Assembly required: prayer - guide
Share the high points and the challenging points of the week for each person. Then spend time
praying for one another, our nation and our world.
We are hearing that to be a church some assembly is required. One of the things that builds this
assembly is prayer.
● What is your prayer practice? When do you pray? How do you pray? What are your
frustrations with prayer or doing prayer?
● Did anyone teach you to pray? Who was that?
● Do we see prayer as more of an individual and private practice, or is it more of a
community and relational thing?
● Are there ways and times prayer has been meaningful to you in your life? Share
experiences.
Read Matthew 6:9-13
● What do you notice about this prayer that Jesus’ gave to his disciples?
● Why has The Lord’s Prayer become so important to so many?
● Why do you suppose Jesus told them to pray with plural pronouns (our, us, we) instead
of singular pronouns?
● Was there anything in the sermon that you took note of? (If people didn’t hear it or can’t
remember anything just move on.)
● An excerpt from the sermon:
“...when we are assembled together and pray together we are drawn into, what the late
pastor Eugene Peterson said is “...a large generosity where everyone is getting and
receiving, offering and praising. We are drawn to the place where people are being loved
and where they love us...We are put beside people who help us and whom we can
help.” Because, “God wants us outside the walls that quarantine us in our ego-sickness.”
And so Jesus taught us to pray “our” and “us.””
What do you think this means?
● Are there ways churches can pray more together? Be creative and original.