Leading A Church In Prayer

This is an excerpt from Kevin DeYoung. 
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Some traditions use set prayers. Others rely on extemporaneous prayers. Both have their place. But I believe what our congregations need most are studied prayers, well prepared, well expressed. These prayers may or may not be read, but will be thought through ahead of time. Publicly leading a church in prayer deserves thoughtful preparation. 

1.) Use forms with freedom. Learn from The Valley of Vision or Hughes Oliphant Old or the Book of Common Prayer. But suit their prayers to your own purposes. The Didache, after laying down set prayers for Communion, also allows "the prophets to give thanks however they wish."

2.) Pray Scripture. Don't just ask God for what we want. Let him teach us what we should want.

3.) Don't footnote. Charles Spurgeon: "It is not necessary in prayer to string a selection of texts of Scripture together, and quote David, and Daniel, and Job, and Paul, and Peter, and every other body, under the title of "thy servant of old"". The Lord already knows who said everything, so don't tell him again in your prayers.

4.) Leave the preaching for the sermon. Don't exhort. Don't explain texts. don't unpack complex theology. Spurgeon again: "Long prayers either consist of repetitions, or else of unnecessary explanations which God does not require; or else they degenerate into downright preaching, so that there is no difference between the praying and the preaching, except that in the one the minister has his eyes shut, and in the other he keeps them open. It is not necessary in prayer to rehearse the Westminster Assesembly's Catechism.

5.) Share some details of congregational life, but not all. A good shepherd will often mention by name various sheep that need special care. But don't try to cover every engagement in the last three months or surreptitiously announce the youth retreat in your prayer ("Lord, be with our young people gathering this Friday at 5:00pm with their Bibles and a sleeping bag"). Spurgeon once more: "There is no need to make the public prayer a gazette of the week's events, or a register of the births, deaths, and marriages of your people, but the general moments that have taken place in the congregation should be noted by the minister's careful heart.""

6.) Pray so that others can follow you easily. The goal is edification (1 Corinthians 14:17). So don't let your sentences get too long, too flowery, too ornate. If you write our your prayers, write for the ear not for the eye. On the other hand, don't use distracting colloquialism like, "Lord, you're so sweet."

7.) Keep it relatively brief. Better to e too short than too long. Five minutes is plenty in most North American churches. Seven to ten minutes is possible if you are experienced and have trained your people well.

8.) Remember you are praying with and on behalf of others. Use "we" and "our" (as in the Lord's Prayer). This is not the time to confess your personal sins or recount your personal experiences.

9.) Order your prayer. Make sure there is a flow and direction. Don't get too wordy. Keep a good pace. It often makes sense to work from inside out, praying first for concerns of the congregation and then moving out to the community, the global church, and the world.

10.) Beware of verbal ticks. For example: popping your p's, smacking your lips, sighing, ums, mindless repetition of the divine name, overuse of "just" and "like," an over-reliance on the phrase "we pray" or "we would pray" instead of simply praying.

11.) Show proper reverence, confidence, and emotion. Pray like you mean it. After all, God is God, and he really hears us! 

12.) Pray before you pray. Ask God for help as you prepare, and for humility and grace as you go up to pray. 

Jesus' Warning And The Gospel's Urge For Self-Examination

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Introduction
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My greatest concern for evangelical churches is the church. What do I mean by that? The church that I am describing is the people who professes to be Christians, but does not bear any kind of fruit. There are many, or too many, so-called Christians out there who are not living out their faith in a genuine way. I spoke about this concern in this entry, "Judas in the church". I want to revisit this topic, but this time putting our focus on the perspective from the eyes of Jesus. How did Jesus see his followers? What kind of warnings did He give to them? 

Surely, Jesus spoke about this concern in the Gospels. His teaching perhaps has a terrifying effect when I remember hearing one of my buddies said this, "Jesus said not every 'believer' will go to heaven." When he said "believers", I think he's talking about Christians who simply know the language of the Bible, who have intellectual faith, who practice good deeds to be saved, and who commit part-time for God. There are teachings from Jesus that warn us about these matters. I will provide five points with a brief description (I'm sure there's more) of what Jesus explicitly taught, and I invite you to read those passages for yourself. 
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What did Jesus say?
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1. There are false disciples in the church who think they are saved, but Jesus never knew these people. (Matthew 7:21-23) 
2. This does not just apply to Christians. There are two gates: narrow and wide. Many choose the wide one, but only a few finds the narrow one. (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:22-30)
3. When the Word of God is spoken, there are two kinds of disciples who will respond differently. One will hear it, apply genuine saving faith, and do what our Lord commands. The other will hear it, and this being the false disciple, will not do it. (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49)
4. There are four different types of soil: hardened path, rocky soil , thorny soil, and good soft soil (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23: Luke 8:4-15).
5. There are false disciples who are not willing to forgive even though they "received" God's forgiveness. Such false disciples who do not offer forgiveness never genuinely experienced God's forgiveness of sin (Matthew 18:21-35).

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Conclusion
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Paul Washer has a viral video that has at least a million views called "The Shocking Youth Message". Washer's tone is very strong and very passionate. Not everyone would like him, but he surely gets his point across. Somewhere in his opening speech, as he was preaching to the youth, he said, "Majority of the people in this room will go to hell." Now, if you're appalled, angry and shocked already, try not to make any further accusations, but go and check out that video.

In conclusion, I will allow John Piper to provide three lessons that we could take away from this entry:

1. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; prove yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
2. “Enter by the narrow gate…For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (7:13-14).
3. This is not justification by works! This is indispensable evidence of justification by faith—“you will know them by their fruits!”

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word

Youtube had voted this video to be the most viewed for the past 48 hours. Jefferson Bethke wrote a poem that differentiates false religion and Jesus. As Bethke posted the video, as the title says, thousands upon thousands of viewers gather into this video. Now, it has reached at least 3 millions views.

This video was design and made to exalt the name of Jesus Christ over every humankind and false religions in the world. It has amazed, disturbed, confused, and inspired a lot of viewers around the world whether if they are religious, non-religious, or Christians. For Atheists and non-Christians (including not born-again Christians), the language that Bethke speaks may be foreign to you. It sounds cool, but without understand what the message he's delivering, then you miss the depth of the meaning. It sounds confusing because you don't have the mind of Christ. It sounds pathetic or ridiculous because it is foolish to you.

Finally, it may sound disturbing because Jesus was than just a moral or good teacher. He indeed did come to abolish religion and rebuke those who were self-righteous. He came and lived a perfect and holy life by fulfilling the laws. He came on a rescue mission to save sinners (tax collectors, prostitute, unclean, poor, religious and etc.) by dying on the cross for our sins so that His righteousness and His perfection could be inputted to us when we believe and receive what He has done. Additionally, He was resurrected 3 days later to demonstrate that He is God, and that He has conquered Satan, sin, and death. In his resurrection, He walked in the newness of life. Through His resurrection, when we place our faith in Jesus Christ in what He has done, we too could walk in the newness of life and one day experience resurrection--we could also conquer Satan, sin, and death--after this life and live in the New Heaven and New Jerusalem for eternity with Jesus.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
(Romans 6:4 ESV)

Enjoy the Video :)