Experiments in Intercession...

Say the words "prayer meeting" and some people run screaming for the exits. We all have images of a few crotchety people sitting around 'pray-gossiping' about Mr. Smith's prostate exam or Aunt Myrtle’s reoccurring athlete's foot. Invariably there is the one person that prays far, far too long about every topic they can think of including but not limited to the pygmies in East Timor, the sinners who smoke outside after church, and the man who owns the two pit bulls down the street.

Sadly, many of us have funny stories we could tell about prayer meetings, but would probably cause our hair to stand up on the back of our necks as well. In light of this reality, I wish to suggest that prayer and intercession is something that we should seek to redefine, and hopefully recapture God's intent for corporate communication with him as an integral part of our life together in the kingdom.

So what is intercession? Ritualistic good-luck prayers thrown up at the sky like pitching pennies in a fountain? Reciting a laundry list of infirmities, sins, and sinners to make sure God has everything on file? Without going into an involved scriptural study, here are a few ideas that seem to jive well with scripture and the experience of Christians down through the ages.

First, the focus of intercessory prayer is God, not us. The point is not to simply bring requests to God like a cosmic Santa Claus, but to learn what is important to him and pray into that. Second, intercession is communal. I don’t think any of us can claim the kind of intimacy Jesus experienced with his Father alone, so having some help building intimacy is a good thing. He did promise that if a few of us got together, he’d show up. Also, it’s always handy to have others around for discernment. Finally, intercession leads us deeper into the flow of the Kingdom. You could say that intercession is missional – that is it inherently focuses our attention outward. The idea that intercession and mission are separate ‘ministries’ is absurd. That would be like disconnecting your arms from your brain and nervous system.

If you’ve read this far and you’re still interested, I’d like to invite you to an experiment in intercessory prayer. The point of this gathering will be to understand how God is working in us and around us and then respond to that action. We’ll start this Sunday night at our house at 7:30 and meet weekly for the next three weeks. At the end of that time we’ll evaluate whether to go farther or not. If you have any more questions, send me a note. Otherwise, see you Sunday.