Rich Andrews came to large group last Friday. For those of you who weren't there, he's a pastor at BlueRoute Vineyard Church and was speaking about intercession.
Actually, he wasn't just speaking about it, he was living it. Intercession is going between or on behalf of someone else- in this case, praying to God on behalf of others. It's a basic idea that many of us understand without ever using the word. But to Pastor Rich this was more than an idea he was suggesting. Earlier in the week he had practiced it by coming on campus and praying for us and Swarthmore, listening for what God wanted to tell us. Intercession, he explained, is really just selflessly loving people- getting up early in the morning to pray for a friend, for example; giving God a "platform to speak from."
So selfless love drives us to intercede. When we understand that praying for people is fundamentally connected to seeing God work in their lives, we can be like Moses, holding up his hands for hours so that the Israelites won the battle (Exodus 17:11). We are learning to be like Jesus who died for us and gained a position of intercession for us before God. When we intercede we listen for God's voice so that we pray His will for people, and this prayer is one that is *always* answered.
Rich pointed out some important things we must do as we begin to intercede: confess our sins individually, confess our sins in groups, and begin our periods of intercession with adoration, praise, and worship. It makes sense that we can only pray for other people if we are right with God ourselves.
And when we are interceding, the more people praying together, the better! As adding two waves multiplies the effect, so bringing people together multiplies the power of intercession. No, we don't have to change the name of large group to "love shack" (the name of Rich's college LG......). But we must influence each other to love through prayer, whether that means encouraging each other to set aside times of daily prayer, or even writing prayers that we prayed today and posting them on this blog.
God wants us to learn to hear his voice. If we are going to be successful in all our goals for outreach, our cookies and jam :), we have to learn to hear from Him and pray His will for others.
Some questions to think about:
When are you most able to listen to God's voice?
What are the barriers limiting your intercession?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
"Religious"
I was asked yesterday if I was “very religious,” and for a moment I was tempted to say no. It would have been cooler and trendier to reply, “I don’t prescribe to religions, but I do consider myself a serious follower of Jesus Christ,” or “I’m not religious, just madly in love with God.” Maybe if this were ten or fifteen years ago, I’d say, “No, dude, I’m just a Jesus Freak!”
But… am I a Jesus Freak? Am I considered an outcast of society because my actions are in line with what Jesus taught but against the grain of everyone around me? Am I really madly in love with an invisible deity? No, no, and… no. Serious followers of Jesus Christ don’t merely ascribe to an arbitrary set of moral rules and get together a few times a week to celebrate their sameness. Serious followers give up their lives, their plans, their dreams, the things they love, and set their eyes only on God’s promises. They drop their nets and go.
My Christian faith has once again faded and blended into the weird mosaic that is my personal identity, instead of shining bright and over-lighten-ing the other patches and patterns. Christ is my only identity, not just my Sunday-morning and Friday-evening mask.
So, at the moment, yes, I am very religious. Deeply religious. I’ve grown up with religion my entire life, and it is ingrained into my being. But I still fall in and out of love- true love- with Jesus Christ, and still haven’t let go of myself in order to grasp onto Him and let Him lead me.
Here’s to hoping that will change soon. Here’s to the belief that I can overcome my disbelief. One day, I’ll say that I love Him, and it won’t be because I’m supposed to, but because I do.
But… am I a Jesus Freak? Am I considered an outcast of society because my actions are in line with what Jesus taught but against the grain of everyone around me? Am I really madly in love with an invisible deity? No, no, and… no. Serious followers of Jesus Christ don’t merely ascribe to an arbitrary set of moral rules and get together a few times a week to celebrate their sameness. Serious followers give up their lives, their plans, their dreams, the things they love, and set their eyes only on God’s promises. They drop their nets and go.
My Christian faith has once again faded and blended into the weird mosaic that is my personal identity, instead of shining bright and over-lighten-ing the other patches and patterns. Christ is my only identity, not just my Sunday-morning and Friday-evening mask.
So, at the moment, yes, I am very religious. Deeply religious. I’ve grown up with religion my entire life, and it is ingrained into my being. But I still fall in and out of love- true love- with Jesus Christ, and still haven’t let go of myself in order to grasp onto Him and let Him lead me.
Here’s to hoping that will change soon. Here’s to the belief that I can overcome my disbelief. One day, I’ll say that I love Him, and it won’t be because I’m supposed to, but because I do.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Introverts in the church. (Pay attention, extroverts especially)
Introverted Church blog
From the WP article:
"Too often "ideal" Christians are social and gregarious, with an overt passion and enthusiasm. They find it easy to share the gospel with strangers, eagerly invite people into their homes, participate in a wide variety of activities, and quickly assume leadership responsibilities. Those are wonderful qualities, and our churches suffer when we don't have those sorts of people, but if these qualities epitomize the Christian life, many of us introverts are left feeling excluded and spiritually inadequate. Or we wear ourselves out from constantly masquerading as extroverts."
There's a lot to think about here. Can we start this conversation? What are your thoughts? Experiences? Great articles? Books?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Wow, that's shiny... but will it work?
So to be honest, I wasn't really sure how this whole Proxé thing was going to turn out.
Of course, I was excited; the concept was really cool, the board was definitely the slickest survey that I'd ever seen, and it provoked some serious thinking about some pretty important topics. But at the end of the day, I couldn't help but ask myself, "How will Swatties respond to this?" "Will people actually want to do it?" "Are people going to really engage or are they just going to be polite, or worse, will they just blow us off?"
So was my thought process on the morning of September 15th, sometime in the last 2 or 3 minutes of Organic Chemistry.
And it didn't help either that I was part of the first team to man the station along with Maisie; we had little idea of what the actual process of taking the survey was going to look like, no section in the SCF Book of Wisdom to fall back on, and no people preceding us to tell us what was working, what questions seemed to be most thought provoking, and what might be good to include in conversation if a person brought up such and such issue. I know, we had been trained (thanks Kathleen!). But, for me, it was like taking a person who had trained in a pool all his life, throwing him into the ocean and saying "Ok, now swim to the other side".
So there I was, stickers and post-its in hand, eyes shifting up and down the walk in front of Parrish. I spotted someone I knew, then my mouth started moving before I could think.
"Hey Eliza! You have a minute to take a quick survey?"
Well Houston, it seems we have liftoff. I know, sorry about the whole countdown thing, but you can't really call the shuttle back at this point...
So the next five minutes go something like this: Eliza takes stickers and post-its, Eliza puts post-its and stickers on the board, Eliza cocks her head to one side, Eliza puts another sticker on the board. Then Eliza turns around and hands the stickers back to... Maisie? Um, hey, you kinda took my person, but that's ok, cuz there's another person here that I've somehow invited to the station.
Yeah, things went quick, but they also went surprisingly well. From what I could hear from Maisie and Eliza's follow-up discussion, the varied answers on the Forgiveness spectrum had given Eliza some pause. Another survey taker was intrigued over the conditions presented as necessary for helping another person: "They all seemed kinda selfish, I would like to think that sometimes I help people when there's nothing in it for me." Another commented on how strange it was that while a lot of people said they had been shown grace and didn't deserve it, the concept of grace being worth anything was all over the spectrum. Still another wondered at the honesty of people who might have put stickers in places based on the trend and expressed admiration for those who were outliers and therefore were probably really honest about how much they deserved or how much they forgave.
Mind you, this was between 10:30 am and noon; it wasn't even half of the day. But if my hour and half experience was anything like what happened up until 5 (which I heard it did), then I can do nothing but wonder at what I was so worried about.
God had a plan for today, and I knew it. But if any of you know me, you know that I'm definitely the kind of guy who would look to God and say, "Are you sure about this Lord? Couldn't you just let me in on just a tiny portion of today's checklist? I mean really, I know you know what you're doing and all, but it'd be nice just to have a little assurance."
But of course God just chuckled as I was doing a follow-up with a survey taker who said, "Friday at 7? That's sounds pretty cool, I'll try to make it out to that...Hey Melinda! You should come and take this survey! No really, do it!"
Be excited folks, God is moving in a mighty way at Swarthmore, and you definitely want to be in on it.
-Nate
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Large Group recap 9.10.10 - Prayer
Today at Large Group, Pastor Young Kim from Grace Covenant Church came to give a message about prayer. He introduced to us one example of a prayer model that we could follow, based on Nehemiah's prayer in the first chapter of the book of the same name. Why take from the Bible? Because prayer and reading the Word of God are kind of like the two wings of a plane (or two oars in a rowboat); without one or the other, you can't fly straight. Here is a short summary of his points:
1. The first part is Adoration, or worship of God. Oftentimes we go to God with a shopping list of things we want him to give us, but that isn't the right mindset. Talking with God is like talking to a friend, but also like entering the throne room of a king- the King of Everything, that is. Thinking about God causes us to worship, and in some cases that's all God really wants from us.
2. The second part is Confession, or repentance of sins. Some church cultures put too much emphasis on this part and really make prayer seem like a downer. Repentance isn't wrong, but kind of like praying with a shopping list, it gets in the way of actual communication with God. If you put your thumb right up to your eye, it takes up your entire field of vision and consequently looks like the biggest thing in the world- even bigger than the moon or the sun or Pastor Young's head. In the same way, don't let your problems eclipse God in weight or importance. God is bigger than your problems, be they addictions, temptations, or circumstances beyond your control.
3. The third part is where some who follow the ACTS model of prayer might insert Thanksgiving. But Nehemiah instead prays a Remembrance of God's promises in the past. He quotes Deuteronomy in verses 8-9 because he knows that God has a plan and that he will stick to it. We have the Bible at our disposal to use as an entire arsenal of prophecies and promises that we can invoke when we pray. So, ask God for a "life verse," or a promise or idea from the Bible that will remind you of his promise and his plans for your life. You can also choose Bible verses to stick in your pocket for a day or a week; this is a good biblical discipline.
4. The last part is Supplication, or petitioning God for things that you desire to see. The reason "asking for stuff" goes last is that often you will find that once you have worshiped, repented, and remembered promises, you forget what you wanted to pray for in the first place. Which is fine because God already knows. It's important to remember that God will always answer your prayer. The answer might be, "Yes." Great! But the answer might also be, "No." And then we get bummed out. Even worse, the answer might be, "Wait." God's timing is not in the least like ours. Waiting will build character and strengthen our faith. While it sucks to wait now, hindsight is 20/20 and we'll eventually get the bigger picture as long as we are patient.
Pastor Young also gave two small words of advice on prayer: The first to just Do It. The only way to become more faithful in prayer is to actually pray; just talking about it and feeling guilty about not doing it are useless. The second is to pick a place and a time for prayer. Put it in your schedule: every morning in your room at 9am for 30 minutes, for example, or every Saturday afternoon on a bench in the Rose Garden. Once you get used to the habit of praying, or associate a certain place (thesis carrel in McCabe?) and time (midnight?) with prayer, it will become easier to pray. It will become easier to talk with God. Isn't that great?
What did you get from Pastor Young's message that you can apply to your life? What points did I miss? What is something neat you've learned or experienced about prayer? Share your thoughts!
1. The first part is Adoration, or worship of God. Oftentimes we go to God with a shopping list of things we want him to give us, but that isn't the right mindset. Talking with God is like talking to a friend, but also like entering the throne room of a king- the King of Everything, that is. Thinking about God causes us to worship, and in some cases that's all God really wants from us.
2. The second part is Confession, or repentance of sins. Some church cultures put too much emphasis on this part and really make prayer seem like a downer. Repentance isn't wrong, but kind of like praying with a shopping list, it gets in the way of actual communication with God. If you put your thumb right up to your eye, it takes up your entire field of vision and consequently looks like the biggest thing in the world- even bigger than the moon or the sun or Pastor Young's head. In the same way, don't let your problems eclipse God in weight or importance. God is bigger than your problems, be they addictions, temptations, or circumstances beyond your control.
3. The third part is where some who follow the ACTS model of prayer might insert Thanksgiving. But Nehemiah instead prays a Remembrance of God's promises in the past. He quotes Deuteronomy in verses 8-9 because he knows that God has a plan and that he will stick to it. We have the Bible at our disposal to use as an entire arsenal of prophecies and promises that we can invoke when we pray. So, ask God for a "life verse," or a promise or idea from the Bible that will remind you of his promise and his plans for your life. You can also choose Bible verses to stick in your pocket for a day or a week; this is a good biblical discipline.
4. The last part is Supplication, or petitioning God for things that you desire to see. The reason "asking for stuff" goes last is that often you will find that once you have worshiped, repented, and remembered promises, you forget what you wanted to pray for in the first place. Which is fine because God already knows. It's important to remember that God will always answer your prayer. The answer might be, "Yes." Great! But the answer might also be, "No." And then we get bummed out. Even worse, the answer might be, "Wait." God's timing is not in the least like ours. Waiting will build character and strengthen our faith. While it sucks to wait now, hindsight is 20/20 and we'll eventually get the bigger picture as long as we are patient.
Pastor Young also gave two small words of advice on prayer: The first to just Do It. The only way to become more faithful in prayer is to actually pray; just talking about it and feeling guilty about not doing it are useless. The second is to pick a place and a time for prayer. Put it in your schedule: every morning in your room at 9am for 30 minutes, for example, or every Saturday afternoon on a bench in the Rose Garden. Once you get used to the habit of praying, or associate a certain place (thesis carrel in McCabe?) and time (midnight?) with prayer, it will become easier to pray. It will become easier to talk with God. Isn't that great?
What did you get from Pastor Young's message that you can apply to your life? What points did I miss? What is something neat you've learned or experienced about prayer? Share your thoughts!
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