prayer
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ChatGPT and our cry for help
If you’re in pastoral ministry, you might know the Pastor’s prayer; with a Sunday sermon looming and more jobs to do that humanly possible, the pastor sits in front of his screen and prays, “Lord, help. Please help.” There is… Continue reading
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Repost: Preach with the closing prayer in mind
…and then the preacher says, “lets pray”. I think this point of the sermon (nay – the church meeting) is the pinnacle. This is the moment when you’re asking people to turn what they’ve heard into gospel centred action… The… Continue reading
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The gospel dares us to ignore our feelings…
The gospel of the Lord Jesus is unemotional… it is simply a truth. Jesus; the God-Man died and rose to life for sinners; to absorb their guilt, punishment and death, and to make them righteous, holy and alive as His… Continue reading
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A different form of Church AGM
We had our Church’s 2014 AGM recently and we decided to try a new thing… Every year we try to a new way of communicating a holistic perspective of church (helping people realise that church is more than their personal… Continue reading
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Do you pray “from” unknowns or “through” unknowns?
It seems a common shared prayer that God would deliver us from troubles, from risks, from the unknown. It goes something like, “Lord, keep us safe as we travel. Lord, keep us from sickness. Etc.” These are great things to… Continue reading
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When can “venting” be biblical?
When it’s appropriately directed towards your loving heavenly Father. Yesterday I said that there’s no such thing as “godly venting”, meaning venting to someone about other people. But there is a type of venting we find in the scriptures… when God’s… Continue reading
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Their response to sin = their grasp of the gospel
How do you know when someone’s really “got” the gospel? It’s an important question because we spend all this time and energy working hard at helping people get the gospel and keep hold of it. What does that look like?… Continue reading
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The goal of public prayer is…
Encouragement? People awestruck at our pious praying styles? No! The goal of public prayer is simply that people would pray along with us. Public prayer is a weird thing. I think we forget that if we’ve seen it done for… Continue reading
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Why the verb “use” works so well in prayer
How we pray, particularly in public, matters. And how we speak to God, and ask him to work in people’s lives matters. But it’s hard to give God appropriate verbs! (See previous post) One of the great verbs to ask… Continue reading
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We all need to stop praying, “I pray that…” and just use some manners
“To pray” means to beseech, to request, to ask. And from a very early age, we’re taught how to ask for things politely… “Excuse me, can I please have the pony?” However, for some reason, we’re not taught or modelled… Continue reading
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Using the best part of your day
Have you ever considered what part of your day you are usually most effective or productive? Some people simply can’t read after 9pm – they just fall asleep. Others can’t read before 9am – they’re just not awake enough. Some… Continue reading
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The goal is the second date
If you’re putting on an event for non-Christians, I think the most loving goal is “get a second date”. Make the big aim that they come back again. Make the big purpose that they don’t walk out thinking, “Well I’m… Continue reading
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Ditch “I pray” & just say “please”
Why do we, when we pray to our heavenly abba, say “I pray that…” We NEVER speak like that to other people. We simply say “can you please, please…” I wonder if one reason people doubt our authenticity is that… Continue reading
MINISTRY PRINCIPLES & PRAGMATICS 