Bible Study and Prayer

Last week I had a great time with Durant at one of his churches' bible study and prayer times. They meet three times a week with different people at each location. It inspired me to lead our church to do something similar.

Last Tuesday I started recruiting and by Saturday morning we had 5 of us around some tables at a local Starbucks. We opened the bible and then prayed for each other. Very simple, very pure, very good.

Today was our second meeting and with the exception of one guy who is sick right now, we were all back and joined by another woman from the church. Today we talked about Mark 11 and Luke 19 where Jesus entered the city.

Some of the thoughts brought up:
- Many people sacrificed to celebrate the entry of Jesus.
- All of creation exists to worship God. If we don't praise, the rocks will do it.
- Jesus had a range of emotion in just a matter of a day. He went from getting praised to getting angry to getting tearful. He was in touch with his HE-motions.
- His beef with the sales was more of anger toward their dishonest gain. He sees the heart.

What I love about doing this type of meeting:
To the point: We get right at it. Everyone is sacrificing an hour BEFORE work so we're all very focused on making sure we meet God. We love each other but we can socialize many other times and places. We want to meet God and truly lift each other up. Most every other small group I've been a part of has to have a lot of "fellowship" (talking and goofing off). This one is purely reading God's word and prayer.

Hearing others talk about the Word: Because of the format, it's unscripted. We simply read and I offer questions as we read. I don't have a bunch of notes, I'm not hardly teaching ... the insight from the group is fantastic. As they read and share, they remind me of how un-complicated the gospel really is.

Transparency: Through our talk about the Word and prayer we are able to be transparent with each other. Again, with no distraction and a commitment to see Christ we are all real with each other. As a side note that is also something I love about our church. We are all different in so many ways but there isn't a feeling that we have to be anything. We are extremely accepting of various backgrounds and only want to encourage each other to follow Jesus.

Prayer: The prayer is real and dedicated. Because of the way we do it, everyone gets prayed for by name and specifically. Many other groups I've been a part of take requests and then toss one big prayer up. That's cool for some situations but there is nothing like having 4-5 people agree in prayer about YOUR situation. We take a request and then someone volunteers to pray for it on the spot. There is NO DOUBT that you were lifted up. For some of us it may be the only time this week that we know we'll be prayed for by name.

I can already see how this will change our church. I'm not one to run and try to duplicate someone else but this is one thing I would recommend to you if you don't have in your ministry or personal life today. Do what I did... go find another church that does this if you have to or else gather a few people from your church and just start a small bible study and prayer group. As long as you make it raw and to the point I think you'll see great results as well. One thing I've always hated about "Mens prayer breakfast" has always been that there is a bunch about breakfast and little about prayer. This way we're doing it is exactly the opposite. At 6am we just open and start. As people arrive we just tell them where we are and keep going... the coffee is secondary.

So there you have it... a few thoughts about our ongoing bible study and prayer. Keep us lifted up that we would all be faithful and that our time together would never get obligatory. As long as the Holy Spirit is evident I believe we'll always want to be there.