I go down to the "Baptist Home" once a month to do their chapel worship.  It's something that encourages me greatly, because the folks I meet there tend to be determined to serve Jesus and proclaim the Gospel to their very last breath.  Their faithfulness is a joy to me, and I attribute the suceess Biblical Evangelism had to the prayers some folks from that home offered on behalf of those who participated and those who we encountered during the journey.

It is because of their faithfulness that I know I can give them some "chewable" thoughts when I go down there and lead worship.  Thoughts like the ones I shared on Tuesday. 

When I lead worship, we often "share prayer requests."  Now, folks who know me know how much I dread the "Pastoral Prayer" (actually, I dread how much the focus in Baptist worship seems to be on "the pastor," in both positive and negative varieties, but that's another post) - yet, at the Baptist home I get the feeling that folks are praying with me, and that's what lead me to my "chewable thought" for the week.

I will often ask folks to pray for Central Baptist, and their own "home" churches, when I go down.  Prayer is an important ministry of this group and they take the request seriously.  I asked them to pray for Central and their own churches again this past Tuesday, but in a flash some words jumped out of my mouth that I didn't expect.

I told them that they weren't allowed to pray that their churches survive.

Why?  Because it is a prayer of despondance, that asks for a pittance from the Lord we claim to acknowledge as the Lord of Heaven and Earth.  "Survival" has absolutely nothing to do with the Christian faith.  Christianity is about death and resurrection and redemption and living out the shalom of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Christians have one mission to this end.  We are called to make disciples.

So, that's what I told the folks in chapel on Tuesday to pray, that their churches would make disciples - they they'd faithfully keep the mission which Jesus gave the Church.

I pass this on to you all as well.  If we want to experience what it means to be "in Christ," then let us pray big.  In prayer, let's not settle for the small things - but dare to pray that we might be the very image of Christ on Earth, transforming the very ground upon which we wall.  That is a prayer worthy of the breath it takes to utter.

 Amen.