Men's Prayer Group

Why is it so easy for Christians to forget the Holy Spirit?
I don’t mean that we forget the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Most of us are grounded enough in a Trinitarian belief system never to do that. We are all aware, at least on a cognitive level, that the Third Person of the Godhead exists.
But, nevertheless, we forget him....

We have an all-church prayer meeting planned for Sunday evening (January 27, 6pm, ACI synagogue). Sometimes knowing how God is working can really empower your prayers. Want to be motivated to pray? There is an amazing article by Tony Carnes, co-director of the Research Institute for New Americans, that documents the ways NYC has changed since the 1970’s & 80’s. Carnes traces this to what he calls “the civilizing effect of Christ on New York City.” Through the planting of new churches and the proclamation of the gospel, our city has truly been transformed. Check out his article at ... http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/december/15.32.html

An interesting thing happened at the Men’s Prayer Group last Wednesday morning. The group has been reading portions of Luke’s gospel every week before our prayer time. Last week we were reading the story in chapter 6 about the time Jesus healed a man during a worship service in a synagogue. A lot of people got really mad at Jesus because he interrupted their nice service just so he could deal with someone’s needs.

As we were reading the passage, someone knocked on the door.

As I write these words, I can overhear the English as a Second Language (ESL) class that is taking place in the room next to my study. I hear a young man from a Muslim country reading a Bible story to his discussion group. This past year dozens of immigrants, from all over the world, have come to our church office to be trained in English by our volunteers. It has been exciting to see them form solid friendships with members of our church.

Last Saturday, a group of men and women from ACC joined with members of the Astoria Baptist Church to participate in a prayer walk through our neighborhood. We divided into four groups of about 5 people each, and headed off in different directions. For the next hour we walked quietly through Astoria, taking turns praying for God’s work in our community.

One of the six statements that define the core values of Astoria Community Church is: “Prayer honors God, and God honors prayer.” Prayer is one of our core values because we know that in order to be a vibrant spiritual presence in Western Queens we absolutely must be a church that truly prays.

But how do we learn to do this? In Luke 11, the disciples approached Jesus after he finished praying to ask him to teach them to pray, too. The text says: