Ray Stedman wrote a book in the seventies called BODY LIFE. It greatly impacted my ministry as a young pastor in a small but growing inner-city church. We often in a chuch service prayed for one another, passed an offering plate to minister to someone's financial need, volunteered to care for someone in distress by connecting the needy with someone who had available resources. Those services are still poignantly stamped on my memory.
Last night we imported that idea into a communion and prayer service on our church property building site, underneath an outdoor covering in an area where we generally have picnics and outdoor services.
We made a large circle--about 50-60 came--and then sang worship songs, shared personal testimonies, prayed for one another's needs as a body, and took communion. It was warm--probably 100 degrees--but those of us who determined to come were richly blessed.
The life of the body where we weep and rejoice with one another (I Corinthians 12:26), when we carry one another's burdens in fulfillment of Christ's law (Galatians 6:1ff) and where we affrim that our completeness and satisfaction are in Christ alone (Colossians 2:9,10) are the essence of what it means to be part of the family of God.
We will do it again.
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