Prayer 3: Ministry Focus

I mentioned a while back that I would talk about our “Ministry Focus” soon, so I’d better do it!

Our Session (the body of the Ruling and Teaching Elders, gathered to lead the church) has decided that we will establish a “Ministry Focus” for each church year, where we will focus on one aspect of spiritual life and formation and order the ministries of our church around it. We are committed to doing the following as a part of this:

• Providing specific resources related to the Ministry Focus for individuals and households
• Enfolding the Ministry Focus into our existing congregational ministries and activities
• Developing new events, activities, and ministries to advance the Ministry Focus as necessary

Our Ministry Focus for 2009 is Prayer, obviously.

As an example of how our Ministry Focus is going to take root, here are a few things we’ll be doing over the coming couple of months (if not already) to integrate a Ministry Focus of prayer into our worship:

1. We have expanded our Prayers of the People a bit, including a few new elements that we will pray for weekly.
2. I will take a moment to briefly describe a part of our corporate prayers immediately before the Prayers of the People.
3. We will have several sermons and sermon series on prayer during the course of the year.
4. I will be including prayer in my explanation and/or application in every sermon.
5. During the liturgical season of Lent, we will focus on personal and congregational mourning and repentance of sin, and will utilize prayers of lament during our time of corporate confession of sin.

I’m very excited about the idea of Ministry Focus in general, the Ministry Focus on prayer in particular, and how things are already beginning to develop. Keep a watch for regular posts on prayer.