One of the brothers at our church, Gil Kim, offered up this congregational prayer during a recent Sunday morning worship service. Throughout the prayer you could feel his trembling and crying out to God coming from inside — which gave these words below tangible authenticity in spirit. While some prayers are completely ad-hoc, I was glad to find out Gil had some written cues for his prayer offering. I asked him if he could flesh them out into a publishable text representing the prayer he led during service to share here with you. As you read this text, perhaps you can join in with your own prayer following Gil’s A-C-T-S framework.

Let us go to God in prayer….

[Adoration] Father God, we come before you in prayer, humbled by your majesty, feeling small and unworthy of your Grace. Lord, before a word is spoken from our lips, you know what is in our hearts. And although we strive to know your thoughts, we will always be short. We wish and hope to follow your will, for if we do the things that are pleasing to you, who or what can be against us? Not one soul . . . not a whole nation. Lead us in the way everlasting. (Inspired by Psalm 139)

[Confession] Lord, teach us how to repent. Teach us to hate evil and move away from sin. Lord, we have done so many bad things in our lives. We have made others cry for all the wrong reasons. We have coveted other people’s wealth and given respect to the amount of money or the size of the house our neighbors have. We have spread rumors and lies on occasion, all the while thinking we are good and Godly people. Lord, teach us to repent.

[Thanksgiving] Lord, we thank you for giving us your only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the Bible, which shows us how to live our lives. Thank you for the cross, for when Jesus sacrificed himself, he became the Lamb of God. With his blood, he washed away ALL OF OUR SINS. He made us pure in your eyes and gave us an opportunity to have fellowship with You again. Please let us not squander this opportunity, but instead share it with others.

Thank you Lord for our beautiful wives, our endearing husbands, our loving parents, and for our adorable children. Thank you for letting us understand through our children, why we are punished, why we are disciplined, why things are withheld from us. We know now that we do the same things to our children because we love them. All of these things are signs of love, difficult to understand to the child and also difficult for us to understand with you. Please continue to teach us how to live our lives in Christ.

[Supplication] Lord, we pray for those in need. We pray for the hungry, for the homeless, for those who have not yet been saved. Teach us to embrace them, to help whomever crosses our path, for that random meeting is not coincidence, it is a divine opportunity to show the love of Jesus by action. We hope through the suffering, you create perseverance, character and finally hope in us. And hope does not disappoint us because YOU have poured out YOUR love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom YOU have given us (Romans 5:5).

Lord, we pray for our pastors and their families. Let the Holy Spirit continue to guide them in all things. We pray for all the ministries in Cornerstone. For all the people who do not get worldly praise, but are building treasures in heaven. Praise God for all who serve Christ; to serve is to live in Christ and to serve to grow in Christ. May we continue to grow, work in unity and harmony with each other.

[Closing] As Christians, we have been taught to live a life of humbleness and forgiveness. Please let us remember to remove our pride and always love one another.

We pray ALL of this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

How do the congregational prayers offered at your church resemble or differ from this sample congregational prayer above? Please leave a comment to let us know how so?

This is a tip that can really pack the pews. . .But most churches never use it.

In fact, only 2% of church members actually follow-through with this secret weapon to grow a church.

Did you know that 73% of people who do not attend church have never been invited?

And couple that with the fact that up to 82% of people say that go to church with a friend if they were invited, almost every church out has the potential to grow their attendance rosters within the next 4 weeks.

Why are only 2% of church goers inviting new friends and family to come to a church worship service, event, class, outing, picnic, retreat, bible study, or fellowship group meeting?

What excuses are you holding onto that prevent you from creating annual invite-a-friend weekends (other than Easter or Christmas!)? How can you change the culture of your church right now to be more INVITING — literally? Why haven’t you created pass-along conversation tools to hand out to EVERYONE in your church?

In the Catholic faith, it is customary to enter the church and then dip your fingers in the Holy Water made available up front and then make the sign of the cross. It is a reminder of the baptism that one has made into the church body.

Even though the Holy Water is not meant to be injested, some churches are taking the fears of the times into consideration. Here, the pesky old H1N1 fears have taken hold today.

Check out this invention: sanitized Holy Water dispensers . . .

But can HOLY water be sanitized? Does sanitization change the nature of the Holy Water — as transubstantiation does in the Catholic tradition to the bread and wine of the Eucharist?

Necessary? Profound? Irrelevant? Just curious, what’s your reaction to this?

Critics of church online all point to the sterility and breakdown of human connections across the digital highway.

Stefana Broadbent, an anthropologist who has studied human relationships across technology (cell phones, IM, Skype / video chatting, Facebook, etc) for over 20 years, has come to a different conclusion.

While you watch this video of her presentation on how the Internet and technology actually increases intimacy in human relationships, you’ll find the eerie Dunbar number coming up (120-150!). Technology hasn’t drastically increased the number of real connections we manage online – humans are in the end humans.

But of course there’s a little twist. . .

Did you notice the typical number of people each person connects with in close relationship (80%…___ intense relationships) when using technology mediums? Surprising? No?

Broadbent’s findings can have real implications for how church online approach and use technology to communicate and connect its people.

But this learning isn’t just applicable to digital worship communities trying to build out complete online church experiences. Technology won’t just by default destroy or degrade intimacy in relationships — it can actually leap across distance and social/cultural structures (like workplace rules) to enhance and build relationships where offline just can’t compete.

The presentation in this video is an interesting data point when thinking about how to approach the use of social media by pastors and churches.

What do you think?

A new nationwide study shows that there’s a shift happening with how people view and engage with the Bible.

Young adults have an overarching skepticism regarding the Bible not present in older audiences surveyed.

So what does this mean for your church and ministry?

One way to look at it is that what you’re doing right now isn’t working.

It’s time to not just try different things. It’s time to BE different.

Are the sermons being crafted for the pulpit taking into consideration some of the issues important to the younger generation? Is your church’s discipleship curriculum trying to engage the younger Mosaics or are you just trying to force it upon them? Is your entire ministry embracing some the easiest ways to gain and keep the attention of our church’s future?

If you pay attention, you’ll see some of the things this report has found to be useful in evolving your ministry work:

• Young people want to participate in the process of learning
• They are turned off by too much formality in sermons and lectures on the Bible
• Instead of classrooms, they are craving experiences that appear unscripted and interactive
• One way dialogue is the old way. This group want a medium that allows open and honest questioning
• They want technologically stimulating, creative and visual content
• They want to grow in communion with their peers through authentic relationships

Does anything strike you as completely opposite of what you’re seeing now in the church?

Today’s guest post is from Kathy Leonard of Church Initiative. The ministry’s original purpose was to equip churches with resources to help people recover from the pain of separation and divorce, also to help couples remain together or reconcile whenever possible. Kathy shares a unique tactic one church has used to help get people in the door to its ministry programs.

A blip in the church bulletin. . .
An abbreviated pulpit announcement. . .
A spot on the church calendar. . .

How well is your church getting the word out about its programs?

And are people in your community even aware of the help available for them?

Lazybrook Baptist Church in Houston has gotten the attention of nearly every person driving by their church: “Do you relate to Jon and Kate?” reads their marquee. I can imagine the drivers doing a double take, then thinking “Yeah, I can relate to that.”

Although reality TV isn’t reality, it deals with real issues that people are facing. It’s one reason people tune in. That’s why it can be a great starting point for promotional efforts.

For example, Jon and Kate’s reality TV breakup hits close to home for people facing their own broken marriages. And Lazybrook’s new DivorceCare support group program aims to reach the separated and divorced in their community.

Using hot topics from reality TV as a church promo tool can relay a variety of messages:

• “God has something to say about the things you’re thinking about.”
• “What you hear on TV isn’t the final word about [relationships, parenting, sex, etc.].”
• “Church is a place where people can find answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.”

Pop culture is a vehicle your church can use to go straight to the heart of people’s problems. And you can be creative in expanding your ideas beyond marquees and reality shows!

Let’s draw people into our churches by:

* Connecting the spiritual with what they are already thinking about
* Making them aware that God has a something to say about “Hot Topics”
* Using messages that grab the attention of large numbers of people

What do you think about hooking into reality TV and other tabloid headlines in order to get people’s attention for the church?

Right now, there’s approximately 40 online churches across the world wide web.

None of them have gotten it fully right yet.  Most online pastors will tell you they agree with that assessment too.

But all of them are also forging ahead without looking back.  It’s all about wrestling with technology, content and how to make the connections made in church online constitute authentic Christian community.

Check out this vid from Pastor Dave Adamson from LiquidChurch.com about the immediate future.

This is a glimpse of what’s ahead immediately in front of us.

It’s inevitable that church online will embraced by thousands of more people going forward.

Only time will tell about the real distant future — about what church online will look like then.  A bunch of stuff needs to happen with the church online model as it becomes fully acknowledged as another way of “doing church.”

What are your thoughts?

Church growth is such an important topic these days.

Some criticism has been that the mainline denominations haven’t been strategic enough about assimilation strategy and evangelistic intentionality.

But the Catholic Church apparently isn’t going to sit back and let church attendance decline on its own.

Instead, it seems that the Vatican has announced a decision to forgo organic growth in preference for a mergers and acquisition strategy — or rather a hostile takeover bid aimed squarely at the Anglican Church.

The Roman Catholic Church is taking advantage of recent political heat the Church of England is taking over female and gay clergy issues.  And the Pope felt it was the right time to reach out in hopes converting masses of disgruntled Anglicans to the Catholic faith.

At a press conference, the Vatican even announced a new canonical structure to accommodate existing Anglican traditions inside of the Catholic faith. In a way, it’s like acquiring a company and letting the current management to stay in tact. For example, married Anglican preists to stay married, alongside existing Catholic priests restricted from marriage (Hmm…will that sit well permanently without causing any friction????)

It’s a bold move.  Apparently it took a lot of people by surprise.  It also looks like the Anglican Church leadership didn’t have much choice either.

What do you think about this?  What is the Catholic Church really trying to do via this move?

I’m excited to join the vidcast tomorrow of Tim Keller and the Leadership Summit people over at Willow Creek.

But in the meantime, take a look at this interview where Tim Keller talks about the 4 or 5 ways in which evangelism must be different today in order to be impactful.

One of Dr. Keller’s key points specifically applies to urban centers, such as Redeemer’s setting: NYC.  He talks about how critical it is for the Church to really provide the tools, resources, modeling and teaching to its people how to integrate their faith **in** their work.

IMHO, he is spot-on in that cities tend to have more vocationally focused people (people who live to work, vs. work to live), so building out ministries such as www.faithandwork.org is quite mandatory if there is to be any impact.

But the lesson can be applied to much broader applications.  The Church today can’t just teach objective knowledge about the Bible.  It can’t just focus upon spiritual praxis.  It can’t just just provide moral teachings as well.   Not anymore.

When non-Christians are exposed to the Church’s message, they really need to see how it looks like if they were to step into the light.

The only way to do that is to build communities where this intentional integration of the Gospel into vocation that Dr. Keller talks about is vibrantly embraced and highly visible.

The new rules and approach to evangelism now take on a wholistic ministry approach.  You do see that, right?

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service:

‘And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?’

One bright little girl raised her hand eagerly because she knew the answer.

After the teacher acknowledged her enthusiasm, she simply replied. . . (more…)