Wanting to just 'play.'

The people of X1 gathered last night for our regular Unite prayer meeting and it was a truly precious time for all of us. There is a dynamic when we get together and earnestly and humbly seek God's heart together like this in prayer that is different to every other setting. I encourage so many of you out there who see the prayer meeting as the 'cop out' moment of church life to really seek your hearts and allow God to convict you of any wrong attitude towards this part of a church's true spiritual identity.

Anyway, on to what I wanted to share briefly. Praying with charismatic people who still believe that God is real, alive and longing to personally communicate with His people is so exciting. So often the Spirit of God leads individuals to share what they feel is on God's heart for us as a family and then we are blessed, strengthened and encouraged as we follow that 'theme' in our prayers together.
Last night one of the wonderful themes was that of God expressing His desire for us to just 'play' with Him. To enjoy Him I guess. To be in on His team, not to feel like we'll be the last one chosen, waiting at the very end of the line (like the 'bad old days' at school if you were anything like me) but to be chosen first, and to just truly enjoy freedom, peace, exhilaration, fun, activity and joy with Him.

We felt that so many of us miss out on this vital element of our faith in Christ whether it be through sin, pre-occupation with self, distraction, apathy, just add to the list, but so many of us are not 'playing' with Jesus, our whole journey with Him is laborious and official. I am certain that is not God's heart for us - certainly the gospels portray a very different Jesus to that - and I ask our God and King to set many of us free (at X1 and wherever else) to know this lifestyle as we follow Christ.

Simon

Over 'Pietized' Praying

You can always trust Eugene Peterson (author of The Message version of the bible) to bring through a thought with clarity and insight that leaves you pondering. Currently reading his book 'The Word Made Flesh' focused primarily on the spirituality of 'everyday' language and he broaches with typical brilliance the fact that we as believers can do to prayer what Christ never did Himself - my own word here 'over-pietize' it.
I do not understand why when people begin to pray they have a whole new language that disconnects them with any normal real, gritty way of speaking to the Father. I will never for a moment exhort us to pray causally without respect, but I deeply respect my father and yet speak very personally to him. Anyway here is Mr. Peterson, enjoy

"Prayer may well be the single aspect of our language most in danger of losing touch with the sheer grittiness of our humanity. We lost touch with our humanity when we deprive God of his humanity. Children pray in spontaneous honesty. Catastrophe and crisis very often take us to the bedrock of our humanity, where our language is purged of pretense and piety and we pray from the gut. But apart from childhood and crisis, while we are on the road through the secular Samaritan ordinary, [Peterson is reflecting on Christ's words in Luke 11: 1 - 13] our prayers have a way of being abstracted from the homely and distinctive details that are part and parcel of our ordinary and everyday life. Prayer more often than not is practiced in religiously defined and protected settings. More often than not it is formulated in pious cliches picked up hanging around churches or borrowed from prayer books."

Seek Him with all the adoration of a perfect Father, but remember He is your Father, and the Son He sent to us was more 'human than any of us will ever be!

Simon

Guest Preacher

Had a superb morning yesterday at X1. So conscious of the presence and the power of God. That is a prayer of mine again and again, "Lord please encounter us with your power and your presence."
Part of the reason for that was cause we had a guest preacher who came in and shared God's marvelous truth with us. I don't know if I'm saying that we need to have more guest speakers cause I'm no good, maybe... but what I am saying is that his being with us was a symbolism of the unity of the body of Christ. He is of another - very traditional - group of churches but our hearts are knitted much on the essential components of reformed, biblical faith.

His name is Greg and he is the principal of a new leadership college here in Watford, UK called the Watford School of Leadership. He is all over transformational leadership, the person and gospel of Christ, seriously embraces the missional concept and is a gifted evangelist - like I said we had a great morning. The whole thrust of his charge to us was that Discipleship is Apprenticeship: That means OBEY, BE HOLY, & BE LIKE the one you are following - Jesus Christ. His passage was the first 11 verses of Luke 5.

One thing he asked us as a church to do was stand and pray in unity the 'Covenant Prayer' of John Wesley. This we did, and then re-entered a time of worship - it was wonderful.
Here's that prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low by thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Willing to pray it?

SImon

Burn Out

You know about it - if you don't you should - but it is that distinct 'weariness' that comes over you that cannot be rectified by any amount of sleep. It is that Spiritual Apathy that you can try dissect and conquer but which you have to take stock of and halt its destructive path immediately.
What am I talking about? BURN OUT! And it is something I have read about, heard about, and received strong instruction to be aware of and to halt with any Spiritual Aggression necessary.
I fear it is something that has recently started to knock on my door.

It has been a stunningly divine, yet seriously demanding year of ministry over here in Watford. There have been so many joys that it is difficult to recollect them all with clarity, but alongside of those, sometimes even within those, joys have been some heart wrenching difficulties. The magnitude of the emotional demands of a church replant - implanting and inspiring not only vision but NEW (different - 'O no not change!') vision has been remarkable to me. As has been confirmed by men far more appropriate to the task, and for greater than me - this is no calling for sissys! As a result of that I have noted a certain apathy in my desire for God, a certain inability to maintain fervency of any level in prayer, and a lack of FEAR for the Lord and His holiness.

Last Thursday this become so obvious to me and I realized that the axe had to be laid to the root of this 'slide.' Well at least the motion of bringing the axe up and placing the force within the strike to destroy the root had to be initiated. So that's what I did - I actually just rested and tried to pray only for me, my soul and the restoration of the desire, the hunger, the thirst for God and the resetting of my mind and affections. The process continues, but I hope the most important thing has taken place: the Recognition of this deadly enemy to passionate discipleship.

We must watch ourselves and guard our hearts.

Simon