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How dedicated are we?

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Salty, Jul 10, 2015.

  1. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Most churches have Sunday School about 10 am and Morning worship at 11 am.

    I found this Baptist church Web page.

    Morning worship is at 9 AM

    But at 7 AM on Sunday, the church has prayer band

    Thoughts?


    Note: I realize this particular church is very involved in certain social program - if you want to discuss that - PLEASE start a new thread.

    Please keep this thread on OP
     
  2. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    Sarge.... I found your post quite interesting.

    I'm assuming that the "Prayer Band" is where people "band together" for prayer. Nothing wrong with that. Isn't that something congregations ought to be doing?

    At the church of which I'm a member ( www.lighthouseministries.org ), we have several opportunities for which our folks "band together for prayer."

    At 0830 on Sunday AM, a group meets together to share individual burdens and "general prayer requests," e.g., for members and/or their relatives who are sick/afflicted with long-term physical afflictions (cancer is just one of these).

    They also pray for each SS class--that even the youngest to the oldest will be attentive to what God (via the SS teacher) though His Word wants them to know and apply to their lives.

    They pray for God's blessings on the 1000 corporate service that Christ will be honored through the music and especially though the preached Word---that souls would be saved; that those who are saved will continue to live godly lives and be a good testimony to a lost and dying world.

    Actually, there is another "Prayer Band" that goes on during the 1000 corporate service. These people "bathe" the speaker in prayer.

    The speaker normally is the Lead Elder for Preaching (a/k/a the "Senior Pastor"), but it doesn't always have to be him. EX: He and his wife and family right now are in the middle of a three-week vacation so that they can be "refreshed & re-charged" as a family and have a chance to re-connect with each other away from the "glass fishbowl" in which every pastor's family lives. In his absence, our Associate Pastor for Family Life and Youth is filling in for him.

    Tomorrow (Saturday) the "men" (including older teen boys) will "band together" for about an hour for their monthly prayer meeting (usually 0800-0900).

    At 0900 to "whenever" the ladies and their older teen daughters will "band together" for their monthly prayer meeting. [I say to "whenever" because most of them want to remain later than 1000 to "fellowship." {You married men probably know that most women don't always adhere to a very strict time schedule, especially when there's "fellowshipping" to be done, :thumbs:}]

    Throughout the week, our various "Life Groups" also "band together" for prayer along with whatever Bible study each one has. (The Life Group of which I'm a member has been studying Titus for several months now. The study may be facilitated by one of the deacons who's theoretically the "head" of the group, but often times it's someone else. Even Yours Truly has helped lead the study a couple times.)

    There's another thing about the OP that struck a chord with me. The church that Salty linked is a church primarily made up of people of Ethiopian descent or who migrated from Ethiopia and/or Somalia.

    Well, one of our elders IS from Ethiopia. He heads our Ethiopian Congregation that meets in one of our other buildings at 1000 on Sundays.

    Bro. Dereje Befakadu is one of the happiest men I've met! Sometimes I'll see him on our church grounds. The two of us hug each other's necks for a couple minutes, and sometimes we'll "band together" for prayer.

    Many of our "non-Ethiopian" preachers will preach at our Ethiopian Congregation, and Bro. Dereje will interpret for them.

    If you've never witnessed how Ethiopians worship God in their culture and language, well, to put it mildly, they do things a bit more lively than most of us who've only been to typical North American-English-speaking churches would do it!

    They may use similar melodies to songs we may know, but the tempo they put to it isn't one that will put you to sleep! I love it!:thumbs:

    You see, in the Nashville/Middle TN area, there are people coming to us from various "10-40" nations. While we do support "foreign" missions, God has brought many people to this area from these "foreign" lands.

    We've been blessed by God in this respect that a person doesn't HAVE to travel thousands of miles to do mission work with, say, people from Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, "Kurdistan," etc., in our area. They've been coming to us!

    Most of these folks are classified as "political refugees" who were forced to flee their native lands for various reasons such as political turmoil and/or religious persecution.

    They come here, many not ever having heard about "this Jesus Christ," or if they've heard of Him, to many of them He may be just another "Prophet," not the "only begotten Son of God the Father"---the Only One who can save them.

    So, we have the great privilege to tell them about the One and Only Savior! They may not immediately respond to His message, but probably many of us didn't immediately respond to the Gospel message either--even though we might have known at least something about Jesus Christ from childhood.

    If God puts it on your heart, please pray that our many outreaches to these folks will one day bear fruit.

    Maybe it won't be in a couple months that one of them trusts Christ as his/her Savior. It might take years, but we hold to the promise of Galatians 6:9, "And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
     
  3. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    Huh?:null:
     
  4. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    What I found interesting - was the early morning time for prayer.

    If our pastors were to ask members to arrive B4 0700 hrs - how many would be willing to do so?
     
  5. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    The region of Ethiopia & parts of Somalia & the eastern part of Sudan (& probably most of Eritrea) were historically known as Abyssinia.

    Since the church in Salty's link states it was founded in 1808, it probably was started from people who came from that area in the early 19th century.

    "Tradition" has it that "Christianity" came to the "horn of Africa" (where most all of these countries are located) by means of the Ethiopian eunuch to whom Philip witnessed in Acts 8:26-39.

    We have no real way to conclusively prove that this is so, but to my knowledge, there doesn't seem to exist any verifiable evidence that conclusively disproves it either.

    It is my understanding that the so-called Coptic Christians in modern-day Egypt trace their heritage to the "Christianity" that developed from the Ethiopian-type "Christianity" that existed in the lands just due south of Egypt.

    I don't have any detailed reference material readily available that I can give you concerning the above-mentioned information, but I'm sure there's some good sources available if a person wants to do some research in the history of Christianity in the "horn of Africa."
     
  6. Gib

    Gib Active Member

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    We have prayer on Sundays at 9:30a. We usually have 15-20 people come for that. Our pastor has 5 kids. I don't think he would want to do 7am. But, if he did, I don't think he would have near as many.

    But why start at 0700 when you can start at 0600?
     
  7. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    No...:null:
     
  8. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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  9. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    You're welcome to join us tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM for men's bible study - if you want a bagel, coffee and a bit of fellowship, meet them at Einstein's at 6:50.

    Rob
     
  10. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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  11. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    If I were a morning person, I'd do it. I'd be more apt to be at the midnight one though. :)

    We have service at 9 am and we have to leave the house by 7:30 on Sunday to get the church open, the sound system up and running and the projector/computer hooked up and running. We are going to announce this Sunday that we will be having a prayer time from 8:30 am before the service for those who want to ramp up the prayer life of the church. Heaven knows we need prayer as does the community! I'm hoping to get a few people coming for that.
     
  12. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    Okay. Then please cite the source(s) you researched that tell us from whence they came. Preferably giving their ports from which they departed the "Horn of Africa."

    It'd also be interesting to find out the direction(s) they travelled to get to NY. Was it around the Cape of Good Hope?

    Possibly it could have been heading north in the Red Sea, travelling overland to some port on the northern Egyptian coast, and from there through the Mediterranean Sea, through the Strait of Gibraltar, and finally across the Atlantic Ocean.

    These are two of the major routes these people could have taken, but it's also possible some/all of them could have arrived in NY by some other means as well.

    It'd be an interesting story to find out these things, don't you think?
     
  13. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    OOPPPS - had the wrorng link. I was trying to repost your quote.

    Actually, the individual is a friend of mine who was a member of our church in Germany.
     
  14. padredurand

    padredurand Well-Known Member
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    How does a 7:00 AM prayer gathering make someone more dedicated than another?

    On work days 7:00 AM finds me 50 miles from home and working on more. I've eaten breakfast, showered, read my emails and scanned through BB and Facebook, stopped at the store for a coffee, made one stop for paperwork, pre-tripped my vehicle, waited for my rider and headed out for another hour worth of driving.

    On my way I see newspapers being delivered, trash getting picked up, tradesmen and women heading for their work sites, farmers on the way to the fields and barns, the girl at the convenience store has already put in an hour, graveyard shifts are heading home....

    The point is a 7:00 AM prayer time is no indication of dedication. It is just a time of day.
     
  15. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    #15 Jerome, Jul 11, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 11, 2015
  16. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    Thanks for the link you provided Bro. Jerome.

    I guess my love of history of all sorts of things could be interpreted by some as just an "overactive imagination."

    To some extent, I guess feel about the same way about some of the posts I read on BB.

    IOW, I have a hard time figuring out what "fires up" some BB posters on some subjects probably because it's just not something about which I have little or no interest....Not saying that these kinds of posters are "wrong," but merely because what interests them simply holds little or no interest for me.

    IOW, I've read posts in which folks go back and forth over (to me at least) very minor details in some aspect of theology about which I have no interest---it may interest them, and if they wish to post on this topic, fine with me, but you probably will never see me posting anything in whatever thread they've established.

    "To each his own."

    Moreover, since both of us have probably established all that needs to be posted about the linked church in the OP, let's get back to the REAL topic of the OP.....Okay with you my brother and friend? :wavey:

    (BTW, We had a very good "Men's Prayer 'Band' Meeting" this morning. I only wish we could have more of them!)
     
    #16 wpe3bql, Jul 11, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 11, 2015
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