1000 Hours of Prayer…a discipleship opportunity

As I’ve mentioned over the past couple of weeks, the Summit is in the midst of a Mission Expansion Project we are calling “Believe.” Now, what we are calling ourselves to “believe” is very important. We are calling one another to Believe that God is able to do great things for his glory through us as a church. And we are recognizing that Belief unlocks the power of God. I can think of two tangible ways belief is expressed.

1) We give radically of our resources to this cause because we believe God gave those resources to us for the purpose of making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:20)
2) We pray to God as an act of belief in the reality that it is not our own efforts that change peoples lives, but God’s power that does so. When we pray, we get ourselves out of the way and in effect begin to unlock the power of God in our lives.

In 1 Kings 18:20-40 the account of Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal is told. This account is a good depiction of the two claims I just made above. I wont tell you the whole story here because Id rather you go read it for yourself. But Elijah does two things to show the power of the LORD and his existence as the only true God.
1) he builds a pretty elaborate altar. I know, this is not a direct correlation. stop being cynical and hear me out. He creates a scenario where no one but God can be given credit for what will happen. He does something radical, fully convinced that God will use it for his glory. Jesus does the same thing in Matthew 14 where he uses 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed a crowd of several thousand. Do you think Jesus, the God of the universe, was surprised by the shortage of food? No, he was using a circumstance to create a scenario where no one but God could be given credit for what would happen. Just like Elijah, when we believe we will as William Carey said “attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.”

2) He Prays for God to do something. He calls out to God to and says “let it be known that you are God in Israel…Answer me that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back.” What a model for prayer for us! Elijah has an understanding that this scenario is not about the cool altar he built, but about PEOPLE TURNING THEIR HEARTS BACK TO GOD! Sorry for the caps but that is what our entire BELIEVE project is about: people.

Over the next two weeks if you are a part of the Summit Church you have the very sacred privelege of participating in our corporate cry of belief to God as we ask him to make himself known in Raleigh-Durham and the rest of the triangle area. Pray with us. we have 1000 slots, 1 hr each, and you get to take one. So do I. For one hour you get to intercede for the people of RDU just as Elijah did. You get to participate in God’s ongoing grand salvation mission. Wow. my heart is actually racing faster as I type this. partly due to the early AM java.

If you are a small group leader, I mean, does a discipleship opportunity get much better or easier? Wow. Sign up here

Small Group Dilemma…The Prayer Request Time

My favorite time of training new leaders is when we break up into groups and go through various scenarios that they will certainly face in their small groups. If you have ever been in any type of small group setting…say a college dorm room bible study, a Sunday school class, maybe just a really long cup of coffee, you have experienced the dilemma I am about to describe.

The Scenario
It’s the end of your group’s bible study time. Almost with a cringe (because you know whats about to transpire for the next 30 seconds or 30 minutes), you say something like “ok, time to shift into our prayer time, anybody got anything we need to be lifting up this week?” What follows is either

1. 1.a colossally awkward silence (you: really? Nothing? Are you people dead inside? your group: Really? Share serious life stuff with EVERYONE here? Are you stupid inside?)
OR

2 2. A verbal cascade of prayer requests lasting 12 minutes each with tears, laughter, gossip, and maybe a little anger all wound up into such a mess you have NO IDEA what the bombardier who started this raid actually wants you and others to pray for.

Then, finally, after either the silence or the monologues you likely had to cut off, you say something like “ok, who will close us in prayer?” or maybe you go so far to say “lets have a different person pray for each one of those.” The first question leads to a single prayer, probably by the unfortunate soul who made eye contact with you when you asked that question, and it lasts about 30 seconds. “God thanks for letting us meet, be with all the stuff we just talked about for 30 minutes, keep us safe this week, Amen…no wait, in Jesus Name, Amen.” The second question leads to 4 to 8 of the same version that tailor slightly to the assigned request if they possibly remember what it was (20% chance that happens).

Praying as a small group
Ok, the above was hopefully a humorous sarcastic picture of a group that maybe struck a familiar chord or two with you like it does with me. What happened in that situation, and in a lot of small groups, is that prayer REQUESTS took far more time and energy than actual PRAYER. God calls us to be a people of prayer, not prayer requests. Seriously, if you aren’t careful you will prayer request your group into spiritual demise. What you and I should shoot for is reversing the scenario above. Lets spend 30 seconds sharing prayer requests, and 30 Minutes praying in our groups! WHOA! I say that as a goal. Build up to that 30 minute mark. How? Well, here are a couple proven ideas and you may try grouping a couple of them together (Ive used 1 & 2 a lot together):

1. INDEX CARDS – pass out an index card at the start of each meeting. Ask each person to write their prayer requests on the card at some point before prayer time. SECRET: people will write the “need to know” without all of the “side-track” stories they would share if given the chance. Then collect and redistribute the cards for prayer time and have each person in the group pray for the needs on the card. BONUS: take the cards home for the week and your group will be praying for one another all week!
2. SMALLER GROUPS: divide up guys and girls where applicable, then get into groups of 3. Sharing takes way less time here and usually will draw out the prayer needs of someone who wouldn’t share with 10 to 15 people. BONUS: use these same groups each week. Great way to develop accountability relationships. The index card works here.
3. DIRECTED PRAYER TIME: Come to the prayer time with an agenda for what you will be praying for. We offer that to our SummitLIFE group leaders each week. Hand out a prayer guide that walks them through what the group will be praying for that night. This is a great way to keep things fresh in the group. You may even try devoting one entire meeting to prayer. BONUS: still collect individual prayer requests (written or by email) and send them to the group via email so they can pray throughout the week.

These are only three suggestions. What has worked in your experience?

Go Walk Your Dog

I’m almost 26 now. I’ve officially been out of college longer than I was in it (yes I made it all 4 years). I find myself occasionally longing for the schedule and routine I had at 21 where I could go work out for a couple of hours, play basketball with the guys for two more, and then eat anything I wanted because my metabolism was at its peak. Recently however I am in a stage in life where words like “portion,” “bottled water,” and “diet Dr. Pepper” are regulars in my vocabulary. Probably the biggest change from then to now, is that life is simply busier. In college my Wednesday consisted of class, call my girlfriend, and hangout with friends. Maybe study depending on the month. It was easy! There were no real time demands most of the time. So as a believer, I could pretty much pick whenever to sit down and study my bible and pray. But, those days are over. Today I have a wife I love spending time with, a job as a pastor that I love pouring into, an emotionally needy and mentally lacking chocolate lab, a washing machine that needs repairing, and a 2 month deadline to get my first son’s bedroom ready before his arrival in august. I get up at 6 am, go to bed at 11pm and could rattle you off another 20 things each night that I wanted to get done that day but just didn’t have the time.

The point is, I have to be disciplined now to carve out time in my life to meet with God. I cant just wait until that moment in my day when I have nothing to do. That moment is called college and it is only a memory to me. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells me that all of the scriptures are the very words of God and are useful in all aspects of my life. They are like food to my soul that I should hunger for. And the truth is that I do hunger for them. But If im not careful to make time to feed myself, the barking of the dog and the clanging of the washing machine will suffocate that hunger. And remember, my child isn’t even here yet!

So, after recognizing the pattern of immediate needs killing my spiritual growth, I decided to go on the offensive and re-schedule a daily time to meet with God. I looked for a time in my day that was calmest, and started there. For me, that was the morning. I wake up at 6am everyday. (If you don’t like keeping a schedule this part will frustrate you. But you need to grow up and realize somebody else will decide your schedule for you if you don’t.) By 6:20 I am out the door with my dog for a walk around the neighborhood. Its only about a 20 minute walk, but has turned from an obligatory part of my schedule into a 20 minute daily prayer walk. That is, as I walk by the homes of the neighbors I see regularly, I pray for them, for their marriages and ultimately for their salvation. I pray for opportunities to share the gospel with them. Its awesome! That is also my time to just praise God for his creation or pray for things really weighing on my mind. Warning: Im not saying this is the only time I pray. I find the most growth in my prayer life when I am in solitude, speaking to and listening to God with the scriptures sitting open in front of me. What I AM saying is that I reclaimed a time in my day as an opportunity to meet with God instead of letting it be another task on my honey-do list.

At 6:40 I start reading my bible and usually eat a pop-tart (with Cold Skim Milk. Mmmm). Sometimes that bible reading lasts 40 or 50 minutes, sometimes it lasts 15. Sometimes I read 3 verses, sometimes I read 3 chapters. Today I read chapter 2 of Galatians. I read it over about 4 times and just meditated on what the author was saying. I think I sat there at the island in my kitchen for about 30 minutes or so really trying to think on v.20 that says “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now life in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This is the gospel message. So I tried honestly evaluating where I want to see Christ’s love lived out in my life more than it is right now. Nothing earth shattering hit me at that moment, but things I’ve been praying for like my marriage and my relationship with my co-pastors came to mind. That is how God often speaks to us though. He gives us (via the holy spirit) recall of his word (meaning we’ve been reading it) into our life situations that we are coming before him in prayer about. Its pretty awesome. Sometimes he will use the recall of his word in a fellow believer to speak into our life situation / prayer request. That is even awesomer and it’s why we always have to be in relationships (re: small groups) where that can happen.

So my question to you is really twofold:
1. Are the immediate needs of your life killing your walk with Christ?
2. What is the calmest part of your day & how could you start there in reclaiming a regular time to meet with God? Commute in your car? Your workout hour? Grey’s Anatomy hour?

I would love to hear suggestions that have worked for you to this end. Also, if you are struggling through this battle as I did recently and want a hand in figuring it out, feel free to contact me: sshelton@summitchurch.cc .

Ephesians 3:14-20 :: learning by doing

We are in the midst of our SummitLIFE Leader Gatherings right now where we are encouraging one another and praying for one another. These gatherings are taking place in 4 locations, on 4 nights, throughout the triangle. Our first one was last night and it was awesome. We prayed for our church, & for one another as group leaders. At first glance, that sounds more like a prayer meeting than a training session. And that is exactly what I was hoping for. You see, real learning comes almost always from doing. To get a real grasp on how to do something you practice it right? Leading a small group is no different. So we are, through practice, training one another on how to pray using the scriptures. We are doing that because we are recognizing the simple truth that unless prayer meeting happens in our small groups, it wont happen at the Summit Church. Please let that sink in if you are a SummitLIFE group leader. Ok, Let me show you what praying through the scriptures looks like using Ephesians 3:14-20.

For the Church:

• Pray that our church would be a place where people, every family in our reach (15) would come to know and love Jesus (17). Pray that for easter especially.
• Pray that the Christians who make up the Summit Church would begin to grasp the greatness of God’s love (19) because that is when true life change starts to happen (19).
• Recognize that God is capable of answering these prayers in bigger and better ways than you can fathom (20) and praise him for it.
• Recognize that the end game of your prayers is not you, but the glory of God. And Pray that our church would be a place that sees generations of people live lives that glorify God.

For your SummitLIFE Group:

• Have each person (or family) pray specifically for another person (or family) the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:14-20.
  • That the Father who created all men (15) would strengthen them in their faith through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives (16)
  • That they would be firmly rooted and established in the love of Christ in such a way that through each avenue of their lives they begin to see the height, depth, length, and width of the grace given to them.
  • That they would worship God as they come to understand more completely his love for them (19).
  • Believe on their behalf that God is SO much bigger than their prayers or circumstances. He can do greater things than they could possibly ask.
  • Pray their lives are conformed to the purposes of God in Christ in such a way that the glory of God is made known through them.
• I look forward to praying this with you who lead small groups at the Summit Church during our upcoming leader gatherings together. If you do not know which one you are supposed to be at, please call me ASAP at 919.383.7100!

Praying as a small group

As a church, we at the Summit have recently recaptured an emphasis on the importance of prayer. Jesus called the church a “house of prayer” and we’ve decided that likewise, we want the Summit to be a people of prayer. Since we are a small-group based church, the real success of this mission lies in the living rooms where close to 1000 Summit people gather in our SummitLIFE groups each week. So here is the big question: How does your small group recapture this emphasis, and move away from the dry, detached, mundane prayer life it has had for so long?? Let’s start at the problem:

Problems with most small group prayer

• Stepchild syndrome: The Bible gets 40 minutes, prayer requests (not prayer) gets another 25, and prayer itself gets 2 minutes tops from the group leader. Prayer simply isn’t viewed as significant as Bible study. The problem with that, is that it likely means the scriptures are not being properly understood as they place a HUGE emphasis on prayer!
• Detachment from Scripture: Similar to the previous but probably the biggest problem of all. We tend to assume small group time has 2 parts: The Bible, and then prayer. So we study the bible mostly for knowledge, and then we close our bibles so that we can figure out what we need to pray about. Think about it, this is likely how you spend your personal time with God as well. Read the bible, maybe jot down some notes, then shut the bible and start praying. Why? Do we think the Bible is the “head” part and prayer is the “heart” part of a great “devotion”? If we are honest, yes. and our small groups tend to unconsciously think the same way.
• Prayer ignorance: Many in our small groups have NEVER prayed where others can hear them, and some have never really even prayed. Then, when nobody but the leader prays during the “open floor for anyone” time, we wonder why! Because people would rather DIE than embarrass themselves by sounding ridiculous trying to do some foreign spiritual talk (which is what prayer is to people who don’t know what it is).
• Bellybuttons: Groups that spend their time looking and caring about no one but themselves and their needs are destined for hollow, incomplete prayer lives. We must remember that small groups are not small churches, they are arms of a local church. Your group members want to be a part of their church. When you cut them off from that and create a “lets just take care of ourselves” mentality, you give your group a false idea of what it means to be a part of a body of believers.

Moving past the problems to dynamic prayer (dont try these all at once)

• Pray through the scriptures: We can kill the first two problems mentioned above with this stone. What if your group, as it walked through the scripture passage this week, prayed through the main points you glean in the study? For example, This past Sunday our pastor preached a sermon (BEST SERMON EVER Pastor J.D.!) on John 15:12-17. The main point: love eachother. So, what would a small group pray when studying that text? That they would remember how they are loved in Christ that they may love one another! For a complete prayer guide on that text click here. We not only solve the stepchild problem this way, we also bust down the mental barrier that exists between prayer and bible study. Give it a shot!
  
  
• Study & Practice Prayer. If we want our group members to be prayer warriors, we should probably give them the training a good warrior needs to be confident in battle. Have you ever spent time as a group studying prayer in the bible? Try looking as a group at Matthew 6 where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. The scriptures are replete with both example and instruction on prayer. In your group, try dividing up into groups of 2 or 3 people when you pray. People’s confidence in trying out your foreign spiritual talk increases when there are fewer ears listening. If you are in a co-ed group, definitely divide up men and women.
• Pray Bigger! It is an insult to God to assume he only cares about the needs of your group members. Plain and simple. It is your job as the facilitator to get the group’s eyes off of their bellybuttons (which I have a phobia of by the way) and pray bigger prayers. Pray for the big things God is doing in your church. If you dont know what those are, ask a pastor. If you are a SummitLIFE leader, look at the weekly prayer guide. Make a big deal out of church-wide gatherings and prayer opportunities such as prayer meetings, baptisms, etc. Places where your group members will get to pray with their church are awesome times to help shed the group bellybutton problem.