Right here at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church of Edina, Minnesota, we have been early adopters of the Pray With out Ceasing (PWC) ministry alternative. As an African-American pastor who grew up going to weekly “prayer conferences,” it felt very pure to ask my congregation right into a observe that meant a lot to me rising up. Just lately, I interviewed 4 members of my congregation about their PWC experiences.
Once we started PWC, we chosen a time when prayerful, devoted people have been already within the constructing. As such, we selected to fulfill instantly following our Wednesday morning Bible Research. Once I steered PWC from 11-11:30am, some shared that praying for thirty entire minutes appeared like a really giant hill to climb. People have been nervous, asking, “What is going to we do for thirty minutes? Will there be awkward silence? Is that this even Lutheran?”
Regardless of the authentic issues of some, we bravely confronted the unknown. We labored exhausting to create protected(r) areas for each other. We have been grateful for the weekly PWC liturgies that gave us a spot to start out with prayers, songs, and scriptures. It felt much less formidable to know that another person had already supplied us a basis upon which to base our prayer ministries collectively.
One other problem that we confronted was that many in my congregation grew up in a tradition the place it was not okay to share ache, sorrow, or hardship of any sort. One member, Karen Vevle, said, “Developing you by no means talked about any sort of hassle. We have been anticipated to stuff it” and placed on a cheerful face. Moreover, many people realized as youngins that prayer is just too private and personal to do collectively with others. May we overcome these life classes and study to hope publicly and collectively?
As we gathered within the sanctuary every week, we skilled one thing stunning. Member Virgil Peterson mentioned, “Coming into the sanctuary lets us put aside time for prayer when the tv shouldn’t be blaring.” We’ve realized that PWC provides us area to breathe deeply. We expertise the enjoyment of sheer silence within the presence of God. We raise our voices singing Christian-Lutheran hymns that keep in our hearts all week. We stock our Bibles and “particular prayer lists” into this communal time of prayer, deliberately and intentionally making area to not solely pray for ourselves, but in addition for others. And as one in every of our members, Dick Schulze, declared, We’ve change into “assured that God is listening!”
Collectively, we’ve got encountered the spirit of the residing God! We’re emboldened by the phrases discovered on the prime of the PWC liturgy: “God’s phrase, proclaimed and mirrored upon, and the prayer it calls forth from these gathered, are the center of this service. The Holy Spirit, who is aware of our wants, prays with and thru us, and when we’ve got no phrases, for us.”
Member Sharon Peterson mentioned, “It’s been a particular expertise to hope collectively.” As we mirrored on our PWC experiences, we acknowledged that God was rising us spiritually. One of many issues we rapidly concluded was that our hearts have been being expanded and that the issues that grieve God have been starting to grieve us too.
