It's been more than a week since our retreat led by Dr. Paul Borden, but I'm still puzzling over some of the things he said. One of the examples he gave to illustrate his point about churches thinking too small was the practice of sharing prayer concerns during worship.
He was referring to a time in a worship service when members of the congregation are invited to speak out and ask for prayers for people or circumstances they are concerned about. Sometimes this includes praise to God for recovery from illness or other good things that happen in their lives. When I've seen this done it seemed to me that it emphasized the Christian fellowship and connectedness of the congregation as well as encouraging their Christian witness, and that would be a good thing and probably appealing to visitors.
Not so, says Borden. He thinks that this type of practice makes visitors feel uncomfortable and excluded from an intimate time of sharing between those who have relationships with each other. The more I thought about it, the more I thought he has a point when he says that this type of personal prayer request is better made in small groups or to an organized prayer ministry of the church. Yet on the other hand, it is hard to imagine a church eliminating this from their worship service without a giant kerfuffle ensuing.
This is just one example of the difficulty congregations will encounter if they really try to make the people who are not members (or do not attend) their priority rather than those who do. Today I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect.
He was referring to a time in a worship service when members of the congregation are invited to speak out and ask for prayers for people or circumstances they are concerned about. Sometimes this includes praise to God for recovery from illness or other good things that happen in their lives. When I've seen this done it seemed to me that it emphasized the Christian fellowship and connectedness of the congregation as well as encouraging their Christian witness, and that would be a good thing and probably appealing to visitors.
Not so, says Borden. He thinks that this type of practice makes visitors feel uncomfortable and excluded from an intimate time of sharing between those who have relationships with each other. The more I thought about it, the more I thought he has a point when he says that this type of personal prayer request is better made in small groups or to an organized prayer ministry of the church. Yet on the other hand, it is hard to imagine a church eliminating this from their worship service without a giant kerfuffle ensuing.
This is just one example of the difficulty congregations will encounter if they really try to make the people who are not members (or do not attend) their priority rather than those who do. Today I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect.
