Prayer Points (WE-110423)

I wonder if prayer is a priority to us. I wonder if finding out the breadth and depth of communicating to God is truly explored. There are so many different areas to it and it brings out so much of our being into talking with God that ignoring it is more deadly than ignoring water. I am continuing to discover that if I want a better relationship with everyone, especially myself, then it must start with good communication with God. As that improves, so my awareness grows of the need to pray for other things such as these.

• Central Milton Keynes

Last week I mentioned I had finished my tenure in Northampton. This week was my first in Central Milton Keynes (CMK). For those unfamiliar with the geography where I call home (Bletchley) is only about 15 minutes by car away from CMK. I could go into detail about the specific job I do in the place, but I’ll save that for some future blog.

What I would like to bring to your attention is CMK itself. One of the new towns built in the last quarter/third of the 20^th Century it has so much going for it, despite earning a reputation for roundabouts and being a concrete jungle. Quite a number of services are centrally located and it’s easy to get around on foot or by car. (OK relatively easy by car …)

For all it’s modernity, my initial instincts walking around part of the place is that it is a bit shallow. Lacking in depth. That doesn’t just come with time, that probably comes with investment and time and that kind of stuff. I am not hailing myself as the Saviour of CMK and I’m sure people have been praying for the area before me. Yet I need you to remember this place in your prayers, I’d love to be a witness and a part of something that God does here.

• Church Contribution to the Big Society

Read this article by Simon Jenkins on the role church can play in realising the government’s Big Society vision. The things it brought out to me is how the church seeks to do good in the community and expect that to be recognised by public services and then have access to public funds to maintain those activities.

The challenge with this is that if you’re making recourse to public funds, you are subject to public requirements. That ‘public requirement’ is determined by the government of the day who may be nominally Christian but will endeavour to ‘serve all’ and thus have values that may come into conflict with the motives of the church. That’s not rhetoric that’s experience.

Meanwhile there’s the issue over the use of church facilities for community services. Though I’m not one for lauding huge epic structures – be it a cathedral or a multi-million pound complex – it is surely good stewardship not to limit their usage for prayer time, but also to meet real needs of those nearby. Far greater than this, though, should be the drive to believers to see the need they can meet, not relying on man-centred resources, but on the God-given ones offered to all those who believe since Pentecost. Please remember these issues in your prayers.

• Eric Carpenter

Now to me Eric is part of three writers who consistently produce stuff that challenges me as a believer to read my Bible and see in the light of Jesus Christ how should I be as a believer and how that relates to life as church.

Already prayed for King Arthur (don’t stop praying, he’s the man!), and Alan is the root to everything I’ve discovered in terms of a challenging view on church life actually based on scriptures, so I’ll always be grateful to him.

It was through these that I came across Eric and his whole journey in Christ is fascinating in itself to the point that now not only do I get engrossed in what he’s doing practising simple church as he understands it, but I’m also intrigued at how he’s still stretching out and branching out into what for me is unknown territory. He is very real in his blogs, it really is a pilgrim’s progress and he’s as honest about the vulnerabilities as he is about the certainties, that’s what makes what he has to say as far as Jesus is concerned and His church all the more riveting and food for thought. Please remember this guy in your prayers.

I am coming to the end of day three of a rest period for me from work. It is obviously at this time that a number of niggling illnesses have ‘caught up’ with me, and I’m still recovering, but I’m looking forward to the rest. That rest, however, is not to cease with everything – I’ve been slacking on blogging for about a month now and there’s some stuff still to be written so I’m hoping to use some of the rest time for that. Yet the point of mentioning this is just praying for wisdom to make the most of this time so as to get proper recuperation and refreshment time, physically, emotionally and spiritually. That is what prayer can do.

Have a great weekend.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd