St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

A Prayer Audit?

At a recent church service, we looked at the four marks of the early church in Acts 2, where it says the believers met together for:

the apostles' teaching,
fellowship,
breaking bread together, and
prayer.

During the sermon I asked "Which of these is the weakest point of our church life together at St Luke's?" About two thirds of the people present said "prayer", and the rest abstained.

So during the summer we are going to try to address this problem. Here are some questions to assess our strengths and weaknesses. For each of them, try to give a score from 0 to 5, where
0 = not at all true, and
5 = very much true of our church.

Our church values different people's contribution to prayer. [ ]
A good proportion of our church members play an active part in our prayer life together. [ ]
We are comfortable praying out loud together. [ ]
Prayer is a priority in our church life. [ ]
We pray whenever we get together as a church. [ ]
Prayer is always interesting in our church. [ ]
There is a feeling in our church that God changes things when we pray. [ ]
When we pray we make sure that everyone knows what we're praying about. [ ]
Our church keeps confidentialities and doesn't break them by giving too much detail when we pray. [ ]
Our prayer is spread across the week and isn't kept just on Sundays. [ ]
Church members are kept up-to-date with how God has answered our prayers. [ ]
If someone has an urgent need for prayer, they know how to get a lot of people in the church praying quickly. [ ]
You get the feeling that when we pray in a meeting, God might say something that changes the decision we make. [ ]
We take prayer out into our community. [ ]
We are good at listening to God's voice when we pray. [ ]
As a church we believe that God will do something when we pray, and that's why we pray. [ ]
We are good at praying for the sick. [ ]

You might like to let me know if you feel any of these questions is particularly important for us to work on, as we look at prayer over this summer.

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. July 2005, Page 4.
Home Page. Index of articles: by subject, by date. In this issue: (July 2005) Flying cow, Foundations, Prayer Audit, Day Centre, Song. Other items on sermon series. Other items on prayer.	A Prayer Audit? At a recent church service, we looked at the four marks of the early church in Acts 2, where it says the believers met together for: the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking bread together, and prayer. During the sermon I asked "Which of these is the weakest point of our church life together at St Luke's?" About two thirds of the people present said "prayer", and the rest abstained. So during the summer we are going to try to address this problem. Here are some questions to assess our strengths and weaknesses. For each of them, try to give a score from 0 to 5, where 0 = not at all true, and 5 = very much true of our church. Our church values different people's contribution to prayer. [ ] A good proportion of our church members play an active part in our prayer life together. [ ] We are comfortable praying out loud together. [ ] Prayer is a priority in our church life. [ ] We pray whenever we get together as a church. [ ] Prayer is always interesting in our church. [ ] There is a feeling in our church that God changes things when we pray. [ ] When we pray we make sure that everyone knows what we're praying about. [ ] Our church keeps confidentialities and doesn't break them by giving too much detail when we pray. [ ] Our prayer is spread across the week and isn't kept just on Sundays. [ ] Church members are kept up-to-date with how God has answered our prayers. [ ] If someone has an urgent need for prayer, they know how to get a lot of people in the church praying quickly. [ ] You get the feeling that when we pray in a meeting, God might say something that changes the decision we make. [ ] We take prayer out into our community. [ ] We are good at listening to God's voice when we pray. [ ] As a church we believe that God will do something when we pray, and that's why we pray. [ ] We are good at praying for the sick. [ ] You might like to let me know if you feel any of these questions is particularly important for us to work on, as we look at prayer over this summer. John Hartley
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