This, once more, is my lot today and I find myself thinking about madness and the lack of sound and consistent care for those troubled by it; about estate churches and the wide division between rhetoric and reality; of the plight of the Church and the many proclaimed successes which, to those outside, look very much like a bankrupt corner store rearranging the few remaining goods on the shelf in the hope it will attract new customers!
Today is set aside to be a 'Day of Intercession and Thanksgiving for the Missionary Work of the Church'. As someone who is engaged with things missional I see this as a day when we pray for those engaged in missionary work here at home and further afield. There are mission fields and unevangelised peoples to be engaged with on our own doorsteps as well as many hours journeying across the seas and landscapes to far flung places. With this in mind perhaps today and the call to prayer might become the spur we need to make us become more aware and intelligent in our prayer .
And having discovered the needs and prayed for them, is this enough?
Shouldn't the prayers we offer up be accompanied by the sleeves being rolled up as the virtual bags are packed and the journey into strange and foreign lands just a few minutes up the road is made?
One of the biggest frustrations I have comes in the shape of those who want to fill the Church with people they have made in their own image. People who live as they live and hold on to the same values and lifestyles as them.
I struggle with people who talk of 'bringing back' the lost. A statement which largely (and often blithely) ignores the reality that the majority of those in our villages, towns and cities have never previously been 'here' (meaning in this context Church or church - local or universal) so how can they return to a place they have never been?
How often do we pass the needs before us without seeing them or the people who own them?
How often do we sigh, shrug and toss the pleas from missions organisations and actions groups?
How often do we pass a needy person (and I don't mean those begging on our streets) and mumble, "Be well, be blessed," and move on thinking that our prayer, platitudes and complacency will find favour with the God we claim to worship?
Overseas
So today please stop and think about those who leave the comforts of home to take the Gospel to other lands and cultures. Pray for them, their families and the task before them. Pray for their safety, for provision and for an open door for the work they undertake. Pray for wisdom in all they do and in those they encounter. Perhaps you could send something (a fiver would do) to support an organisation or a missionary family or project.
Home
Have a look at the needs of this nation of ours and pray for those who are still 'far off' and for those who seek to make Jesus, the Christ, known.
Pray for those in the well-off places; those who have so much they cannot see the poverty they live in.
Pray for those in the poorer places. Places where benefits are the norm and jobs, family life, prevailing attitudes and marginalisation are an everyday reality.
Pray for those who minister in the estates and in the rural areas (which are just different estates from those we think of). Think about the issues of the places we might be happy not to live or visit and pray for the residents and those who minister to them.
Church
Pray for the leaders of the churches of our land that they might have integrity and passion to create, maintain, and encourage those who 'do the stuff' in the difficult places in their own places of influence.
Every church building should be the centre of missionary work - every Christian should be committed to those who are far off whether they be 'leavers' who might be encouraged to return or those who have never been part of Church.
Lord, the kingdom of God is always near,
The Church always stands but one generation from extinction
And those who are 'far off' are so often just a fingertip away.
We pray for all who take up the challenge to make You known in the world of ours;
For the missions organisations who by their actions seek to make a difference;
For those who minister in our estates and inner-city places;
For those who minister in the real places where pressures are hidden in the beauty of nature.
We pray for those who engage in the mission field of the workplace:
For those who travel to foreign ands to make real the Gospel of love;
For those whose kind act and time given will tell of a God who cares.
Motivate, educate, and enthuse us to be hearts and doers of the word.
We ask this in Jesus' glorious name. Amen
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