Worship & Prayer

Worship & Prayer explores resources to help individuals and churches grow in worship and prayer. Find practical guidance on prayer habits, corporate worship, spiritual disciplines, the meaning of worship in Scripture, and leading gatherings that center on Jesus. This category includes biblical teaching, devotional insights, and ministry-focused articles to strengthen personal devotion and congregational life.

May 4, 2012

Christian Standard

TV Show Focusing on Love Films Worship at Church

By Jennifer Taylor Later this year, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) will premiere Lovetown, USA, a show about the search for love, filmed in Kingsland, GA. OWN describes the show as a “one-of-a-kind social experiment” and “the biggest dating challenge in TV history””examining the effects love can have on the DNA of one American community.” But the producers are getting more than they bargained for; Christ”s Church Camden, also in Kingsland, is using this unusual opportunity to share the impact of Christ”s love. “Kingsland has the highest percentage in the country of singles who move here and then get married,”

April 8, 2012

Christian Standard

Style Conscious

By Nathan Smith A few years back, I led worship on a regular basis at a midsized suburban church that was made up primarily of white, middle-class Americans. I often would speak with the pastor, a good friend, about the church”s “brand” and where he felt God was leading it. The worship gatherings were musically and aesthetically appealing, but I couldn”t get over the fact that we were “selling” a product completely disconnected from the worshipping body. The services were being designed for visitor Q rather than the Christian church member. (A bit of a disclaimer here, I do believe

December 8, 2011

Christian Standard

Praying for Tunisia As Never Before

Most Christians want to obey Jesus” command to “ask the Lord of the harvest . . . to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:38), but they struggle to know how to pray for a nation they”ve never visited and missionaries they seldom see. Do you want to join thousands of other Christians in united prayer for unreached people? Do you want to receive daily, specific, insightful prayer requests that will empower and intensify your prayers? The website and associated movement www.Pray4Tunisia.com is bringing God”s people together and changing the way we approach prayer for the harvest fields.

November 15, 2011

Christian Standard

Every Week for 10 Years

By Kim Butts For close to 30 weeks this year, believers from Christian churches and churches of Christ have participated in “Light the Fire: 24-7-520,” part of Restoration Revolution, a 10-year collaboration to share Jesus with all peoples. “Light the Fire” began on New Year”s Eve 2010 and will continue through December 31, 2020. It is not a program or an event, but a 10-year journey of prayer for the nations. Churches in several states, the nation of Venezuela, mission organizations, and Bible colleges/universities have set up dynamic prayer rooms to invite and seek God”s presence. A “torch” of prayer

November 9, 2011

Christian Standard

More Bible, Better Worship

By David Butzu How much of the Bible do we actually hear in church in any given year? What is the ratio of the amount of talking to the amount of Scripture we hear on Sundays? As our church considered those questions and others, we discovered a way to enrich worship and honor God by bringing more of his Word to our weekly gatherings. For a long time, the only kind of Christianity my family knew or cared about was Pentecostalism. Contrary to its caricatures, our Sunday worship was never wholly unbridled emotionalism; there was also a logical, right-brain dimension

November 8, 2011

Christian Standard

Using the Word in Worship

By Scott Dyer Just as in any recipe, worship suffers when a key ingredient is missing. I believe a foundational element in God-honoring worship is Scripture. And there are more ways to use Scripture than asking one of the ministers to read it. Here are some ideas we”ve tried. My wife, Vonda, and I are big fans of cooking competition shows. You know, the shows where they pick 15 aspiring chefs and pit them against one another to determine who is the best cook. The shows often put the contestants in difficult challenges that are almost impossible to accomplish, just

October 17, 2011

Christian Standard

Challenging Men to Take the Lead in Prayer

By Jennifer Taylor  When John Seitz joined the Antioch Christian Church (Marion, IA) staff in 2000, he challenged the men to join a team committed to praying for his ministry and for the church. “Prayer is so integral in seeking guidance from God and providing spiritual protection for the pastor,” Seitz says. “We have a prayer ministry open to everyone, but I wanted this to encourage strong male leadership in the church.” In addition to praying through the week, each year the team gathers for a retreat, and each Sunday morning several of the men gather at the church building

October 6, 2011

Christian Standard

Encouraging Male Prayer Leadership

By Jennifer Taylor When John Seitz joined the Antioch Christian Church (Marion, IA) staff in 2000, he challenged the men to join a team committed to praying for his ministry and for the church. “Prayer is so integral in seeking guidance from God and providing spiritual protection for the pastor,” Seitz says. “We have a prayer ministry open to everyone, but I wanted this to encourage strong male leadership in the church.” In addition to praying through the week, each year the team gathers for a retreat, and each Sunday morning several of the men gather at the church building

September 11, 2011

Christian Standard

Worshipping When Your World Falls Apart

By Dustin Fulton We all remember where we were on that dreadful September morning 10 years ago. Though the sun was shining and the weather was pleasant across most of America, our hearts were darkened by the images of airplanes crashing into buildings and ash-covered people fleeing what we now simply know as Ground Zero. I happened to be sitting in a seminary classroom at what is now Lincoln Christian University waiting to hear from one of my favorite professors, Dr. Robert Lowery. Before the 8 a.m. class started, a classmate informed us he had heard on the radio about an

August 22, 2011

Christian Standard

Life Lessons on Prayer

By Brian Giese It is easy to neglect prayer. The devil does all he can to distract us from it. We can rationalize it to the back burner because of our busyness. We can go day after day without anybody other than God knowing we have neglected prayer. This writer has been a slow learner in the school of prayer. I had been preaching 15 years before I began to take prayer seriously. That was 30 years ago, and God has taught me a few things about prayer during that time, for example:   Prayer deserves priority. A national poll

August 19, 2011

Christian Standard

A Call for All-age Worship

By Verna Weber I can read your mind. The objections that fill the air at the title of this piece probably are not new to me. Let me guess at a few. Children won”t get anything out of the church”s main worship service. Children are distracting. They need an age-appropriate setting. We need them to be somewhere else. This is my time (usually uttered by tired parents). Ultimately, the responses boil down to one point””the greatest barrier to bringing the whole church together for worship is children. It used to be that children were to be seen and not heard.

February 15, 2011

Christian Standard

Pray Expectantly

By Sheila S. Hudson Dr. Karen Jones made her way to my ground-floor office. As she blinked back tears in her hazel eyes, she broke the news that funding from the State Department of Education hadn”t arrived. What she didn”t say was, without those funds, my job would go away. But both of us knew that was true. I was stunned. Neither of us could believe it. For seven years, Karen and I had worked hand in glove providing summer workshops for special education teachers. Now it seemed our partnership was coming to an end. Not only that, but at

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