A Prayer for the Church
Thank You, Father, that You have created a church,
a collection of human beings,
ecclesia, the called-out people,
those people who have accepted Christ
as Savior and Lord
and now offer themselves - bodies,
minds, and souls.
Through the Holy Spirit,
these, Your family,
carry out Christ's love and caring
in an alienated lonely world.
Thank You, Father.
May Your blessings rest upon each minister
and each lay person in their duties.
Strengthen the work of the church
that the world may discover
that there is another life they never tasted.
The life and the love of Jesus
who can save us from our shame,
our sins,
our unbelief,
our skepticism,
our cynicism,
and can fill us with emotional power
of health and wholeness.
Thank You, God, for the church,
a place where we offer ourselves as volunteers
in this the work of God,
an opportunity and a challenge
to find our place
to be minds through
which Christ can think,
hands through which Christ can lift,
faces through which He can smile,
voices through which He can talk and sing,
examples through which others can be led in the Way.
Grace, mercy, and God's peace
be with you, my fellow ministers
of Christ's church.
May the doors of Your church always be open wide
to all who wish to come - from the mountains,
from the seashore, from the roadside,
from the homes and hotels.
May they be open to all -
the lovely and unlovely,
the deserted, and the believing.
May the doors of Your church, O God,
be always a gateway to joyful
and abundant living.
The door by which all - young and old,
rich and poor, may enter into
a relationship with Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior. |
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