Planting Starts With Prayer

     Thirty-one members of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Montgomery, AL attended our Prayer Ministry workshop. We used our book, "iPray" to facilitate a training session which equipped these members to help their fellow worshippers in understanding what the Bible, our Confessions and historic Church worship have said regarding Prayer; not for the sake of learning facts, but in order to have a solid foundation as the Church moves out beyond her walls and sanctuary into the lives of those around us who we are called to serve.

     In this four session workshop, we focused on the word, "for" from Isaiah 56:7closeIsaiah 56:7 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.” (ESV) closeIsaiah 56:7closeIsaiah 56:7 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.” (ESV) 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.” (ESV) ; "My house will be a house of Prayer for all the nations" Martin Luther in his commentary on Isaiah said that this verse reveals God's plan for fulfilling His promise to Abraham- God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations (as opposed to simply promising Abraham that he would be the father of many people). By God's grace, we discovered the importance of Christians being in Prayer "for" others and especially for non-believers (see Luther's Small Catechism; question #196) and then we looked very practically at how we can Pray for members, visitors and the community and develop a Prayer ministry which leads to Mercy and Multiplication.

     Pr. Elam was very pleased with the workshop, take a look and hear him share his reflection on our workshop. We are always happy to provide Prayer and Planting workshops for congregations. Please let us know if we can be of service.

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