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Archives: January 2010
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Archives: January 2009
Why We’re Still Talking About… Worship, Prayer and Justice
By Craig Borlase
Another article about Worship, Prayer and Justice? Haven’t we been here already? What’s the point of all this déjà vue?
You’re right: we have been here before. We’ve talked about the importance of worship, prayer and justice, looked at them as some kind of three-strand rope that is far stronger when each of the elements are in place.
So why are we talking about it again?
We live in times when things that are new are automatically considered good. If you want the posh term, we’re a bunch of neophytes. And that’s OK, there’s nothing wrong with things being new. After all, we all need a little refreshing and upgrading from time to time.
But the problem comes when we start to believe the hype a little too much and get twisted into believing that if something isn’t new, then it can’t be any good. If we’re that way inclined, we’re going to have trouble when it comes to God.
You see, there is nothing new to say about God. There are no undiscovered formulas waiting to be cracked, and there are no secret rituals that we desperately need to translate. Of course we need to work hard at communicating the love of God to others in ways that they can understand, but if we think that worship, prayer and justice are old news, then we’re mistaken. Confused. Wrong.
That’s why we’re completely pumped as we get ready for our Global Poverty Prayer Week in March. There’s nothing new to it – it’s the same thing that Christians have been doing for the past two thousand years; getting together to be one voice, united as one people crying out with one prayer.
Last year thousands of people just like you joined with us to pray, worship, listen and get ready to go. Here’s a little of what some of you said about the week:
‘I’ve never prayed for poverty and justice issues in much detail, so it was useful for me to learn about it. It’s taught me how to pray, in a way. I used to just pray for a minute at the most – but this taught me how to develop a prayer into something much better to pray for.’
Matthew, age 13
‘Was so amazed by the prayer room last night – it was just an awesome space, and a total wake up call for me personally. There's so much injustice everywhere! What am I doing to help? The answer was nothing. I got so annoyed that I went straight home, thought, what the flip can I do right this second that could help others in need? So I packed up a load of clothes I don’t need and brought them to Barnardo’s this morning…’
Youth worker, Belfast
If worship is about how we show our love for God, and prayer is about how we engage with his heart, then justice has to be what happens when those first two collide.
At Tearfund we are committed to finding ways of helping the Church all over the world put that equation into action.
From 1-7 March we’ll be partnering with 24-7 Prayer and pulling together tens of thousands of Christians around the world to pray. Big churches and small churches, house groups and cathedrals, rich and poor, developed countries and developing countries, the definitions won’t matter at all. What counts is the beautiful fact that Christians will be listening with their hearts open and their hands and feet ready to get dirty.
It might not be a new idea, but it’s the way the world gets changed for the better.
More info?
www.tearfund.org/youth/prayer...
or our facebook event page...
About the author...
Craig is a lovely chap who lives in Reading. He's a writer, think and all round creative tinker! He has a lovely family and back in the annuls of time used to work for Soul Survivor (in fact he was the one who invented the idea of a Soul Survivor Magazine... so you owe him a lot... well, we do).
Soul Survivor is a Christian charity that puts on events for young people. Our registered charity no. is 1080720. We are also a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales. Our company registered number is 03991111, which is nice. Thanks for caring.
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