Report of the Meeting of the CLPD Group ‘Helping Preachers’
20th February 2009
Six members of the Group met.
The meeting continued the discussion on prayer, beginning with a resumé of the points made at the last meeting, especially the relationship between God, the 'Pray-er', the congregation and those inside and outside the Church who are being prayed for.
The work on prayers of approach, adoration and confession was concluded. It was observed that confession might fit better in a later part of the service, when people were more attuned to worship and their relationship with God, rather than in the traditional position near the start.
The meeting then looked at issues arising from prayers of intercession. John Main's observation that 'Praying is taking us into the stream of love between Jesus and his Father' was the starting point and led to a number of issues:
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Is the Preacher in conversation with God ?
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Is s/he helping me, as a member of the congregation, to have a conversation with God ?
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How much should intercessions pray for specific outcomes ? - Hardly at all, we concluded.
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Should we consider the limits of God's power ? Is it limited or not, and, if so, to what extent ?
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What is the relationship between public prayers of intercession and personal prayer? Do they complement each other? Can they, if gaps are left at appropriate points for private prayer? - We tended to agree that they did.
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How far should we name specific individuals in intercessions? - We concluded that this was useful if they were named at the start before the formal prayers began. We agreed that intercessions should not include elements of 'news' distribution.
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Continuous v broken up intercessions was looked at. We agreed that both are acceptable, as long as any instructions or details of responses are given before the prayers formally start. Responses need a 'trigger' mechanism and need to kept short and simple if the congregation is to be fully engaged.
We concluded that prayers of intercession should be addressed to God, and that they should not be telling him things he already knows.
The next meeting will be on Friday 20th March at 14:00 at Jane Craske's Manse, when we shall be considering the interaction between Preachers and Congregations. Matters to be discussed could include practical preaching issues, the nature of different congregations and when is this interaction between preacher and congregation most fruitful. Group members are invited to consider examples from their own experience before the meeting, in order to use them as examples during the discussion.
JFC