Interactive this week!
Okay, this week I had planned a very poetic description of French markets, since I enjoy going to my local outdoor market on Saturdays, but the muse had already left me by the time I returned on Saturday morning, so you will have to wait until I am thus inspired again.
Instead, I want to propose a something for discussion (a sneaky way to make you all post comments, ha ha). Here is my subject: corporate prayer. We can even enlarge it to corporate praise and worship, if you like. Who is it for? Is it for God or is it to edify the Church who is gathered in praise? Or perhaps both?
The reason I ask is that I struggle with praying in French. As I tell my friends here often, when I speak French, it’s with my head, but when I pray, that comes from my heart. I don’t want to get halfway through a sentence and realize I don’t know how to finish it in French, or that I don’t know the word I am searching for. I don’t want other people correcting my grammar in their minds, either. I just want to pray. So, I rarely pray publicly in French. The problem is that in the French churches, there is about 20 minutes of public prayer, where people just pray out as they feel led (praise and worship). And, at the Bible study I attend on Thursday nights, everyone takes turns praying (intercession for needs). I can feel their eyes on me, wondering why I don’t pray, if I stay quiet. What kind of missionary is this?
Recently, I mentioned to them that I prefered to pray in English, and they all encouraged me, practically with one voice, to feel free to pray as I felt most comfortable. But, when I prayed in English, I felt like it cut off the Spirit somehow, because none of them could understand what I was saying. There were no mumbles of agreement, or whispers of “Amen.” In fact, I felt like they all trying to decipher my prayer like the recordings you listen to in high school Spanish class. So I thought perhaps I shouldn’t pray in English anymore, which leaves me back to not praying at all.
But the more I think about it, the more I think that prayer should be about God, not everyone else. My church here is extremely international, with probably more than 20 countries represented, but no one ever prays in any language other than French, since it is our common language. In fact, I fear that if someone like me prayed in another language, there would be an “interpretation” afterward. The last thing I would want to do is cause confusion in the church.
I know a certain young man who is planning a church plant in an area that is rapidly becoming more and more international. What should corporate prayer in a church like that sound like? I am sure the NT church had people who spoke Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, and more. I wonder how they handled this issue. Your feedback is welcome on this issue!
In other news: Today is Pentecost Monday in France, a national holiday of French Catholic tradition. Last year, however, a law was passed, encouraging people to work and donate their day's pay to benefit senior citizens who live alone. In 2003, during a terrible heatwave, over 10,000 elderly people died from dehydration, and weren’t found for days (or claimed for months). A law was introduced, originally demanding everyone to work on Pentecost Monday, donating their pay to this cause, but after some strikes (they cannot force people, Catholics in particular, to work on a religious holiday), it was made voluntary. People can choose to support this program—if they work, their employers automatically donate the money into the government agency that directs this iniative. And of course, the government is encouraging more and more businesses to remain open on this holiday. Interesting.
Instead, I want to propose a something for discussion (a sneaky way to make you all post comments, ha ha). Here is my subject: corporate prayer. We can even enlarge it to corporate praise and worship, if you like. Who is it for? Is it for God or is it to edify the Church who is gathered in praise? Or perhaps both?
The reason I ask is that I struggle with praying in French. As I tell my friends here often, when I speak French, it’s with my head, but when I pray, that comes from my heart. I don’t want to get halfway through a sentence and realize I don’t know how to finish it in French, or that I don’t know the word I am searching for. I don’t want other people correcting my grammar in their minds, either. I just want to pray. So, I rarely pray publicly in French. The problem is that in the French churches, there is about 20 minutes of public prayer, where people just pray out as they feel led (praise and worship). And, at the Bible study I attend on Thursday nights, everyone takes turns praying (intercession for needs). I can feel their eyes on me, wondering why I don’t pray, if I stay quiet. What kind of missionary is this?
Recently, I mentioned to them that I prefered to pray in English, and they all encouraged me, practically with one voice, to feel free to pray as I felt most comfortable. But, when I prayed in English, I felt like it cut off the Spirit somehow, because none of them could understand what I was saying. There were no mumbles of agreement, or whispers of “Amen.” In fact, I felt like they all trying to decipher my prayer like the recordings you listen to in high school Spanish class. So I thought perhaps I shouldn’t pray in English anymore, which leaves me back to not praying at all.
But the more I think about it, the more I think that prayer should be about God, not everyone else. My church here is extremely international, with probably more than 20 countries represented, but no one ever prays in any language other than French, since it is our common language. In fact, I fear that if someone like me prayed in another language, there would be an “interpretation” afterward. The last thing I would want to do is cause confusion in the church.
I know a certain young man who is planning a church plant in an area that is rapidly becoming more and more international. What should corporate prayer in a church like that sound like? I am sure the NT church had people who spoke Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, and more. I wonder how they handled this issue. Your feedback is welcome on this issue!
In other news: Today is Pentecost Monday in France, a national holiday of French Catholic tradition. Last year, however, a law was passed, encouraging people to work and donate their day's pay to benefit senior citizens who live alone. In 2003, during a terrible heatwave, over 10,000 elderly people died from dehydration, and weren’t found for days (or claimed for months). A law was introduced, originally demanding everyone to work on Pentecost Monday, donating their pay to this cause, but after some strikes (they cannot force people, Catholics in particular, to work on a religious holiday), it was made voluntary. People can choose to support this program—if they work, their employers automatically donate the money into the government agency that directs this iniative. And of course, the government is encouraging more and more businesses to remain open on this holiday. Interesting.