AND FOR YOU FELLOW EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS

“Let all things be done decently and in order” (I Corinthians 14:40)

I fear this will make some of my Christian “brothers and sisters” angry and has the potential to spark an angry e-mail or two. Please do me a favor. Think and pray about what I have to say in this posting. Please give it at least 24 hours before firing off an e-mail to me. (Also, before firing off any e-mails, please read and “soak” in 2 Corinthians 10 and 11!)

One pet peeve I have as a pastor is when it’s time to conclude a prayer meeting (or any meeting for that matter) and I close in prayer (or someone else closes in prayer) and THEN someone says something like, “I just feel led to pray for such and such”. It puts the leader in a horrible, no win situation. If the leader DOESN’T allow that person to pray, the leader appears to be very cold, insensitive and unspiritual. If the leader DOES allow that “I just feel led...” person to pray, well, the leader is not the leader. Mr. or Ms. “I just feel led...” has become the leader.

Something happened near the conclusion of the “17th Annual New England Pastors’ Prayer Summit” this morning that I am going to use as a teachable moment. I know I have to be careful. Those of us who attend the Prayer Summits are in covenant to NOT reveal anything that happens at the Prayer Summits. Sometimes pastors share deep and detailed personal problems or sensitive information about church problems they are having. I would NEVER, NEVER reveal anything like that. But I think what I’m about to share is generic enough that it will not do harm, but CAN be (as I’ve written) a “teachable moment”. This Prayer Summit like all of them had several “facilitators”. I am not going to use their real names. I’ll call one Pastor Ned from Massachusetts, another Pastor Frank from Connecticut, and a female, Pastor Suzanne from Massachusetts. (The Summits used to be for men only. Women ministers began attending a few years ago.)

The Prayer Summit was scheduled to conclude this morning at 11 a.m. After we got checked out of our rooms, etc., we began singing and praying in the chapel at around 9:30. (There are no pews. There are individual chairs which we usually have arranged in a circle.) It’s been our custom to spend our last half hour or so praying for revival in New England, and focusing specifically on geographic areas and certain particular ministries. This morning, beginning around 10:30, we began a prayer focus for Maine, then New Hampshire and Vermont, then Rhode Island and Connecticut, then Boston, then Cape Cod, then Springfield, MA and the Pioneer Valley. After that, those who are particularly called to be Intercessors (there were around 7 of them) were called into the middle of the circle, and we had a time of concentrated prayer for them. When all this was done, it was 11:14 a.m. One pastor from Massachusetts (he happens to be a personal friend of mine) said, “We DIDN’T pray for Massachusetts”. The male facilitators quickly explained that we had just prayed for Boston, Cape Cod, and the Pioneer Valley. That did not satisfy my pastor friend, so Pastor Frank from Connecticut then said, “O.K. then, you lead us in a prayer for Massachusetts.” He did. It was now 11:15. Pastor Suzanne the female facilitator then passionately said, “I think we need to pray for the INTERNATIONAL community in New England and all those who are ministering to internationals!”

Pastor Ned happens to be one of the most anointed and spiritually minded men I’ve ever met. He’d be the LAST guy to “quench the Spirit”. But I could see from the look on his face that he was being put into that famous, “I just feel led...” position.

“I’m going to let Pastor Frank make the final decision,” Ned said, “but for my mind, WE’RE DONE. It’s 11:15. We’ve got folks here who have four hour drives. We told them we’d be through by 11.”

Pastor Frank said, “Well, I think we can have several people pray out real brief and to-the-point prayers, and then in a few minutes we’ll close.”

I don’t remember who, but at that point, some pastor started NOT praying but TALKING....saying, “You know, I’d just like to share about...”

“NO.” Pastor Frank interrupted him, “NO sharing. Just prayer. TWO MINUTES and then I’M CLOSING IT.”

Frank and Ned did NOT say any of what they said in angry tones. But they did speak frankly and bluntly. I wanted to applaud each of them. Frank actually allowed prayer to go on for three or four minutes (I would not have let it go even that long) and then closed us.

I gave that scenario some thought as I drove home, and I decided to share it. It may seem like I’m making a big deal of it, but part of love and respect in the Body of Christ is keeping our word...is being sensitive to time and commitments, and to proper perimeters. (We HAD three days to pray and 90 minutes to pray this morning. We also could pray in our cars on the way home. Ned’s point about the 11 a.m. closing and the people who had to drive 4 hours was well taken.)

So, that’s one of my pet peeves as a pastor. And, I just feel led to have you think and pray about it!