I should have known better than to ask my youth if they had anything we needed to pray about this particular night. It is just fine most days, but I felt it in the air this time. I asked it any way though.
So…I guess I just want to vent about how sometimes people would rather air dirty laundry and dish the dirt than offer up actual supplication to the Most High.
And yes I know I am merely gossiping about gossipers. But irony is lost on me and therefore rendered ineffective! HAHA!
I have one for the preachers, too. I hate it when preachers (or really any public speaker or event organizer) uses a prayer to either give me a lesson or convey information. An example from a notional Church meeting:
“Dear Lord, please be with us all as we go out to our Church picnic tomorrow after the service. I pray that the cover dishes that everyone will bring will nourish us all and that You will be able to provide everything from the meats to the silverware. I also pray that our upcoming food drive will be a great success and that every box located by the front doors will be full…”
I’ll cut it off here in fear of being blasphemous. It may sound ridiculous, but pay attention to the next prayer given at or around the announcements of your church’s service. Also watch out at the prayer meetings or Bible Studies that have the local-yocals (which, trust me, includes contemporary churches just as much as older ones). They’ll usually turn out something like:
“Tonight we pray for little Susan Sheemarker who suffered from a collapsed artery last Sunday and is now at Intensive Care at the Regional Hospital…”
…then after the prayer, one of the other ladies goes, “I didn’t hear about Susan. That’s so sad…”
Prayer time is not when we should be giving announcements or medical updates!!!!!
:( Guilty…
That is too true though. You don’t even think about it most times, whether your hearing or saying it. But that is no place for announcements!
I have one for the preachers, too. I hate it when preachers (or really any public speaker or event organizer) uses a prayer to either give me a lesson or convey information.
I have one for the preachers, too. I hate it when preachers (or really any public speaker or event organizer) uses a prayer to either give me a lesson or convey information.
UGH!!!! That drives me nuts too!!!!
That sounds like those emails that I’ll get about “Wierd Signs”. Well, I do think that there will be times that news does have to be announced. Think about it, if no one announced that “Susan” was in the hospital, would you know to pray for her? While there is such thing as the unspoken prayer requests, we normally don’t pray for something unless we know about it. As for the Weekly Gossip column, then there are times that they do need help with what’s bothering them, but I would have to be there to know if they were gossiping or actually requesting prayer. It depends on how much detail they put into it.
I could understand if they were just saying “I’ve been having problems at school, so could y’all pray for me?” I can understand that, but if they say “Could y’all pray for me because Sarah was talking about me behind my back, my boy friend left me for my long lost sister whose dress caught on fire at the dance last week.” Then her sister walks in and someone is beatin away at the organ. That just shows what happens when you get sick on the day that your mom is off from work, your mind becomes corrupt from soap operas. I can understand now why us teens can be so dramatic. Of course that was my interpretation of a girls gossiping prayer request. Based on how I and most other guys are, it would go, “then he said ‘yo mama’ and I punched him. The next thing you know, I had a black eye.” At least that is what I told my parents when I came home from basketball practice with a black eye and a restraining order. Just kidding, but that is what would throw up some red flags when you ask for prayer requests.
Okay but announce that “Susan” is in the hospital…don’t do it through prayer.
I was visiting a church one time and the pastor prayed, “And Lord, please be with the Hayward family. The father was hit by a drunk driver last night and died at the hospital.”
Most of the church hadn’t heard that anything had happened to this guy. He was a regular attender at the church…..and THAT was the way to let the church know? Really? Totally inappropriate.
There should be a time for announcements, a time for the sermon, and a time for prayer. Sure, there can be prayer during announcements or the sermon, but don’t use prayer FOR announcements or FOR the sermon.
