All At One Time Prayer
At the close of our church planters' retreat this morning we did something that most of us had never done before. We had a prayer time for each person -- where everybody prayed at the same time.

The person being prayed for sat in the middle. The other five stood around him, with a laying on of hands, and everyone prayed their own prayer for the person.

Wooohh.

It was a truly powerful prayer moment for each of us each time.

As a person praying it was interesting at first when you realized that you had to concentrate on what you were praying about and not try to listen to the other prayers. I found that I had to put my focus on God and what I wanted to say to God about the brother sitting in the chair. You would pick up a piece here and there of what the others were saying, which could lead you to add a bit to your prayer. But there was a real sense of intentionally connecting with the person, God, and the Spirit. I also found myself being less concerned with how I was saying what I was saying. I didn't have to be profond, deep, or worry about saying something that didn't make sense.

But to sit in the middle and be prayed for was also a unique experience. I have had people pray for me through laying on of hands many times. It is always a humbling and exciting and spiritually empowering experience. This was different. I could not listen to all the prayers being said so I stopped trying to. I stopped wondering what the other thought about me. I couldn't get the ego strokes of hearing others talk to God about me. I just sat there and picked up a word or a phrase and felt the power flowing in, around, and through me. I had to give up, turn it over, and just allow God to be there.

When we had all been prayed for we just stood there for a moment, laughing and enjoying the moment of company and community that the Lord had brought together around us for those two and a half days. It was the best way I know of to bring it all together.

Two Sites Updated
November updates and changes are in place at Next-Wave and emergingchurch.info. Good stuff as usual.