August 2003

Vital characteristics for every Prayer and Worship meeting

In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen - who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch - and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13: 1-3)

There are a number of characteristics that are vital to every Prayer and Worship meeting and these certainly include the following six:

1. The presence of God
There is an exciting sense of this in the meeting described above with God speaking to the people present.

2. Worship
God spoke ‘while they were worshipping’. In our experience, worship is an essential integral part of our meetings and we try and divide the time equally between it and prayer accordingly.

3. Thanksgiving
This is not immediately obvious from the text but this too is a vital ingredient partly because attitude is key and none of us can be full of thanks and negative at the same time!

4. Making a difference
The major work of St Paul’s life was released as a result of the meeting described above.

5. People
We love the presence of God and he loves the presence of us and there is huge synergy in the combination of both.

6. Fun
Again this has to be read into the text but it should surely always be an enjoyable experience for the people of God to worship and seek his face and there is the real sense of this in the Acts 13 meeting.

We will be looking for all of the above to be reflected in St Paul’s Cathedral on Thursday, 18 September at ‘Prayer for London’. At one level, it’s ‘just another evening/meeting’, but at another level it is an opportunity to sow into the life and future of this city, believing that many hundreds of people worshipping and praying together in St Paul’s will have a powerful impact with regard to the re-evangelisation and transformation of society we all long to see.

Jeremy Jennings

This article is an edited version of one first published in Focus, August 2003. Reproduced here with permission.