Firstly, I don't really identify with the term 'Korean' style because I'm not from America and I've never heard of this term until Caleb mentioned it during the meeting. But I guess this is what a communal prayer where everyone is praying on their own at the same time is called here.
I believe the first time I experience this was sometime while I was attending the Assemblies of God Church back in Malaysia. I'm not sure if the AOG here is the same but I would presume so. I remember one event very clearly. My sister injured her knee or something and the people that ran the Sunday School decided to pray for her. That's the first time I saw what laying hands but I don't think I quite understood it then. I was about 10 at this time. So Ruth, a slim lady about 22-23 years old sat down with my sister on the floor and started praying and everyone started joining in and praying. Some out loud, some in their hears. The sight of this was somewhat amazing. Ruth you see, was kind of frail looking, always pale and never without her blue cardigan despite the hot weather in Malaysia. I sometimes wondered if she would just fall really sick and die. Not being in such a good shape herself I wondered how she could pray for others too, really believing that God can heal and with that, bringing others into prayer.
That was one event of the usual Charismatic flair that would occur at Church. When I'm praying with others, there are time when I really feel like praying outloud too. Praying outloud is something new to me because I never had the courage to do so until I joined small group last fall. Opening and closing a prayer is different, I mean praying outloud as in saying out all the things I'm saying to God in my heart at that moment of time. Here in AA, I had a couple, maybe 3 experience with a small prayer group where everyone was just praying outloud. Sometimes when I has things to say I'd join in, and when I had nothing to say, I'd listen to another person's prayer. I believe simply coming together to pray is something God really loves and I don't want to restrict anybody when they are compelled to pray. I pray that we're led by the Holy Spirit everytime we have a prayer meeting and if someone feels the Spirit is urging them to pray out I want them to be comfortable doing do. I also don't want them to feel awkward if we start going around in a circle and it comes to their turn. They shouldn't be praying because it's 'their turn'. I don't want them to be focused on coming up with a prayer either. I hope they can be relaxed and pray at their own pace and listen to prayers with a clear mind if they want to.
So I hope to lead my next and hopefully every prayer meeting this way. It doesn't matter if people pray outloud or not. I want to give everyone the freedom pray what their heart is calling out for. They can pray in their hearts if that is what they're comfortable with. And I will pray that they will have the courage to pray outloud if that is what the Spirit wants. I will just be praying and throwing out things I want to pray for as the meeting goes along. If there is someone who want to shout out praises that's great and if someone can play a worship song that's great too. I felt conversational prayer was awesome during small group but for the past week, the idea of something freer during a prayer meeting is just stuck in my head. All I need is for God to use me to gather people together in prayer and worship and I hope that God uses me to compel others to pray while I'm praying.
Haha I called it Korean style prayer just because that's how I was taught. It's cool to have once in a while, but what I don't like is that it is often hard for me to think and communicate with God because of all the noise and distractions around. I agree that it's nice to be able to hear of chorus of prayers being given to God, and it's nice to have the freedom to pray out loud if we feel so led. What I like better is something like what we had at the end of Compelling, where there is an open time of worship and prayer, and we have the chance to pray with and for each other. I like that the best. But that's just me. We do many different styles of prayer both to worship God in different ways but also to accommodate the needs and preferences of our brothers and sisters.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion I have for "one voice" prayer is to incorporate it during LG or our chapter-wide prayer meeting with worship. David sings about how he will "shout his praises in the congregation". I think worship can also help in a sense to where it facilitates the prayer. During the Good Friday service, I noticed what the worship was doing during their time of free worship and prayer: they were playing loudly. What this did was drown out the people next to me. What I felt then was a sense of meeting with God persoanlly one on one (although, yes; I didn't have someone shouting next to me). Then they gave a time of unified worship; they called on us to hold hands and pray as one voice. I think the idea you can think here is that, I've had my moment one on one with God, let me now pray with the church and glorify Him with everyone else. At lest I should try. And of course the worship team still playing at this time, but this time there are lyrics too. I agree with Caleb in that it is very very hard to concentrate on my own thoughts and prayers when doing one voice prayer. But at the same time, I think there Canberra things done that can make one voice prayer less awkward and I think there is something particularly powerful about praying together as a fellowship with one voice (and no we don't have to hold hands).
ReplyDeleteThat's good that you're thinking about that for your prayer meetings. Just remember that a free structure takes time to set in. Our fellowship is used to the conversational prayer structure so thats what most people will stick with, I feel like. We can push for different styles of prayer, but remember we have to ask ourselves what the purpose of praying in different ways.
yes we have to hold hands :P
ReplyDeletethanks for the thoughts guys, things to think about