A few days ago, I asked:
"Say you had some reasonable solomon-like assurance that God would answer affirmatively ONE prayer that you prayed as a pastor/for your church community...
What would you pray?"
We had some interesting answers...
"I pray for growth unto maturity for those in my fellowship."
"I would pray for my church to be an eternal spring of churches that were also eternal springs. Does that even make sense?
Oooh! And I'd pray for a lifetime supply of Bananas Foster. Who needs wisdom when you have dessert like that?!"
"wisdom :) I mean, if a community has wisdom, the rest will follow..."
"Love, not for each other only, but for the world around them. Whether we grow or not, if we are sharing Christ's love for the community, His Kingdom can't help but grow."
and...
"The PRAYER OF JABEZ, baby! Yeah!"
Yeah...
Expand my boundaries Lord!
But seriously... on the matter of the Prayer of Jabez for The Chuch Planting Heart™
I was praying with another church planter this morning and had a little gut check. I was praying for growth for his community (and throwing in a prayer for growth for ours) when my mind was zoomed back to the parable we looked at this last Sunday in Luke 19... you know- the one where Jesus says: "but to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away."
Whoa... faithful with what you have before you are given more?
That should probably be in the Church Planter's Handbook© somehwere...
But back to the question at hand. Say I had just one
prayer for my community that I KNEW would be answered "yes"...
What would it be?
I thought about the above and feel like they all capture a part of it... but as I walked and thought about this, an old memory verse from elementary school kept popping into my head (rendered here in appropriate King James Version English that we memorized everything in)...
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus"
Ahh... I think that's what I'll pray. That we as a community, we as individuals will have the mind of Christ.
And what does that mean? Well... in the context (Phil 2), it means unity, loving each other, working together with one heart and purpose... it means selflessness and servanthood. It means "In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them."
Yeah... the mind of Christ. For God, for each other and for the world. To not only be Jesus to them but to see them/think of them/PRAY for them as Jesus did.
That's my answer, I think.
Your answer is better than mine :)
Posted by: Nuno Barreto | March 21, 2006 at 02:43 AM