Listening to God, Together
A Simple Prayer Initiative to Jumpstart a Listening Process.
An effective Spiritual Listening Plan begins with listening to God. A powerful way to do this as a church is to lead a breakthrough prayer initiative. In her book Flood Gates, Sue Nilson-Kibbey defines a breakthrough prayer initiative as,
“When God’s people join together in an intentional prayer movement across all ages to simply and repeatedly pray— either silently or aloud—asking God to break through in new and miraculous ways.”
In Mark 7:32-35 Jesus heals a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment by declaring, “Be open!” Before the man can speak clearly, his ears need to be opened. One theologian noted that the text points to the fact that the man was born able to hear and lost his hearing sometime later. Your church was born with ears open and attentive to your neighbors—it’s why your church exists today. If your church is anything like the ones I talk to there’s a good chance you’ve lost that connection to your neighbors. Before you venture out into your neighborhood you too can ask Jesus to open your ears once again.
This week’s newsletter will offer some suggestions on how to lead a prayer initiative that prepares your church to embark on a listening process.
Getting Started:
Select a prayer team: This can be the same group as the listening team which will be leading the rest of the listening process or you can open up the group to others.
Plan out your prayer initiative: Over the course of four weeks gather the group to reflect and pray together. During week one give a brief overview of the listening process and the breakthrough prayer initiative and introduce the week one prayer focus. In the following three weeks start the meeting with an invitation to share how personal prayers have gone the prior week before praying as a group. In the fourth and final week include a time at the end for commissioning the listening team for the other steps of the listening process.
Pray through the three areas of listening: Over the next three weeks these short prayers can serve as an anchor for your group and individual prayers.
Week One: Listening to God
Simple Prayer: “Open our ears to your voice.”Week Two: Listening to Our Congregation.
Simple Prayer: “Open our ears to the individual and collective passions, dreams, gifts and longings of this congregation.”Week Three: Listening to Our Neighbors.
Simple Prayer: “Open our ears to the individual and collective passions, dreams, gifts and longings of our neighbors.”
Keep track of what you hear: Be sure to keep written records of what prayer team members are hearing and experiencing in personal and group prayer time. This information will direct your listening process and might be important to your listening team’s final report.
May your church be opened to the voice of God and the voices of your neighbors so that you might discern where God is inviting you to join in expanding the kingdom.