
We
pray together to climb together!
Mark
Kotchapaw
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