And for the past few months I have been getting regular visits from some of Jehovah's Witnesses. Each time they come, I can't really speak to them for any length of time because we are usually doing something else, or at least getting ready to.
The last time they came by I apologized profusely and told them that next Saturday (today) around 11 would be great and I will make time to talk to them. I really want to get to know them as people and even as friends. My intention is not to argue over theology, but to build a bridge.
So this morning their visit was scheduled on my calendar. I got up early, made coffee, ran to Dunkin' Donuts, and prepared my table for today's first sit down visit.
They are a no show.
Figures.
I Have To Admit, I Don’t Get It–Part Two
October 1, 2010 by Jeff Dunn
Hear my prayer, O God;
Give ear to the words of my mouth. (Psalm 54:2, ESV)You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it. (Matthew 21:22, NLT)
They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. (Acts 2:42, The Message)
Hold a square dance night at church and prepare to have to push back more tables to make room for everyone. Having a chili cook-off? Set up twenty more tables than you were counting on. The guest preacher with a bestselling self-help book coming to your church this Sunday? Expect a packed house.
Announce a time of prayer, and all you’ll need is the toddler Sunday school room. And you’ll still have room for a couple of overflow tables of chili-eaters.
Are we not commanded to pray without ceasing? Is our Bible not filled with verses exhorting us to pray? Do we not see Jesus taking time away–often–to pray? Then why is prayer such an afterthought in American churches and for American Christians? I add the qualifier “American” because of the stories I hear firsthand of Korean Christians packing churches nationwide every morning for 5 am prayers. What is that they know that we don’t know? Or, more to the point, do they believe something we don’t believe?
If we American Christians really believed God hears and answers our prayers, we would be praying. We would be spending our time and energy in a much different manner if we thought Jesus meant it when he said anything we pray for we will receive. Why wouldn’t we? Annie Dillard laments the lack of belief in her essay, An Expedition To The Pole. “On the whole I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?”
We must not believe. Or, if we believe, we must not care. Because if we believe and we care, we would pray. Right?
Is prayer emphasized in your church, or is it an afterthought? You know, after the last song is sung and everyone is gathering their stuff and ready to head to lunch, someone announces, “If you need prayer for anything, one of our elders will be up front to meet with you.” Maybe someone goes up for prayer, usually not.
Does your church have a regularly scheduled time of prayer separate from a regular worship service? If so, how many participate?
Has your church ever had a time of 24/7 prayer for a week or more? Were all of the time slots filled?
How often does your teaching pastor speak on prayer?
Am I the only one who wonders why we are not a praying people?
I just don’t get it.
Posted in Jeff Dunn, Prayers · 93 Comments
The closest I have ever felt to God was after praying for hours with my prayer partner. It has been years. This is something I hope to change.
We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles, overcomes every resisting force and gains its ends in the face of invincible hindrances. - E. M. Bounds.
It is not too complex to understand. The question is, how will you respond?
Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day (Accordance electronic ed. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), n.p.
The Pew Forum on Religious Religion and Public Life released a survey on religious knowledge today. Atheists and Agnostics scored higher on it than anyone else, closely followed by Jews and Mormons, all Christians, Protestants and Catholics, were far behind.
That's overall, but when you get into specific religions it does show a startling lack of basic knowledge by practitioners. From the report:
More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45%) do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ. About half of Protestants (53%) cannot correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation, which made their religion a separate branch of Christianity. Roughly four-in-ten Jews (43%) do not recognize that Maimonides, one of the most venerated rabbis in history, was Jewish.
The study also showed that Americans have a fairly poor understanding of religions other than their own. Only about half of the people surveyed know that Martin Luther inspired the Reformation, the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, and Joseph Smith was a Mormon.
Why are Atheists and Agnostics better informed? The Los Angeles Times quotes one of the researchers who has a theory:
American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.
"These are people who thought a lot about religion," he said. "They're not indifferent. They care about it."
Also interesting is that Black Protestants and Latino Catholics scored at the bottom of the survey.
I hope that this will change.
Can you guess what it is?
Figures. Soon, they won't bother plugging in their guitars.