Morning Prayer
Back in June I initiated a plan, called Summer Morning Prayer, to pray over Zoom twice a week for anyone who would want to join. The plan was to “meet” online, early in the morning, for the months of June, July, and August. Of course, I didn’t know if others would join me, or if I’d be praying by myself in front of a computer screen. But what did happen is that many others have joined. We have averaged 13.5 people per session (I don’t know who the half-person is?), with a high of 18 and a low of 7, and around 30 different people have joined, in total.
We started meeting without much certainty of what to expect, but in many ways we have developed a community together as we gather to pray twice a week. We are given a unique look into one another’s hearts and lives as we search the scriptures together and then pray as the Lord leads us, in line with what we see in His word. And then we have had the chance, too, to carry big and small burdens for each other as we share prayer needs together. This sense of community hasn’t been exclusive to connecting online, but the friendships we’re developing online have carried over to better connections in person, when we see one another at church. It has been really good
In fact, it’s so good that we are going to continue to meet! I want to invite you to join us. We would truly love to have new people get on board, even if you are only able to participate every so often. Yes, it is early. And yes, you may often find yourself in an internal wrestling match with yourself as the alarm is going off (I am not a morning person!). But I have yet to regret joining, even if there are days (like today) when I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have preferred. If you want to join, you just need to email me or even simply reply to this Evergreen Connection email to let me know and I’ll add you to my list.
I send out an email every Monday and Wednesday, which has a Zoom link for the following day and which lists the Scripture passage we will be praying through. Participation does require that you have a computer or phone and a limited amount of tech-savviness to use Zoom, which is a free program. But it is very do-able!
One change we are making is that starting on September 3, we are going to move the start time back by just 15 minutes, so we will begin meeting at 6:15, instead of 6:00. And we are going to start praying through the Psalms, starting in Psalm 1. But you are welcome to start joining us now, if you want. Our next “gathering” is on Thursday at 6:00 AM.
In case you want to know the basic schedule, here’s roughly what our prayer times looks like once we start the new 6:15-7:15 schedule:
- 6:15-6:20 – Folks get logged in and give bleary-eyed greetings to one another. We give everyone (including myself sometimes) a 5 minute grace period before we get started.
- 6:25-6:30 – One person reads a chapter of the Bible out loud as we all follow along.
- 6:30ish-6:45ish – We spend 10-15 minutes praising God for the truths we read about Him in the Scriptures.
- 6:45ish-7:00ish – We spend 10-15 minutes asking God to help us do what we read from the Scriptures.
- 7:00ish-7:15 – We spend 15-20 minutes praying for needs that folks in the group share, or praying for other known prayer needs in our church body.
- 7:15 – We all go on our merry way!
Speaking for myself, the Lord is using these prayer times to spiritually form me. It’s not that any single time together is full of fireworks and lightning bolts. In fact, I haven’t seen any of either of those things. But it has been transformational for me to join with brothers and sisters as we slowly pray, read, and delight in God through His word, and then as we share our burdens with one another. Please consider joining us!
Pastor Ryan Donovan
PS – If using Zoom is a daunting element, I can possibly help you. If you have either a laptop computer or a phone and want to schedule a time to meet me here at the church, I can help you get that set up.
Categories: Evergreen Connection