"The Prayer Plunge"

Pastor Laura Guy

February 17, 2008

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

Even though we have a policy of never canceling worship, we discovered that our parking lot had not been plowed, and the slippery snow made trying to get to church dangerous. So, with great sadness, we made the decision to cancel worship. Then, a few minutes before 11:00, one of our families walked in the door - two parents, four kids and two grandparents. One of the girls was having a birthday, and she had requested that her grandparents come to church with them to celebrate. Suddenly, we were having a worship service!
We used rhythm instruments to accompany our singing as we called people to worship the Lord.
We watched a video of a family who listened to where God was leading them.
We heard a story from Gay Reese, the author of Unbinding the Gospel, as she told about a group of women who started an evangelism committee in a local church. When they asked Gay what they needed to do to get started, she told them to pray for three months. The women were shocked, but did as Gay suggested. At the end of their three months, they launched a huge ministry that saw 50 volunteers sign up to help. By spending so much time listening to God, the women knew how to start, and their prayer efforts produced huge results.
We read the story of Peter meeting Jesus in Luke 5:1-11. Even though Peter was a professional fisherman, Jesus, the carpenter, told Peter where he needed to go to catch a lot of fish. Peter was inclined to dismiss Jesus' suggestion, but he said, "Because you say so, I will do it." When he listened and followed what Jesus said, he caught more fish than he had ever seen.
We realized that when we listen for where God is leading us, and don't act as if everything depends on us and our own knowledge, our efforts can be so much more rewarding.
We remembered that our mission to be a church that offers Christ's living water to spiritually thirsty people and then helps them become bearers of that living water to others will take a lot of help from God. We must take the prayer plunge, go deep into prayer, to listen to where God is leading us.
We shared communion with one another, remembering that Jesus provided it for us.