Friendly Reminder: Pray Through Annual Conference

This week, I am at Annual Conference for the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. This post was written ahead of time, so these are general thoughts, however the next installment of “Friendly Reminders” is a call to pray for Annual Conference throughout Annual Conference.

I have noticed that in the past, especially during years where we elect General Conference delegates and deal with controversial legislation, there is a call to prayer before Conference. There is, of course, ceremonial prayer throughout Conference–during sessions and services. But then the private gatherings and calls to prayer on social media tend to be in response to how it’s going.

This is not a bad thing. We want to be responsive to the moment and pray as things happen. However, when all the prayer becomes about our personal reactions, views, or favorite candidates, we have strayed from the kind of prayer that leads us to do God’s will in the church.

This is not rocket science. The idea behind the “Friendly Reminder” posts is to touch on things that we all know but sometimes forget. So, alongside concern for the details of the day that tend to consume us, remember to keep those general prayers coming–for God’s guidance, for our ability to listen, and for our being good stewards of the ministry with which God has entrusted us. Where we focus our prayers, we tend to focus our ears to listen, and our actions usually follow.

Image by Flickr user c0t0s0d0. Used under Creative Commons License. Cropped from Original.

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