Public prayer often gets treated like a warm-up act in church. But what if it’s one of the most spiritually potent moments in the whole service? Natalie Ray wants us to stop coasting and start leading prayers that actually lead.
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Why public prayer is often flat — and how to fix it
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What changes when we treat prayer as intercession, not narration
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The real reason your church probably struggles with prayer
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How the Lord’s Prayer can reshape more than just the words we say
Natalie leads the Magnification and Maturity ministries at Toongabbie Anglican Church
TOOL BOX:
Prayerfulness by Peter Adam
Preparing to Lead Intercessions in Church by Peter Adam
Be Thou My Vision by Jonathan Gibson
CREDITS:
This episode was brought to you by Youthworks
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TRANSCRIPT:
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00;00;12;03 – 00;00;26;22
Pete
Get I think use and welcome to the One thing. It’s a podcast designed to give you one practical tip for gospel centered ministry. The one thing is brought to you by Reach Australia. We want to see thousands of healthy, evangelistic and multiplying churches. We want to see praying churches. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today.
00;00;26;24 – 00;00;33;03
Pete
I’ve got a special guest, Natalie Wright from twin Gabby Anglican joining. Natalie, welcome.
00;00;33;06 – 00;00;35;04
Natalie
Thanks. It’s excellent to be here.
00;00;35;06 – 00;00;37;02
Pete
This is your first time on the podcast, isn’t it?
00;00;37;04 – 00;00;38;07
Natalie
It is.
00;00;38;09 – 00;00;44;28
Pete
Yeah. Now, Natalie, before we get into the podcast, just, What’s something that God is teaching you at the moment?
00;00;45;00 – 00;01;10;27
Natalie
Well, it’s personal, but, you know, look, we’re all family here, right? So, I use the Anglican lectionary, actually, in my quiet times and do the Daily Office. And I, that gives you asylum every day. And God in his kindness and, I don’t know, craftiness. That doesn’t sound right, but just has been speaking to me through his Psalms.
00;01;10;27 – 00;01;42;08
Natalie
And I think this week I’ve been really, again and again reminded that I need to sit in the knowledge of God’s character and justice, and trust him in the face of uncertainty and difficulty, and just rest in his suffering. Control over every scene, that I feel has been, reinforced day after day as I’ve sat in his word.
00;01;42;10 – 00;01;44;17
Natalie
That’s what’s about the stitching ministry.
00;01;44;19 – 00;02;00;07
Pete
That’s huge. That’s big. That’s, Yeah. Well, I am, I’m challenged by that, so I’m glad I asked. We are going to. We’re not going to be talking about your prayer life. Going to be talking about the church prayer life. Because for now, you have press play on another episode of the one thing, rethinking Public Prayer.
00;02;00;10 – 00;02;02;23
Pete
Nobody needs another mini sermon.
00;02;02;25 – 00;02;25;07
Ad
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00;02;25;09 – 00;02;35;13
Pete
We probably praise a big like it’s a big passion thing for you. What have you noticed seen in church prayer and what have caused you to really think deeply about this?
00;02;35;15 – 00;02;59;00
Natalie
So I, one of my roles is as a magnification pastor in my church. I look after two portfolios, but Mike is one of them. Mega is an unexpected love. I wasn’t that keen on it. Absolutely love leading in this space. And, part of it is because I love shaping our whole services around what we’re learning from God’s Word.
00;02;59;02 – 00;03;36;12
Natalie
I love helping us to, seek before to respond to, to lift our eyes, to go through all the moments of what we’re doing. Praying sometimes. And sometimes it works that profit into that. But I think there are times that prayer is part of the to do list of church. Where it’s something that we know that we should do it, and we we love doing it, but we say a whether we say a prayer together as a church or even do a prayer as a church.
00;03;36;16 – 00;04;03;04
Natalie
Don’t love that. We what actually happens is we, speaking to our father when we gather as a family. That is quite a different dynamic than saying a set of magic words. And whether we’re doing that in terms of a person leading the congregation in public, pray it, or if we’re doing it, praying, praying some set words together.
00;04;03;07 – 00;04;25;19
Natalie
I think that often we can probably do better than we are. And there’s room for lots of us to grow, and it’s hard to know. How do you tell people to do pray better? How do you how do you think through what God looks like when it’s when we actually don’t think there are right words that you have to say?
00;04;25;22 – 00;04;45;02
Natalie
We don’t have rules about it in the same way as, maybe we do. For what? You know, if we’re singing a song. There are lyrics like, pretty well to that. So how do we come at this? To lead it well into the whole service and the whole framework of how we come to God together on a Sunday.
00;04;45;04 – 00;04;54;02
Natalie
And help it have it be a helpful part of how we, as a gathered body relate to God. Very.
00;04;54;04 – 00;05;12;16
Pete
I think it’s a great question to actually just stop and think what makes good prayer? I know of I know a lot of people who visit lots of churches and very often is, oh, the preaching was great or something else is great. There’s only ever been one church that one person has come to me and said the public prayers were amazing.
00;05;12;18 – 00;05;28;21
Pete
And, and that really got me thinking that, when I’m leading public pray, I’ve got to put as much preparation into it as I am when I’m preaching, like I’m getting this as seriously as I can. So, it’s been a it’s a great. I’m still learning, so I hope you teach me. As we go through this.
00;05;28;24 – 00;05;34;09
Pete
But. But when when we’re actually asking someone to lead prayer in church, what exactly are we asking them to do?
00;05;34;12 – 00;06;06;06
Natalie
So I think we maybe we’re inclined to think that it’s someone, getting up and working through our list or asset list of prayer points. On behalf of the church. And so it’s serious, but it’s it’s fun. Like, it could be something that could be someone’s first or second step in how they’re serving at church. We would take it less seriously, I think then growth group leading or or a word ministry.
00;06;06;06 – 00;06;36;13
Natalie
But actually, I think that when we ask someone to lead in prayer, we’re asking them, to stand in an intercessory moment, to stand on behalf of the church. For us and bring the concerns of our church family to our father God. And so then modeling a relational moment with God, actually, and bringing us with them into that moment.
00;06;36;15 – 00;06;55;16
Natalie
It’s not actually a simple thing. It’s not, it doesn’t need to be a difficult thing, but I think it is, yeah, it’s it’s something we ought to take seriously and take seriously the responsibility of doing it. Well.
00;06;55;19 – 00;07;10;17
Pete
It there’s a certain gravitas that isn’t there. It’s not just, Hey. God, he’s our celestial shopping list today. If you could just fill that out, that’d be great. It’s actually. Yeah. You’re right. There’s an approaching of a holy God on behalf of the congregation that that takes some gravitas that’s there.
00;07;10;19 – 00;07;20;14
Natalie
So when I think about what our service leaders are doing, we talk about how they. I know you do just one thing, and so I’m sorry that I’m smuggling in a second thing, but they don’t have to. Yeah.
00;07;20;16 – 00;07;26;15
Pete
I, I, I saw that I noticed that you’re just try out. Yeah. We’re doing one thing, but I I’ll let you sneak at it. Let’s go.
00;07;26;20 – 00;07;52;28
Natalie
But service lead is part of their role is to model how we respond to God through the service. So they are bringing the mood up or down, helping us see which challenge with, grief, with joy. And I think there’s something similar that’s happening for a prayer as they lead us, to help us with appropriate emotions for what we’re bringing before God.
00;07;53;01 – 00;08;00;25
Natalie
And so there is a real maturity, I think, that’s needed to do that well and healthily. Hey.
00;08;00;27 – 00;08;10;04
Pete
How did you see something like the Lord’s Prayer as not just being something that you pray, but something kind of shapes people’s approach to public pray.
00;08;10;06 – 00;08;44;03
Natalie
So that’s absolutely how we kind of approach, teaching, training our prayers. In how to think about this. We shape that in the Lord’s Prayer, as it happens at the moment. We are coming to our third in four weeks of preaching through the Lord’s Prayer, and it has been so wonderful and enriching. If we look at the Lord’s Prayer, I think it gives us a shape that’s definitely more than our concerns or the rotation of things that we know that we ought to pray for.
00;08;44;05 – 00;09;16;00
Natalie
It it actually starts with God’s concerns. And starts with our relationship with him. Actually, the whole thing is framed in God’s kind and generous fatherhood. And so there’s a real appropriateness to, I guess, for a prayer to lead us in sitting in that, sitting under God’s fatherhood, acknowledging who he is and who we are and how good it is that we can speak to him.
00;09;16;02 – 00;09;44;04
Natalie
But then praying for his concerns, his, his kingdom, the lordship of Jesus being made known. The proclamation of Christ. And and only after those things, you know, we can turn to our own needs. It’s not that there’s necessarily a right or wrong way, but I think the Lord’s Prayer gives us a shape. That really just hedges everything in relationship really beautifully.
00;09;44;11 – 00;09;51;05
Natalie
And I think if we skip over that, we lose something really significant from what prayer is.
00;09;51;08 – 00;10;18;00
Pete
That’s really helpful, actually, just to cut it because you’ve just got in that kind of shaping it around relationship. You’ve just got a beautiful gospel moment just to keep reinforcing. We are saved by grace. We, bought into we are now children of God because of what Jesus has done. And it’s just a great another little kind of reminder, through the the service of doing that again, rather than just coming and giving us a bunch of God.
00;10;18;00 – 00;10;30;20
Pete
Here’s a couple of things we’d like you to do. So, are there particular prints when you’re, preparing people and, getting people ready for it? The particular principles that behind what you’re aiming for them to do.
00;10;30;23 – 00;10;56;03
Natalie
So, I mean, there’s lots of ways to come up to come at this, I think. I do think really high on the list. I think I always want our prayers and our service. I want our whole church, to be honest. To be thinking about praying about, be carried along with a passion for God’s kingdom.
00;10;56;05 – 00;11;22;03
Natalie
Now again, I am going beyond one thing, but this is the life rich Australia thing, right? About seeing growing churches and seeing people saved. And so and that is God’s business. And so I actually want to say every week a concern that God’s work of saving people through the Lord Jesus Christ, that that is in our minds and in our hearts as we come to him.
00;11;22;05 – 00;11;46;25
Natalie
But I, as the mag pastor, I sort of roster our prayer points. So we have mission partners, for example. So we’ve made a commitment to pray for them as well as to financially support them. So we have a rotation of prayer plants, that people have in Saint at the beginning of the week to indicate the items to pray for in a given week.
00;11;46;28 – 00;12;16;21
Natalie
So they fall loosely into three categories, which are internal, external, and God’s world. So internal. The principal at church. We pray for different ministry areas and groups. So our aged care ministry or our next gen ministry to kids and youth. We pray for service areas. So for those who serve in music and tech, or who served in growth groups or parish council, that sort of thing.
00;12;16;23 – 00;12;40;15
Natalie
We pray for upcoming events in the life of that church, outreach courses, community events, things like that. And then also in that rotation are just Bible verses or Bible passages that we ask players to craft a prayer based on this, based on this vision of God’s people given to us in Scripture, in Ephesians or one Thessalonians or whatever.
00;12;40;17 – 00;13;12;29
Natalie
Pray for our church along these lines, that God would make us like this or grow us in these ways. So that’s kind of our local personal context, but we want to attend to God’s, work beyond us. And so our external categories rotate through our mission planners. We also pray for our other local churches. We have some, wonderful partnerships in our area, and we, trying to reach the same masses, of people who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus.
00;13;13;01 – 00;13;37;23
Natalie
We pray for our denominational leadership. The persecuted church. We pray for our government, for secular leadership. And then we also pray for social issues. So one that’s, regularly on my heart is domestic and family violence. We also pray for issues like mental health or housing affordability, and social welfare. And then finally, for God’s world.
00;13;37;26 – 00;14;06;00
Natalie
This is me. I mean, it’s not a great thing to pray for God’s world. But this is something that I introduced. And the way I choose it is I choose a point of latitude on on a map and follow it along and choose country. So it’s not very scientific. But we, link to Operation World for our prayer notes so that people can look up what those issues are so that we just pray for the practical and spiritual needs of people who are usually far away from us.
00;14;06;01 – 00;14;32;28
Natalie
We’re in Australia. Everyone’s far away from us. And pray for God’s mercy on them. Pray for the salvation of the lost. Pray for the proclamation of Christ in most places. And I hope that in those things we are a genuinely, thoughtfully, and joyfully lift our concerns to God. I hope that we are praying in line with his mission in the world and what he wants to do.
00;14;33;00 – 00;14;54;03
Natalie
But I also hope that we have disciple in our own hearts to love those things. And to want to pray for those things and see God made known in those places. I love it when my kids come home and look up Kazakhstan on the map. And remember mission, friends that we’ve had on mission there.
00;14;54;05 – 00;15;04;25
Natalie
Because we’ve prayed for it that day. That warms my heart that they see the whole earth, belongs to the Lord. And we want to see the whole earth under the leadership of Jesus.
00;15;04;28 – 00;15;30;04
Pete
So I love that little phrase, that public prayer is about discipling our own hearts. Like, that’s it is a discipleship moment. I mean, it is a prize, but that’s the most important thing. It is speaking to God. But there’s also, yeah, other those other little things that just come in there along the way that when you’re, helping people who are doing the public praise, you know, how much training and instruction do you give them when you’re asking them to pray in church?
00;15;30;06 – 00;15;56;01
Natalie
Look, I really hope that in some of my prayers listen to this podcast, because I don’t think we’ve done enough. So I’ve been in this role for two years now, and, I have written some guidelines and reshaped our patterns and tried to build more liturgy into our services. But what we really need to do and what I intend to do, and now I’m going to have all of your listenership able to keep me accountable.
00;15;56;04 – 00;15;59;02
Pete
Yeah. You got accountability here. Yeah. Let’s go.
00;15;59;04 – 00;16;18;17
Natalie
But I want to do at least an annual, kind of meeting with a training session. And to be honest, actually, we should just get together and pray. Man, I should do that. I should just get my prayer team together and let’s pray. Because even though I’ve written the guidelines, people struggle to read an email attachment.
00;16;18;19 – 00;16;40;26
Natalie
And that’s okay. I, I feel that. So but I do think it is something that warrants training. I put effort into training service leaders, into working with them. And I think it’s really hard to train someone who’s been doing something for a long time. It’s really hard to come at them and say, here are some different or new standards.
00;16;40;28 – 00;17;07;12
Natalie
Some measurements that haven’t been put before you previously, and you’ve been praying in church for maybe five decades, but I want to talk about how it’s going. That’s a really tricky thing. And I don’t necessarily think I’ve, mastered it. I just want to name it. But I think the starting point is to have a named set of hopes and goals and expectations.
00;17;07;15 – 00;17;35;19
Natalie
It’s a standard against which to measure it to, to be able to say, I love how you used those Bible words to paint a picture of the kind of church, that God wants us to be, to help us envisage that as as you let us in prayer. That was really helpful. So I think it’s way harder if you don’t have that kind of common vocabulary of what good looks like.
00;17;35;22 – 00;17;37;03
Natalie
00;17;37;06 – 00;17;53;26
Pete
Yeah. I’m really looking forward to seeing your training course when you’ve got it all sorted out. Even if it’s just. Hey, we just. This is what we prayed for in as we gathered together as praise. That’s such a great way of doing it, isn’t it? Because that’s sort of how we’ve learned all our other ministry skills is watching what other people are doing.
00;17;53;28 – 00;18;10;03
Pete
I think one of the things I’ve struggled with in my prayer life is, especially in my private prayer life, is that I don’t see what other people are doing in their private prayer life. And so, yeah, it’s it’s been a little bit harder to see those modeling, but if you’re doing it together, that’s a great way of doing it.
00;18;10;05 – 00;18;19;28
Pete
But let me let me ask, what are some of the classic mistakes you’ve seen when people are leading pray. And are there any kind of just little simple instructions that might help that?
00;18;20;00 – 00;18;46;08
Natalie
Well, I mean, there are two that come straight to mind. I’m sure that most ministers have these as bugbears that plague them. But when someone is leading us in prayer and they are leading a corporate prayer, and so we want to hear them pray on behalf of us using the language of way, so that everyone in the room can echo that, and we sincerity.
00;18;46;10 – 00;19;13;11
Natalie
It seems really odd to say amen to someone. Having their own private moment with God. You feel like an interloper. And I think, secondly, I want to say, we are praying to God. And once that seems obvious, sometimes our language, I think, gets tangled around this, and we end up accidentally or carelessly in the third person.
00;19;13;18 – 00;19;40;19
Natalie
So particularly, I think, when we’re drawing on Scripture or on words that have been given to us, you know, from, say, a mission partner. We might pray, God, we ask that you would grow us in the knowledge of God. God, we ask that God would provide, everything we need for this mission event. I think it’s so much it feels very different, actually, to pray.
00;19;40;21 – 00;20;09;18
Natalie
God grows in our knowledge of you. Would you provide what is needed, please? Give us what is needed for this evangelistic event. I wonder if sometimes people get caught in wanting to have, that elevated language that feels more churchy, but maybe causes them to get stuck in those funny third person moments? What? We really want people to do a good job.
00;20;09;20 – 00;20;21;12
Natalie
And craft that prayer as well. I think I don’t want them to feel like it has to be fancy. You know, we just we just talk.
00;20;21;14 – 00;20;39;28
Pete
But. But I think sometimes we do lose that, that vertical element of prayer. And it sort of becomes another mini sermon. What? Okay. This is one of my personal bugbears is when someone is about to lead us in the Lord’s Prayer and they say, we’re going to say this prayer together. We’re not saying it.
00;20;39;28 – 00;21;00;23
Natalie
We’re praying and we don’t say anything. Well, say a word of prayer. I find that. I don’t like saying a word of prayer. It’s two degrees of removal. Yeah. Not only do you say a prayer, but then it’s like a word of prayer, as though it’s. It’s just very busy. So we we’re just going to talk to our father now.
00;21;00;25 – 00;21;23;23
Natalie
Yeah. So actually, I’ve started scripting out in our service plans. Hi. My name is Dr. It. I’m going to lead us today in praying to God for our, you know, for this for our church and for our mission is and we’re going to pray for the nation of Finland. Would you please join with me in talking to our God?
00;21;23;25 – 00;21;46;29
Natalie
Yes. Just choose right here, people, that this is what we’re going to do. That maybe that it’s a normal rhythm that we pray for a country in the world. Finland might have seemed kind of random. And just to, to help us settle in and listen and be ready to add our echoing Amen to what they bring for us.
00;21;47;01 – 00;21;55;17
Pete
Now, you’ve already mentioned Operation World, but other what what other resources that people can people draw on as they preparing their prays?
00;21;55;19 – 00;22;19;22
Natalie
Well, actually, I’d love to circle back to the comment you made about your own private prayer and not see what other people are doing. And this is not by any means an advertisement for stalking, but actually there are prayers on which we can eavesdrop. Right. So, they are crafted prayers as opposed. But between the Psalms, the prayers of Paul.
00;22;19;24 – 00;22;59;10
Natalie
The Lord’s Prayer and then, many different church traditions give us this rich offering of prayer that, has utility in our church services. But absolutely, I think in our private devotional lives to give us those words and again, disciple our hearts, to pray thoughtfully and insightfully for those things which are of concern to God. For those things that we ought to be concerned about for ourselves but might skip over, too easily.
00;22;59;13 – 00;23;24;24
Natalie
And so I guess I, I really love drawing on the prayers of history in my own devotions, and I have incorporated more historic prayers. I think I mentioned we’re an Anglican church, so not exclusively from within our tradition, but drawing heavily on particularly the conflicts of the Anglican Church. And I might adapt the language to make sure that it’s in contemporary English.
00;23;24;24 – 00;23;55;14
Natalie
We have a multicultural and multilingual, congregation. So I want to make sure it doesn’t feel highfalutin and inaccessible in terms of the language, but the sentiments are so rich, they point us to Scripture, and they’ll give us insights that I think we just may not grab on our own. And if we can soak in those things, marinate in those rich words from the saints who have gone before us.
00;23;55;16 – 00;24;05;16
Natalie
I think that enriches, our public prayers as we compose them ourselves, as well as our own personal devotional lives.
00;24;05;18 – 00;24;29;10
Pete
Yeah. Now, just for those who aren’t Anglican, a collect is a short prayer about a short paragraph. So nothing particularly amazing or anything like that, but it it they are often very well crafted, very well thought through, very scripturally soaked as well. Yeah. There are other books that you, you’ve drawn. I mean, you’ve you’ve already mentioned, the, the lectionary, I think earlier on in, in our conversation.
00;24;29;10 – 00;24;34;02
Pete
So, there are other books that you’ve, you drawn for. Praise set praise.
00;24;34;04 – 00;25;00;09
Natalie
First set praise. I certainly draw on the Anglican tradition, but also the every moment holy books. Those are long set prayers, but goodness me, they can teach you a lot, about how to think about, what, whatever the issue is. So I have printed on my wall, a litany for the preparation of a meal.
00;25;00;11 – 00;25;32;18
Natalie
And that is, a somewhat lengthy prayer, but. But praying for the act of cooking and preparing a meal that I think has enriched my understanding of of what is happening and what I hope will happen and what God may do when people gather for a meal. And so that may not be the thing that you want in your prayers, but every moment Holy, I think, is a series that gives us lots of wonderful and thoughtful theology.
00;25;32;21 – 00;26;09;10
Natalie
Be Thou My Vision is a series of very liturgical, devotions, actually, that are shaped around, the church year. Again, that’s a fairly Anglican thing, but other other traditions, Woodyard as well. And the prayers gathered there will draw on all kinds of different historical figures. Augustan Wesley, like Puritans and, I’ve certainly drawn many of those out, particularly for special services for advent, and lent, for Easter services, that sort of thing.
00;26;09;12 – 00;26;37;16
Natalie
I’ve been really enjoying the Fullness of Time series, which is, I think InterVarsity are the ones who put it out. And again, this goes through the shape of the church calendar, and offers devotions on. Yeah, just going through this, ordinary times. Lent. Advent. The advent books are all on my desk at the moment.
00;26;37;16 – 00;27;13;00
Natalie
As I prepare for Christmas. And those devotions often have, wonderful prayers in them. That I have really enjoyed. And actually, the other one, which, again, maybe not so much for sick praise, but to teach us and disciple us in praying, would be the book of Common Courage, by K.J. Ramsey. And that, I that is of a of quite a different flavor is much more poetic and sort of modern.
00;27;13;02 – 00;27;34;10
Natalie
But if if a person needs to be reminded how to think about approaching God when those words are hard to come by yourself, or when that’s just a new thing for someone. There’s really wonderful riches to be found there. Sure. Yeah.
00;27;34;12 – 00;27;54;24
Pete
That that’s an amazing, list. And I’ll come back to it again, but there’ll be, some links for some of those in the, in the, the toolbox later on. Natalie, there are times when we need to pray for things that, perhaps sensitive or possibly even divisive. How do you help people prepare for that?
00;27;54;26 – 00;28;04;02
Pete
Because this is not the time. Like when you’re praying. This is not the time to kind of push a particular agenda. Yeah. How do you how do you manage around that?
00;28;04;04 – 00;28;37;20
Natalie
It’s so tricky, isn’t it? Here. Someone asked us this week, why are we not doing more or saying more or praying more about. Listening. And I think, to be honest, part of the answer might be, that some fairly hot water that we’re not sure we want to wade into. I, I think that in every scenario, we can find the things that we know will be consistent with God’s will.
00;28;37;22 – 00;29;10;02
Natalie
And so whilst the politics, of Israel and Palestine are fraught, there are deep held grievances, and deep sin on both sides. We know that God is never a sin of injustice. Of unlawful killing of, of warfare. And so we could be praying for, for safety, for aid, to reach those who need it.
00;29;10;04 – 00;29;45;16
Natalie
For peace negotiations. There are things that we could pray for, but we we will need to prepare our people well. So the more sensitive the topic, I think in general, the more work I want to put into, giving, giving shape, being a bit prescriptive about what gets covered. Often I will try to provide a sample prayer that a person could either pray verbatim or that they could use, and shape their own prayers around it.
00;29;45;16 – 00;30;09;01
Natalie
So for domestic and family violence, that’s one where particularly if a person doesn’t know all of the issues, to be honest, I want them to learn about the issues. But but, I would rather give them the words that will help them to pray, for our government making decisions for the resources in our communities that will help those who need it.
00;30;09;04 – 00;30;47;22
Natalie
And for God’s mercy to overturn, these horrible things in our society. Yeah. I will give them a a set prayer that they can work from. Sometimes, often I can find those online. I will google I will read very carefully what I find. I will adapt it. Sometimes I’ll compose something myself. But often I can find something, or provide prayer points and show so to my prayer that those are, scriptural and in line with God’s declared will for the world.
00;30;47;25 – 00;30;48;23
Pete
By brilliant.
00;30;48;25 – 00;30;50;01
Natalie
Heart.
00;30;50;04 – 00;31;04;15
Pete
Yeah. I was gonna say pray. Yeah. It sounds like what you’re really doing is taking. This is a great training opportunity for those prayers. Not just in terms of what to pray, but also how to think through some of those issues in a with a gospel hot.
00;31;04;17 – 00;31;06;21
Natalie
That’s the goal. Don’t know if I’m nailing it.
00;31;06;24 – 00;31;17;17
Pete
But well, we’re all try to work hard on this, but I get that. Natalie, we, we’re at the one thing. What’s the one thing you would love to see in every public? Pray.
00;31;17;19 – 00;31;41;06
Natalie
What? I think that I would love to see public prayer, as a space where our hearts are growing in our love for God, where it’s a space that people are discipled in loving God and loving his concerns. That’s a bit wooly. Sorry.
00;31;41;09 – 00;31;57;14
Pete
It’s. No. It’s beautiful. I thought that was a I thought that’s one of the most poetic one things we’ve ever had. I think so, no, I don’t apologize for that, but, Yeah. Now, Natalie’s mentioned a whole bunch of, resources that they’re in the toolbox. Some of them. I’m not sure we’ll get to all of them, including.
00;31;57;14 – 00;32;18;08
Pete
I’m going to add in, Peter Adam’s book on gratefulness. That’s been my favorite book that I’ve read so far this year. And, he’s also written a particular article on helping people in public praise as well. So we will continue to do that now. Thank you. So much for joining us. This has been really, really it’s been helpful for me as someone who leads praise in church.
00;32;18;08 – 00;32;21;21
Pete
So thank you for your, your wisdom in this.
00;32;21;24 – 00;32;27;20
Natalie
Thanks. Feel free to check in with me next year and make sure that I have been working hard on training my people.
00;32;27;22 – 00;32;47;15
Pete
We might be back to ask you some more questions about that, so that’ll be great. If you found this a really helpful episode, why don’t you pass it on to those who are leading, prayers in your church? And they may find that find that helpful. Actually. And if you’ve got already a training course on or what you do in terms of training people in public prayer, send me an email.
00;32;47;16 – 00;33;01;18
Pete
Resources at Reach Australia accommodate you. I’ll pass on to Natalie so that she’s got something to start with. But, we’ll we’ll we’ll put it all together and we’ll help each other along the way. I’m Pete, who’s chat soon. Soon.
