Marketplace Prayer
Week Thirteen
As prayer time pre-meeting was about to get started, Liz brought in some of her Lubbock catering food to us so that we could start our days off right. Josh said that it was a perfect gift since he hadn’t had a chance to have breakfast and he really needed to fill his belly to get ready for the lawn care jobs he had lined up for the day. I had already grabbed a bagel before our prayer, but I had no problem gobbling up a couple of extra breakfast chicken sandwiches. Liz said that she had brought more than enough for the entire group to feast on – she wanted to bless the whole business group. Liz is a cool lady. Anyway, prayer was good and I was the focus since I was going to speak about marketplace ministry in a few minutes. I don’t mind public speaking as long as it is covering something that I feel passionate about – I am definitely passionate about bringing God into the mix of everything in life. I did wonder how the whole group would take it, but I had to surrender this worry in our early prayer. I figure people can take it or leave it…
So, I was the speaker for the day and I told everyone about what Josh, Liz and me have been doing as far as prayer before the main meetings. I talked about what we all noticed as far as the positives of this time and suggested that others in the group might think about forming small groups to bring prayer into their businesses. I also recommended to these bosses and leaders that they offer some sort of prayer and/or Bible study time to their workers. After all, most people spend most of their lives in the workplace and could probably use a supernatural boost. In the dialogue time, there were some concerns raised about how this might go over at the workplace – would the workers who didn’t want to participate feel like they were going to be looked at in a negative light in comparison to those who did decide to participate. I just answered that it would have to be made very clear that this was a completely voluntary choice and not one that would affect workers’ jobs. I also said that one small group could be formed by someone who was not in leadership so that people would find it more organic. Most of the people there admitted that even though they were people of faith, they didn’t even bring their businesses to God in their own private prayer times. They said that they had so compartmentalized their faith and their work that they didn’t ever cross paths. Many of them said that they would begin the process by first letting their prayers catapult over their own compartmentalized barriers. Only then did they think it would be a good idea to bring prayer into their workplaces.
I got the feeling that my speaking topic really made people think about their spiritual lives and how they could affect their work lives. I also got the added benefit of seeing people who wanted to break down their life compartments and bring God into their personal prayers about their businesses while at home. Liz and Josh said that I did a really good job with the whole thing. They said that they overheard one group of three commit to starting a prayer meeting like the one we have. That will be cool to look around and see three more people praying when we are praying. I’m thankful for the day – Please comment on what you think about this whole thing – feel free to ask whatever questions you have. Thanks in advance.
