Prayer: forum or thread?

At the open space time last night, our group discussed making prayer available on Sun. mornings. I like the idea of posting requests and the follow-up with that, but personally, I also want the connection that comes with someone sitting next to me and praying with me. We discussed the idea of a team (that's gone through some training) being available either in the back or in a side room between or after services. Also, a suggestion was made to occasionally have a room set up where people could just go in and pray by themselves.

i love that idea and i think you're right about the connection. i think of this as kind of a "yes and..." idea.

i don't always hear about something significant that happens, where i would have loved to have prayed for the person/family. i think this might be a good way to get the word out so more people could pray (more prayer can't hurt!) and also to open up the possiblity of the personal connection.

for instance, i could read that so-and-so's mom just passed away unexpectedly. they post a request, people encourage them and pray for them long distance, but also some people who are close to so-and-so decide they want to go over his/her house and pray with that person or bring a meal. right now it's just the L2 team who is invited; with something like this many others could participate, too.

i think this site's supposed to facilitate community more that anything and it would be awesome to see more personal prayer as a result of a forum on prayer.

how do we control which forums we have?
if JeffW's Laser group wants a forum do they just get one?

this one is most likely an obvious add but what should be the process and who wants to be involved? I think it would be a bad thing if i just decided what gets in and what doesn't

I think forums should be managed by EPIC. If someone wants to add a forum, they can make a request and describe why their request doesn't fit within the current forum categories.

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I believe in God because every once in a while, I hear a voice that says, "You're my favorite."

I think it makes sense to have a prayer forum. But what would really be cool is if people would go back in and update prayer requests when situations change.

For example, let's not just have a "Pray for my sister who is trying to get the courage to leave an abusive situation," but let's have the person go back into that request as time goes on and update how things go.

Now, this won't necessarily be like an American movie where the guy gets the girl, the dead uncle's millions and the affection of an entire small town, but it would at least be an honest record of the ambiguities of asking God to intervene in life. It would be an ongoing story of people groping for the kingdom, for what it means to hope and what we need to ultimately place our hope in.

I'm wondering if there is a way to structure the Prayer forum to make it easier to track the stories. I'll ask Mr. Mincey about that...

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I believe in God because every once in a while, I hear a voice that says, "You're my favorite."

the simplest way to plug that into the existing design would be for the person who created the topic to go back and edit the origional post with UPDATE: or something similar… for now.

i think that’s better then having a mechanism to track that prayer requests are fulfilled because of what Dave has already stated, prayer is not always something that is answered in a determinate way but rather with a story. i’d rather read the story then see the a check-mark.

maybe something different like “active” or something.

Kay has a fair bit of experience in training people how to pray for others.

A prayer forum is a great idea.

No need for the "check off" system when they are answered. That will actually slow God down because he doesn't like to be tested like that. I'd rather get my prayers answered as efficiently as possible.

It's kinda like when you stare at an analog clock, the hands don't move. In the same way if you stare at God waiting for him to jump to your request, He usually won't do it. He prefers the element of surprise.

Dave-
I totally agree with you.
I recently had a realization that I pray for things, and then forget about it. So I don't build a foundation of seeing prayer work. It also explains why I have a horrible prayer life.
I started marking my request on an online calendar, and then posting the outcome. Not only does it show me where and how God is working in my life, but it builds an attitude of thanksgiving. My prayers are not always answered, or in a way I thought, but at least it "maps" what is happening.
I'm not sure if that helps the discussion, but I thought I'd throw it in there.

Nigel-

This one was a nobrainer,
so i’ve created a new Forum called: Prayer