Spiritual Discipline: Prayer

Good Monday Church and Online Community!

We had an incredible day of worship together at Christ Community yesterday! First of all, we had the joy of our Super Sprouts singing at our worship services! This group of young preschoolers can sing out loud for Jesus and to the church! We had a blessed time of worship together! This past Sunday marked one of our largest attended worship gatherings! One older first time visitor remarked, "this church got rock n' roll! I love it!" Church, I am grateful for how you responded to greeting many of our newer faces yesterday! They felt extremely warm and welcome.

To become proficient in something, practice is required. I jokingly spoke of how I don't care for hockey. (Of course, I got many boos at our services today!) What I have witnessed from Sidney Crosby is an extreme work ethic that is baffles me. Sidney Crosby is one of the best hockey players worldwide, and we watched a video today of how Sidney Crosby works hard to do so well in games. Take a look:
 Sidney Crosby Practices For Gametime

Our worship centered upon the spiritual discipline of prayer. Praying is to be enjoyed for it is a time of oneness with God. The more we pray the deeper our relationship with God becomes. It's just like practice. The more we practice, the better we become at something.

Over the next five weeks we will focus on one of the elements of the covenantal question, "Will you faithfully support the ministries of the church by your prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness?" In today's message, I wanted to provide the church with some practical ways to pray daily.
A-C-T-S 
A- Adoration
C- Confession
T- Thanksgiving
S- Supplication
(A simple, yet profound way to experience intimacy with God in prayer).

Five-Finger Prayer
Thumb - Praying for those nearest to you.
Pointer - Praying for those who point you to God. (Sunday School teacher, Pastor, etc...)
Middle - Longest finger, praying for those who are distant (Example: Kenny Hiser, our missionary to India)
Ring - Weakest Finger, praying for those who are weak and in need.
Small - Praying for your needs

Contemplative Prayer 
Contemplative prayer can be a repetitive prayer such as "Lord, have mercy." Contemplative prayer is a meditative practice where the person praying focuses on a word and repeats that word over and over for the duration of the exercise. The purpose is to clear one’s mind of outside concerns so that God’s voice may be more easily heard.

Our text came from Matthew 6:5-15. Prayer was a pillar of Jewish piety. Jesus knew that and thus demonstrated the importance of prayer by speaking on the importance of prayer and instructed how to pray. The words of this passage ring true to us as we remember it as "The Lord's Prayer." Below are the words of Matthew 6:5-15.


5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.[a]
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,[b]
    on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,[c]
12 and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.[d]
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

A special thank you is extended to Jon Pincek, who closed traditional worship with a sung "Lord's Prayer." It left people speechless. Thank you Jon and Marilyn Stephenson, our accompanist.

In worship, Stacey Burk, SPRC chair announced who the next Pastor will be at Christ Community. We will be welcoming Rev. Bruce Gascoine, his wife Laurie, and children Sarah and Michael. Bruce comes to Christ Community from St. Paul's UMC in Allison Park, just outside of Pittsburgh in the North Hills. Rev. Gascoine comes with great experience and leadership in large churches and shares his love of God in so many ways. I personally have been blessed by Bruce and the leadership team at St. Paul's when I was at Baldwin Community. Our leadership team at the time met with theirs to learn about Mission, Vision and Core Values. May the Lord continue to bless Bruce and his family as they begin to make the transition to Christ Community officially on July 1, 2013. We also pray for St. Paul's as they begin to make transitions. Bruce is looking forward to sharing in ministry with the people of Christ Community.

I thank you for your prayers over the last week as I was in The Florida Annual Conference for interviews. The Spirit of God is at work and my appointment is in progress. You are a blessing to me as I received many texts, calls, and emails on Monday-Wednesday while I was away. Thank you so much for covering Jennifer, Aaron, with his health, Alayna, Abby and me in prayer. We are forever grateful.

May the Lord bless each of you this upcoming week and know what an honor it is to serve and lead as your pastor.