Redeemer’s Prayer Team Ministry
The desire to pray is itself a kind of prayer, and we all pray whether we think of it as praying or not. It’s as natural as breathing, just as necessary. And like breathing, the most important things about prayer are both to begin and to continue. Like the woman seeking justice from the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8), or the man knocking on a friend’s door at midnight (Luke 11:5-8), pray and continue to pray—even if you think you’re doing it wrong (because you’re not). Even as no child can draw a bad picture for a loving parent, no child of God can make a bad prayer to Him. God looks at you praying and says “Ah, that’s my child—talking to me.”
It’s not necessary to use beautiful words or many words: “Short prayer pierces heaven.” But pray sincere words, the words you mean—even if they are ugly or angry or sad or despairing words. God can take it. Look at the Psalms: they cover the whole range of human emotions. Why should our heartfelt prayers do less? And sometimes, choose to pray even if you don’t feel like it: sterile prayer pierces heaven, too.
And continue to pray. You may not understand. You may still be hurting. Your desperate wishes may not have been fulfilled. But we learn to pray by praying, and we learn much more than prayer through prayer: when we pray, a door opens, and it’s only God who determines where that door leads.
The members of Redeemer’s Prayer Team Ministry hope to intercede for the sake of the repairing, the healing, and the transforming of our parish, our nation, and our world—praying for our loved ones, our friends and neighbors, ourselves and our enemies. Members of the prayer team ministry meet together at 7:00pm on the second Monday of each month. For more information, please contact Owen Barker at okbarker@earthlink.net or Ralph Neal at rvneal@earthlink.net.
If you would like to come for prayer, at our Sunday service at 4:00 p.m. the communion time is reserved for prayer. After you receive communion, please walk to the back of the church and you’ll find a prayer team that would be glad to pray for whatever is on your heart.
If you have prayer requests you would like printed in the bulletin, please e-mail the church office by Wednesday of each week.
If you have a prayer request you wish to submit, please complete the prayer request form either online or a printed version which can be placed in the offering plate—or give the form to our pastor or one of the ushers. We will gladly add your request to our prayer list.
“People tell me that answers to prayer are merely coincidences. I can only reply that when I pray, coincidences happen; and when I stop praying, they stop happening.”
—William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury