To Do List: 1. Pray More

There was a night of prayer at Hope last night, and about 25 people attended to pray for the coming year--for Hope, Hiawatha and our missionaries here and abroad.

Now, I've never been good at prayer. In its simplicity, it still remains one of the most mysterious aspects of the Christian faith to me. I know the pat answers--we pray to further our relationship with the Father. Simple communication with the Creator.

I get that.

How/if our prayers move God to action, however, is a topic for which I have no pat answers. The interplay of sovereign foreknowledge and divinely motivated intervention is something that I don't pretend to understand. One thing I know for sure, though, is the importance of praying for Hiawatha Church as they begin doing ministry in South Minneapolis.

As I sit in the Riverview Cafe this morning, I can't help but be nervous/excited/awed by the task facing the leadership of Hiawatha church. Even now, two women are having a discussion behind me about the benefits of universalism and that it is nearly identical to Christianity. One of them has a book entitled Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions laying open on the table. A man across the room is reading a bit of Marx with his morning coffee. Hiawatha Church--welcome to your Athens.

Please join me in continual prayer for Hiawatha Church as they proclaim the love and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to a community that is 'very religious in every way'.