the blog
Becoming the Change
by Michael Palmer
November 10, 2009 | Culture, Faith, Theology | 4 responses
I don’t know what it is about prayer, but it scares me to
death. It is not the talking part that
brings the anxiety–I’m good at that–it’s listening that terrifies me. I grew
up in a consumerist church culture that said “come to us and we’ll bring the Spirit.”
We grabbed the Spirit by the hand, like the parent of some bratty six year old
in the grocery store, and expected him to behave and follow us. We dragged him
out of the streets, away from the hurting, and sat him down into the clean,
sterile and lifeless pews to sit and listen to a few half-hearted songs about
what we thought of him.
years of expecting the Spirit to come to us at every beckoned call that now we
don’t know what it means to truly listen or pray. One pastor said that if we
are honestly praying, it becomes a call to action. When we pray, we are taken
on an adventure to become the change we are praying for.
and then live what I hear. Prayer should move me. But it's hard to move away from the comfortable. I need to be open to his seduction away
from the clean and into the filthy–away from the organized and into the chaos.
Through a journey of broken hearts and failed expectations, I am learning that
prayer is when our heart begins to beat in rhythm with God's. Engulfed by that mystical
rhythm, I can do nothing else but move! Pete Greig, founder of the 24/7 prayer
movement, once wrote that when we pray we often times become the very answer to
our own prayers. God’s heart beats for the world to change. In the very same
way, my heart should beat to be that very change that God desires to bring
about. In his book, Red Moon Rising, Greig made the statement “We’ve spent thirty years saying, 'Come, Holy Spirit'…and he came.
Now, if the Spirit says, ‘Come,’ the question is this: will we obey?”
listened? If they became the change they were praying for?
It would look incredible and beyond anything we can imagine. I want to obey and have been praying for the how. How do I obey and go where I should be, even if it is outsie the church and outside my comfort zone.
In our board meeting last night, one member mentioned how powerful worship had been the previous Sunday and how sad she was that we had it contained in the sanctuary so that people driving by outside could not share it with us.
I suppose the question I wrestle with is why does worship have to be only singing and only on Sunday in the church building? When we meet a community need- isn’t that worshiping God? Or when we become a voice for those who have no voice in our community- isn’t that worshiping God? It is definitely a special thing for Christians to come together on Sunday to be with one another and to reflect on what God has/is doing, but maybe we need to focus on taking that worship out of the sanctuary and TO the people in our community.
Sorry, I meant to write this as well..
That is very exciting to hear your desire to live that out! I will be praying for you as you wrestle with these thoughts. God will show you incredible things if you truly desire this lifestyle.
I never saw your follow up comments until today. I have been taking classes at the Bible college and am on my way towards full time ministry in the next couple of years.
One thing I am challenged on in that respect is how to get worship outside of the building. I think of it in the context of my local church (Ferguson) and in the context of where God is leading me. Locally, we have expanded into a counseling ministry, which has 3 or 4 great people working in it, including a former pastor who is now working on getting his credentials back. He does not feel like God wants him in a pulpit, but in a ministry that's out there reaching people.