By Cameron Silsbee
Optional Kids Practice
Invite kids in your group to be with the adults for a few minutes. Once they seem ready to engage, ask them the following prompt.
- What do you like about praying for things? What’s hard about it?
Ask the kids if they have something the adults could be praying for. If there are any prayer requests, have one of the adults pray out loud over those prayer requests. Once finished, feel free to dismiss all the kids to do what they typically do during Practices.
Begin with prayer
Gather together as a Community in a comfortable setting. Take a moment in silence, in the presence of Jesus and each other. Have one person read Colossians 3v1-4 over the group and then pray to ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together.
Debrief the most recent teaching
- What did you take away from the teaching, and what has God been doing in your life this past week because of it?
- How did last week’s Practice of Lectio Divina go?
Read this overview
One of the most foundational aspects of following Jesus is prayer. Many people mark the beginning of their apprenticeship by praying to Jesus to save them. Over the millennia, many Christian traditions have established prayer rituals for those on their deathbeds, prayer being one of the final things a person does before dying.
For the next several weeks, your Community will engage in five different kinds of prayer – Confession, Lament, Contemplative, Communal, and Praying God’s Love. These types of prayer may be less familiar to you than others, but as a Community, you will be exploring each one. The point of this isn’t simply to become better at prayer – although that’s not bad – but to carve out time to experience God’s love through prayer.
Discuss the following prompts
- Think back to a meaningful time when someone prayed over you. What was it like? What happened?
- Think back to a meaningful time when you prayed over someone else. What was it like? What happened?
Practicing right now:
If there’s time tonight, take a moment to think about how much you’ve prayed over the last two days. Make a mental list of the length and number of times you’ve prayed over the last two days. You can think of it in terms of time you set aside to pray and spontaneous prayer times throughout the day. You don’t have to share or compare numbers, but spend time discussing your reactions to this exercise:
- Are you positively or negatively surprised by the length and number of times you prayed?
- How do you imagine Jesus views your prayer life over the last two days?
Practicing this week:
For this week’s Practice, you’ll set aside time to listen to the Van City Church podcast episode about the different types of prayer. The episode will become available on Wednesday, October 9th. Note the types of prayer you’re either familiar or unfamiliar with, intrigued or confused by, and jot down a few ideas about what you hope to gain from this series.
Be prepared to share with your Community next week.
Close in prayer
End by having someone read this prayer from Ephesians 3v14-21:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.