Prayer helps - to help you focus

Prayer is pretty important to a Christian. It is the avenue through which a Christian can talk directly with God (the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe) and share true emotions with the one person who had to power to really change things.

Because prayer is so important, it can be overwhelming. Students struggle to pray. Adults struggle to pray. Youth workers struggle to teach teenagers ways to pray or encourage them to start, even just for a few minutes.

Below you will find 3 prayer helps. The first 2 are methods that can be used to help a student (or anyone for that matter) focus their prayer time. The 3rd help is about focusing your prayers, but learning to focus more on other people and less on yourself when you pray.


P.I.N.C.a.P.
Praise - praise God for Who He is
Intercession - praying for other people
Needs - pray specifically for needs you know about
Confession - confessing your sins
and
Protection - asking God for protection for those who need it


A.C.T.S.
Adoration - praising God for Who He is
Confession - confessing your sins
Thanksgiving - telling God "thank you" for His blessings
Supplication - asking for "stuff" on behalf of yourself and others


me & we vs. You & them
How do you pray? Do you spend your prayer time focused on yourself and those close to you? Or is your prayer time focused more on God and others?


What ideas/helps have you used in the past? What would you suggest and add to this list?

Learned from Twitter: week ending July 4, 2009

Hope you are enjoying your 4th of July weekend. To help get you going this weekend, here are a few tidbits of information I learned this week on Twitter.

1. crowderband (David Crowder Band) let us know some specifics about the upcoming album. Mark your calendars.

"Church Music releases Sept 22. 17 tracks. 73 minutes. There you have it!"

2. Drpoulette (Dennis Poulette), along with a few others, shared a link to the article about the walkman review by a 13 year old. Its a great read. My favorite part is when he admits to not knowing there was a second side to the tape - classic.

"RT @boingboing 13 year old kid reviews a 30 year old Sony Walkman http://tinyurl.com/lgwu3g original story: http://bit.ly/SAZSX"

3. bigsmooth433430 (Matt Couch) has a student photography team. I want one! Better yet, I wish my group would have had one when I was in high school.

"Getting ready to meet with our student photography team for the first time. Pretty pumped about all the new ministries starting this summer"

4. nikomas (Nikomas) shares a link worth reading.

"Apostle Paul's bones tested and pass authenticity: http://www.google.com/hoste..."

5. YMX (Youth Ministry Exchange) provides the link to the story about the accident involving a youth minister, a youth coach and some teens during a day at the lake. If you haven't already, take some time to pray for those involved with this tragedy.

"News story about the youth trip accident that claimed 2 in MN http://is.gd/1j7gq"

6. steelehousemark (Mark Steele) is in control of the Tomato's words. Look out toddler world, the next VeggieTales movie is gonna be funny, at least I would expect it to be with Mark working on the script. (I am looking forward to this one.)

"Working on outline & script for the next VeggieTale. Oh tomato, you will say what I tell you to say."

What did you learn from Twitter this week?

A prayer during communion

I was sitting by my boys (5 and 3), one on each side of me during service. Nothing unusual was happening, mostly the same routine for us during the service. Then came the Lord's Supper. This part of the service is always interesting for us, because it can be difficult to quietly concentrate on Christ's sacrifice when your child is asking you to get him a crayon or help read a book. Over the weeks/months, we have been trying to teach the boys what the Lord's Supper is about and why we partake each week.

Before I continue the story, you need to know that we pass the bread first and then pass the juice separately.

Well, on this Sunday, something unusual happened. On this Sunday, after I ate the bread I decided to go ahead and just pray silently. It's not the first time the boys have seen my wife or I do this. But, on this occasion, my oldest did something different. While I was praying, he started to ask me a question. I do not know what the question was about, because he stopped himself mid sentence. And without opening my eyes, I continued to pray. Then, less than a minute later I heard him quietly talking to himself (which is not that unusual). What was different was that he was not talking to himself, he was praying.

He began to pray and this is a paraphrase of what I remember him saying:

"God, thank you for dying on the cross for me, so that I can have eternal life and live with you in heaven. I'm glad you did."

Then, when the juice was being passed and I took it and then prayed, he did the same thing. He prayed pretty much the same prayer again.

After I was done praying, I opened my eyes and looked at him. He asked if I was praying, to which I said "yes." Then he told me that he was too. (I did not tell him that I heard him or was so proud of him - I'll save that for later). I told him that it was good to pray during the Lord's Supper and smiled.

My son understands the connection between the Lord's Supper and Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. I mean, he could have prayed about anything, but he chose to pray about Christ's death and eternal life. He prayed a simple, genuine prayer of thanks - a great reminder of the simplicity of what Christ did for us on the cross.

Learned from Twitter: week ending May 9, 2009

Didn't get to see as much of the Twitter stream this week, but I still managed to catch some good nuggets of wisdom and truth.

Here are some of the things I learned this week from Twitter:

1. riddlegroup (Mark Riddle) reminded us of one very simple part of leadership that we must be mindful about.
"dreaming with people brings life, dreaming for people is deadly."

2. saraeden (Sara Eden Williams) shared a prayer request that reminds us of the importance of what we do with students.
"Just hearing of an incident at a high school in the area: Senior committed suicide in the school bathroom this morning. Please pray for all."

3. dbeckner (Dennis Beckner) shared about his night teaching and reminded us that it doesn't have to go "perfectly" in order to be effective. God shows up despite our fumbles.
"Crazy night of teaching. Everything went wrong, but message still got through. I'll put that in the win column."

4. YS_Scoop (Youth Specialties) provided a link to the video from this week's conference call with Marko about the National Youth Workers Convention.
"Did you miss today's conference call? Watch the recorded video right now! http://nywc.com/live"

5. youthministry (Youth Ministry) offered a link to a free Mother's Day lesson (if you still need one - which none of you reading this would, right?)
"Still wondering what to teach about Mother's day? Here's a great freebie lesson for you: http://budurl.com/ymmd"

6. briandurr (Brian Durr) had a run-in with the campus security this week thanks to some school policy changes. All he wanted to do was eat lunch with his students.
"Wow- One of the local high schools changed their security procedures. I was escorted off campus for trying to eat lunch w/ my students."


What did you learn from Twitter this week?

Learned from Twitter: week ending March 14, 2009

Here is a sample of the variety of information I learned this week, thanks to Twitter.


1. crowderband (David Crowder Band) posted several links of some work in the studio.
"Day 2. http://tinyurl.com/dlen7k"

2. thirdday (Third Day) posted some pictures from some of their shows.
"Just posted a bunch of pictures from the Spencer and Champaign shows on our blog. http://www.thirdday.com/"

3. Most people do not like the switch to Daylight Savings Time. Here are 3 examples:
- saraedenI started blogging one year ago today. What did I blog about? How much I hate daylight savings. lol. Some things don't change.
- shawnmichaelNot pointing any fingers, but whoever set our bedroom clock ahead last night accidentally set it ahead TWO hours! (help me, LORD!) ;)
- pattigibbonsWhy DO we move an hour of daylight around twice a year? http://is.gd/mnEs I think the reasoning is weak!

4. AdamLehman (Adam Lehman) was one of the people from whom I learned about the shooting at a church in IL. I found out about the shooting a lot faster on Twitter than I would have waiting to see it on the news.
"RT @edstetzer: 5 shot, 1 killed at FBC Maryville, IL http://tinyurl.com/dfogwe pray.... "

5. tonysteward (Tony Steward) offers a very important tip about Twitter avatars, especially for guys.
"Twitter Avatar Tip: Guys ,any picture of you laying down in any way = unfollow. very creepy."

6. saraeden (Sara Williams) made me laugh with this piece of information.
"oh my word. was just looking at cookie cutters online. Saw a wedding one with the tag line "Cut out for each other" #lame"

7. ministrymonkey (Ministry Monkey) lets us know about a new site for ministry bloggers to connect with other ministry bloggers.
"We need people in ministry from EVERY state to add their blog over @ ministrybloggers.com - It's an alltop(ish) site for pastors to connect"

What did you learn this week?

Prayer for my daughter

This morning at 8:30am, my daughter is going in for hernia surgery. She is only 8 weeks old and weighs 8lbs. I would appreciate your prayers for her during this surgery. Thank you.

*updated*
The surgery went well and she is recovering well.

pray for the Chapman family

MARIA SUE CHAPMAN, DAUGHTER OF STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN, DIES IN ACCIDENT AT FAMILY HOME

NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08... At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters.

go to Steven Curtis Chapman's website to find out more and see how you can pray and help. They have set up a website dedicated to her memory, go here to meet Maria

Lord's Prayer: Rewritten by jr. highers

A few weeks ago, in a lesson on God being a good and loving Father, we were talking about the Lord's Prayer and I asked the class to help me rewrite it in light of what we had just been talking about. Here is the jr. high version they came up with...

Father, who lives in Heaven
we will honor Your name
May You rule as the ruler of Your kingdom
May it come soon here on Earth
Your wants come true
for all of Your creation
Give us daily what we need
Forgive our messes
as we don't hold things against others
Protect us from things that will tempt us
and keep us safe from Satan

puts a different light to the verses.

36 Hours of Prayer

Tonight, we started 36 hours of prayer at the church. This is leading up to our vote on Sunday to continue with our building expansion. I am excited about this prayer time at the church building.

I get to pray twice tonight. Each slot is a 1/2 hour long. I am scheduled for 11pm and 3am. Not sure exactly why I picked two slots 4 hours apart in the middle of the night. Well, I know why - the 3am slot was still open so I thought I could fill it.

I can't wait to hear from others (and experience myself) what God teaches through this extended prayer time as a church.

my first funeral

Sunday I will be involved with my first funeral. The funeral is for a lady who is the grandma to a girl in the jr. high and the mother to one of the adults who helps with the youth ministry.

I have never done a funeral before. And I never met this lady. For the family, its one more thing in a string of events that has been extremely difficult the last few weeks. So, I'm praying God gives me words that will bring comfort - more importantly I'm praying God brings comfort (in a way only He can).

My "boss" took some time to help me think about what I might want to say and showed me some ideas. So I feel a little better now about the actual content of the message. And the service is just going to be graveside.

Prayer for town and family

In my last post I mentioned that a serial killer was from my town. If you have watched the news or read anything on the internet today, you've probably heard about it.

Please pray for the family and for our town. Since we are a small town, most everyone knew them. I guess the kids (one just graduated last year) used to come out to the church when they were smaller. The old youth minister used to call on them and knows the family. I've never met them. I think I've seen the girl at school before, but I know I have never talked to her.

Again, please pray for the family and the town.

officiating a wedding

This Saturday, I am officiating a wedding. Its only the second wedding I've officiated. The first one was back in '02. It was for some good friends Kevin & Patti. That was such a long time ago.

This one is different. Its my sister's wedding. So I feel a little bit more nervous about it. All of my family will be there. I don't want to mess it up.

If you could pray for the wedding (safety traveling, etc) that would be appreciated.

I'll probably have some great pics and a few stories to share when we get back next week.

High School Camp

Today it starts. My first week of high school camp since I've gotten here. Well, its my first week of camp in a few years. I think I'm ready though. Especially because Amy and Nathan are going to be there, too.

I'm sure I'll have lots of stories to tell when I get back. Its going to be a great week for building relationships and getting to know the students better. And I'm pumped about what God is going to do in their lives!

ps. please keep praying for my grandma, she's supposed to have a defibrillator put in on Tues.

prayer for my grandma

Short version - please pray for my grandma, she had a stroke today and is in the hospital.

Longer version - Amy and I are wanting to go and visit my grandparents this next week (Monday & Tuesday) since we haven't seen them in a long time and I have two days off. They only live 2 hours from here. Well, this morning I called my grandma to talk to her about it and see if we could stay overnight. When I called it was the strangest thing. Normally, my grandma is very talkative and sharp. Well, today all I was hearing was "uh huh & yeah" to anything I asked. It was strange (and scary, if I'm honest) because it wasn't my grandma I was talking to - at least that is how it felt. So after I got off the phone I called my mom to talk to her about it and see if she had heard anything about my grandma's (her mom's) health. My mom hadn't heard anything but said she would try to talk to her sister (who lives in town with my grandparents) and see.

I didn't hear anything all day. I still had this strange feeling about the whole thing. Tonight while shopping I got a call from my dad. They finally heard back from my aunt and my grandma had been taken to the hospital because she had a stroke. I still don't know how she is doing. Though, since I haven't heard I assume she is doing alright.

It was just the strangest thing. I don't know if she had just had the stroke when I talked with her or was maybe in some form of beginning stages.

If you could please pray for my grandma and grandpa (along with the rest of the family) I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Missionary killed in car accident

I just got some bad news. One of the missionaries our church supports (we even had a group go down and work this past week with him in Mexico) was killed in a car accident last night. Apparently he was by himself and drove off the road. He just got remarried this past year. Please pray for his family and the ministry. His name is Steve Keim.

former student and myspace (update)

this past week I was on myspace looking at some of my former students' pages. While on one of them I decided to send the student a message just checking up with them. They seem to be getting more and more involved with gangs and there is not much I can do from 10 hours away. So I wanted to let him know I was thinking about him. I asked him how his relationship with God was lately. The next day I signed in and saw that I had less friends than the day before. He had deleted me from his friends. Which I guess answers my question.

But wow. He is avoiding any conversation about God. I don't think I've ever had something like this happen before. I am still a little shocked by the whole thing. Praying that he doesn't lose sight of God.

How can I connect with him from so far away? Or should I talk to the current youth minister and let him know what is going on?

UPDATE: I have also been dropped by his brother. Man, that is frustrating to see students slide as they are and not be close.

Woman sues for child-rearing costs after failed abortion

Yeah, you read that right. Some woman in Boston is sueing over a failed abortion because her little girl has cost too much to raise.

I always thought sueing McDonalds over spilled coffee (which you spilled on yourself) was a little over the top. But I have now been proven wrong.

I pray the little girl, who is 2 now, hears about God's love for her. I pray the mom hears about God's love for her, too. Why would anyone do this? I hope it doesn't even go to court and it gets dismissed or the woman drops the suit.

I hope a church or two out in Boston tries to reach out to this family. This little girl needs to know God has a purpose for her and wants to know her and love her. On Sunday in the high school class we're talking about God's call on your life. I think this might be a good way to introduce a discussion on how we, and others, see and value ourselves.

I found it at the YMX forums and the online article can be found here.

Prayer lesson #2

The other day, I got another prayer lesson from my son. We were at dinner and I had just gotten back from a volleyball game at the school. While he was praying, Nathan thanked God for my safe travel from the game. Now, the school is only .4 miles from my driveway. I didn't think much about the trip, but Nathan thought it was important enough to thank God. I almost started crying to hear him pray for me like that (without any prompting from anyone).

I know God heard his prayer and it was one I didn't think twice about not saying.

daily reminder from my 2 year old

My two year old is pretty cool. Yeah, I know I'm biased.

Just about every day, he reminds me of a very important spiritual truth. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly how he picked this up except from just watching Amy and me. Every time he prays before we eat he prays for everything on his plate. I mean everything: each item of food, his napkin, drink, spoon, fork and whatever else he happens to have. He thanks God specifically for everything he has. There have been times where he will thank God for other things he has, non food items, during our mealtime prayer.

How often do I thank God specifically for all the blessings He has given to me? I am reminded of the difference in a general thank you and a specific thank you. I need to spend more time praying specifically and less generally.

How about you?