Wednesday and Friday saw an experimental prayer service at Christ Church. Experimental for us anyway. It has long been a concern, for me, that we don't meet as a church to pray together. The last time we did was when Warner was ill. We met then to pray for him and for the church while he was off work. After he returned the will to pray seemed to dry up. That was 2008, so its been too long.
The evenings were structured as services and included some worship - with Warner leading the singing and playing the guitar. Some of the songs were relatively new to us and some were very familiar. I have to say there wasn't a lot of volume. Our singing seems to get quieter and quieter. There were some video's, Bible Readings, and a little bit of talking, from some of us but mostly from Warner. The Wednesday service ended with the option of being signed with the cross, with water from the font. "It isn't Baptism" Warner said, but it was a good opportunity to make a statement of your intent to God. A few took up his offer. The Friday service ended with communion. While Wednesday was mainly about the Church, Friday was more about Christians in the world. One feature was the 2010 World Watch List from Open Doors USA. It contains countries that I had never thought of as oppressive, and some of the usual suspects were missing, I expect they've dropped out of the top ten (good!).
We broke into small groups to pray, and were encouraged to pray out loud. Some did, and sometimes it was very quiet. We are out of practice - I am out of practice. One person admitted in their prayer that it was really hard to pray into 'such darkness'. That is true. There are times (such as this one) when I just don't have any words, the ones that come are angry and sharp, they are certainly not for public consumption.
Should the event be repeated as a single session - 8pm to midnight? A single service, rather than two would make more sense in a lot of ways. Easier flow, better focus, more chance to concentrate on some specific issues. Midnight though is late for me to be out on any day other than Friday. Saturday is the only day I don't get up to an alarm. I don't have family responsibilities like school runs and bed times any more either. There are other practical considerations for Fridays as well.
My only dis-like for the two events was the moving backgrounds to the song words. I find them distracting, my concentration flicks over to think about the pattern cycle, when I should be concentrating on the meaning in the words. Also, I occasionally loose the words in the background.
So, I'm looking forward to the next one ...
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Physiotherapy session 10 / More on the Bus
Physiotherapy session 10
At last a new exercise. Like climbing the wall, but once you are up there, take a step back, and lean in toward the wall bowing your head. It pushes the arm further up - further than its been in six months. One or two of those are very painful, and as a result of that I think, I have lost the stability in my right hand again. I 'get the shakes' when trying to feed myself! Keyboard work is OK though.
After the Encounter with God, I am a lot less inclined to accept that there will always be limitations. It should help me to get more motivated to do the exercises. I was shown in the class that some fairly basic resistance exercises can loosen the muscles and give me further reach.
I think it was Luther that said "Pray as though everything depends on God, work as though everything depends on you" - not about healing I'm certain, but the principle stands. This should help me to be more motivated to pray, and ask for prayer.
More on the Bus
After Physiotherapy class, I catch the bus to Chelmsford. It is the first OAP bus, and is packed. Today it was also full of chatter - lots of noise. I want one of those people who measure the noise footprint of heathrow to try a trip on the bus!
We stopped just outside Billericay, the driver walked up the back of the bus and returned to his cab. He then walked up the back of the bus again. A few moments later a young man stormed off the bus, and judging by his waving good bye gesture (his thumb touched his finger tips as he waved his hand up and down) was none too pleased to be leaving. First time I've seen that, but because of the chatter the exchange with the driver was lost.
At last a new exercise. Like climbing the wall, but once you are up there, take a step back, and lean in toward the wall bowing your head. It pushes the arm further up - further than its been in six months. One or two of those are very painful, and as a result of that I think, I have lost the stability in my right hand again. I 'get the shakes' when trying to feed myself! Keyboard work is OK though.
After the Encounter with God, I am a lot less inclined to accept that there will always be limitations. It should help me to get more motivated to do the exercises. I was shown in the class that some fairly basic resistance exercises can loosen the muscles and give me further reach.
I think it was Luther that said "Pray as though everything depends on God, work as though everything depends on you" - not about healing I'm certain, but the principle stands. This should help me to be more motivated to pray, and ask for prayer.
More on the Bus
After Physiotherapy class, I catch the bus to Chelmsford. It is the first OAP bus, and is packed. Today it was also full of chatter - lots of noise. I want one of those people who measure the noise footprint of heathrow to try a trip on the bus!
We stopped just outside Billericay, the driver walked up the back of the bus and returned to his cab. He then walked up the back of the bus again. A few moments later a young man stormed off the bus, and judging by his waving good bye gesture (his thumb touched his finger tips as he waved his hand up and down) was none too pleased to be leaving. First time I've seen that, but because of the chatter the exchange with the driver was lost.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Prayer for Healing
Last night 8 of the men from Christ Church went to the vicarage to pray for healing for our vicar. He has been off work for some time now, and although we meet to pray, he had asked for the laying on of hands and anointing. We took our lead from James 14:14-15. I really wanted to be able to do a "Peter and John" (see Acts 3), but I didn't have the faith.
Afterwards we all said that it was a new experience for us. A new experience for 8 men who represent the lay leadership of our church. They are readers, wardens, preachers, they lead home groups, they run Alpha courses, they drive the agenda of the church in many ways. I should say we are .....
For all of us it was a new experience. Hmm, I wonder if there is something for us to learn from this situation?
I thought back to John's blog, and his experience with anointing "Two Conversations, A Camera, & A Galleon Of Canola Oil." and "Four Odd, But Cool, Incidents". Encouraging.
I told Jo how little faith I had, and she said it only needs to be the size of a mustard seed.
How about half a mustard seed, or perhaps a quarter?
Of course the passage in James says much more about the process than just the two verses we took notice of. It starts with patience. Patience is turning to frustration and confusion, that's not what James says. It talks about confessing sins to each other - not something that we do in our tradition. So much for being Biblical.
Still we wait and we pray, and maybe we will learn through our desperation, maybe we might even grow as Christians.
Afterwards we all said that it was a new experience for us. A new experience for 8 men who represent the lay leadership of our church. They are readers, wardens, preachers, they lead home groups, they run Alpha courses, they drive the agenda of the church in many ways. I should say we are .....
For all of us it was a new experience. Hmm, I wonder if there is something for us to learn from this situation?
I thought back to John's blog, and his experience with anointing "Two Conversations, A Camera, & A Galleon Of Canola Oil." and "Four Odd, But Cool, Incidents". Encouraging.
I told Jo how little faith I had, and she said it only needs to be the size of a mustard seed.
How about half a mustard seed, or perhaps a quarter?
Of course the passage in James says much more about the process than just the two verses we took notice of. It starts with patience. Patience is turning to frustration and confusion, that's not what James says. It talks about confessing sins to each other - not something that we do in our tradition. So much for being Biblical.
Still we wait and we pray, and maybe we will learn through our desperation, maybe we might even grow as Christians.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
What should I call this post?
Blogger Arrrrrrrrgh! was my first thought. Perhaps I should stick with "Sunday, April 15th @ 10:00am at Christ Church". The story is of technology and buses.
We arrived at church early, because I was helping with the technology, and Jo was doing Tea/Coffee and Singing. The Tea/Coffee went well, so did the Singing, but the technology was awful. The DVD player I was given doesn't do timed indexing, and it creeps on pause. That's probably a way of stopping me frying the track. Our projector is next to useless, and the clip was of a man in a cave - all very dark. However the talk was interesting, if only that it highlighted what tradition does to our beliefs. A very good point. Thomas, far from lacking faith, was merely refusing to trust his friends when they told him something that sounded entirely unreasonable. Look at his reaction when he met the risen Jesus.
Anyway back to the story. As the prayers were led a sunflower seed was given out. It caught the imagination, and hopefully should be a good was of reminding us to pray. A few jokes about Sunflower cam, and the blogging idea came out. Take a look at http://sunflowerprayers.blogspot.com. In a conversation over coffee I said, "Oh yes, I'll just add to the Tanzania Blog". Simple! Login, ceate a blog - 2 minutes - doddle! Couldn't be easier.
RUBBISH
Hadn't reckoned with Blogger. (yoda voice required for the next bit) Moved it to the new blog they have. Very unhelpful it is. ( OK, back to normal) So I have to sign up with a new gmail address, which seems to be the only way to make it work. All that's done - but what a waste of time. Haven't they heard of "migration script".
Any way if you've got this far - Well done! Here I hope is the good bit. I have been trying to get Christ Church people into blogging. We should add the blog addresses to the A-Z. I'd like to run multiple Christ church Blogs, one for each of the organizations we have. Let people create their own content. Thats what the web should be about. Lets hope that has started.
Buses
So there I was, finally getting on with my meeting minutes. I've had a busy week, of four official working days the shortest was 11.9 hours. So, I've not been doing all I should. The phone rings. I answer it "Hello."
"Dad, What are you doing?"
"Talking to you on the phone, Mike"
"Yes cut the sarcasm. Are you busy?"
"Of course. What do you want?"
"If I give you some money will you pick us up from Lakeside. The bus hasn't come"
"When's the next one?"
"Tomorrow"
So I do the return trip to Lakeside (about 15 miles each way). The last bus should never be cancelled - cancel the one before if you have to, but never the last one.
I haven't had any money yet.
We arrived at church early, because I was helping with the technology, and Jo was doing Tea/Coffee and Singing. The Tea/Coffee went well, so did the Singing, but the technology was awful. The DVD player I was given doesn't do timed indexing, and it creeps on pause. That's probably a way of stopping me frying the track. Our projector is next to useless, and the clip was of a man in a cave - all very dark. However the talk was interesting, if only that it highlighted what tradition does to our beliefs. A very good point. Thomas, far from lacking faith, was merely refusing to trust his friends when they told him something that sounded entirely unreasonable. Look at his reaction when he met the risen Jesus.
Anyway back to the story. As the prayers were led a sunflower seed was given out. It caught the imagination, and hopefully should be a good was of reminding us to pray. A few jokes about Sunflower cam, and the blogging idea came out. Take a look at http://sunflowerprayers.blogspot.com. In a conversation over coffee I said, "Oh yes, I'll just add to the Tanzania Blog". Simple! Login, ceate a blog - 2 minutes - doddle! Couldn't be easier.
RUBBISH
Hadn't reckoned with Blogger. (yoda voice required for the next bit) Moved it to the new blog they have. Very unhelpful it is. ( OK, back to normal) So I have to sign up with a new gmail address, which seems to be the only way to make it work. All that's done - but what a waste of time. Haven't they heard of "migration script".
Any way if you've got this far - Well done! Here I hope is the good bit. I have been trying to get Christ Church people into blogging. We should add the blog addresses to the A-Z. I'd like to run multiple Christ church Blogs, one for each of the organizations we have. Let people create their own content. Thats what the web should be about. Lets hope that has started.
Buses
So there I was, finally getting on with my meeting minutes. I've had a busy week, of four official working days the shortest was 11.9 hours. So, I've not been doing all I should. The phone rings. I answer it "Hello."
"Dad, What are you doing?"
"Talking to you on the phone, Mike"
"Yes cut the sarcasm. Are you busy?"
"Of course. What do you want?"
"If I give you some money will you pick us up from Lakeside. The bus hasn't come"
"When's the next one?"
"Tomorrow"
So I do the return trip to Lakeside (about 15 miles each way). The last bus should never be cancelled - cancel the one before if you have to, but never the last one.
I haven't had any money yet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)