St Chad’s Notices Sunday 21st October 2012 Contact: [email protected]Prayer at St Chad’s Please pray .. • For our current small groups, that God would take relaonships to a deeper level and help us to develop a discipleship culture that enables people to reach maturity in Christ. • For the Marriage Preparaon course starng in November for all couples married at St Chads in 2012 &2013 • For those who work in business. For wisdom to create jobs and men & women of good character to lead and manage well, bringing blessing on those they employ. • For Richard & Nells and the boys, as they begin their 2nd year of ministry here in Romiley. • For our neighbouring Parish St Mark's Bredbury & their leaders Andy & Ruth Bull • For David & Audrey Bomford as they visit Maria's Care School in Kamuli. And ... • Ask God to deepen your desire to pray and faith that your prayers have an impact. Cut along the strip and sck our weekly diary and prayer points in your bag/bible! Valuing diversity I realised having encouraged/challenged you all to read a book on prayer this term, that I ought to do so myself! Aer researching a range of books to recommend I had a big choice of new opons to go for. (If you haven’t guessed by now, I love books and I love prayer, so this part of my job has been easy to priorise.) Having asked God which one, I sensed the Holy Spirit guiding me to ‘Sacred Pathways’ by Gary Thomas, and I haven’t been disappointed. Its an easy read and the basic message of the book is one I’ve been repeang this term, we’re all different and we’ll find different styles of prayer either help us to connect with God, or leave us cold. The book defines 9 different ‘pathways’, which are forms or styles of prayer and worship which help us engage with God. Reading this book has highlighted to me clearly that there are some ‘pathways’ to God which I don’t relate to at all and oen I find it hard to understand those who argue or push hard for them. Prayer and worship are typically areas where we believe ‘our way’ is the ‘right way’ and find it hard to understand why others can possibly want to sing certain songs or meet with God in a certain style of service or pray in a parcular way. Its easy to become defensive about ‘my way’ of praying and aack the very things that are treasured by another. This only leads to division, broken relaonships or worse sll facons. Paul writes so brilliantly about this in 1 Corinthians 12 when he talks about being one body with many parts. The way forwards into being an Ephesians 4 community, ‘bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit’ comes through seeking to understand and value one another’s God-given preferences in prayer and worship. Three further reflecons on this: First, all pathways are there to help us meet with God, and He remains our focus, rather than becoming too focussed on the pathway. When we’re more interested in ‘the style of prayer that makes me feel good’, then we are in real danger of becoming religious rather than relang to God. This can happen in all pathways in different ways and is lethal to our spiritual life. The goal is to meet with God, not just have a comfortable spirituality. Second, how do we value all pathways in a church family? The simple answer is, by having a depth of love for one another rather than a crical heart. Not every service or prayer event can express every pathway, but we’ll try together to explore new creave ideas. If you feel that a parcular Sunday service or your small group or a prayer event doesn’t bring you closer to God, then look at what is going on for you and look to be part of the soluon, rather than crical of something that may have been wonderful for others. Thirdly, one really valuable point from Gary Thomas is that as we mature in faith, we come to appreciate other pathways more and engage with God in a greater variety of ways. That is of course helpful for us, but also really beneficial to the church family as we can relate to one another’s spiritual journey more easily. So try out something new, and above all set your heart to meet with God, he is a loving Father who always seeks to meet with us. Richard
Transcript
St Chad’s Notices Sunday21stOctober2012 Contact:of�[email protected]
Prayer at St Chad’s
Please pray ..
• For our current small groups,
that God would take
rela�onships to a deeper level
and help us to develop a
discipleship culture that
enables people to reach
maturity in Christ.
• For the Marriage Prepara�on
course star�ng in November
for all couples married at St
Chads in 2012 &2013
• For those who work in
business. For wisdom to
create jobs and men &
women of good character to
lead and manage well,
bringing blessing on those
they employ.
• For Richard & Nells and the
boys, as they begin their 2nd
year of ministry here in
Romiley.
• For our neighbouring Parish St
Mark's Bredbury & their
leaders Andy & Ruth Bull
• For David & Audrey Bomford
as they visit Maria's Care
School in Kamuli.
And ...
• Ask God to deepen your
desire to pray and faith that
your prayers have an impact.
Cut along the strip and s�ck our weekly diary and prayer points in your
bag/bible!
Valuing diversity
I realised having encouraged/challenged you all to read a book on prayer this term, that
I ought to do so myself! A1er researching a range of books to recommend I had a big
choice of new op�ons to go for. (If you haven’t guessed by now, I love books and I love
prayer, so this part of my job has been easy to priori�se.) Having asked God which one,
I sensed the Holy Spirit guiding me to ‘Sacred Pathways’ by Gary Thomas, and I haven’t
been disappointed. Its an easy read and the basic message of the book is one I’ve been
repea�ng this term, we’re all different and we’ll find different styles of prayer either
help us to connect with God, or leave us cold. The book defines 9 different ‘pathways’,
which are forms or styles of prayer and worship which help us engage with God.
Reading this book has highlighted to me clearly that there are some ‘pathways’ to God
which I don’t relate to at all and o1en I find it hard to understand those who argue or
push hard for them. Prayer and worship are typically areas where we believe ‘our way’
is the ‘right way’ and find it hard to understand why others can possibly want to sing
certain songs or meet with God in a certain style of service or pray in a par�cular way.
Its easy to become defensive about ‘my way’ of praying and a;ack the very things that
are treasured by another. This only leads to division, broken rela�onships or worse s�ll
fac�ons. Paul writes so brilliantly about this in 1 Corinthians 12 when he talks about
being one body with many parts.
The way forwards into being an Ephesians 4 community, ‘bearing with one another in
love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit’ comes through seeking to understand
and value one another’s God-given preferences in prayer and worship.
Three further reflec�ons on this:
First, all pathways are there to help us meet with God, and He remains our focus, rather
than becoming too focussed on the pathway. When we’re more interested in ‘the style
of prayer that makes me feel good’, then we are in real danger of becoming religious
rather than rela�ng to God. This can happen in all pathways in different ways and is
lethal to our spiritual life. The goal is to meet with God, not just have a comfortable
spirituality.
Second, how do we value all pathways in a church family? The simple answer is, by
having a depth of love for one another rather than a cri�cal heart. Not every service or
prayer event can express every pathway, but we’ll try together to explore new crea�ve
ideas. If you feel that a par�cular Sunday service or your small group or a prayer event
doesn’t bring you closer to God, then look at what is going on for you and look to be
part of the solu�on, rather than cri�cal of something that may have been wonderful for
others.
Thirdly, one really valuable point from Gary Thomas is that as we mature in faith, we
come to appreciate other pathways more and engage with God in a greater variety of
ways. That is of course helpful for us, but also really beneficial to the church family as
we can relate to one another’s spiritual journey more easily. So try out something new,
and above all set your heart to meet with God, he is a loving Father who always seeks
