on the walk

The very first church event is a prayer meeting.  As Jesus leaves he instructs the eleven and all the believers to wait in Jerusalem.  In Acts 1:12-14 we find that they obey him and the eleven return to Jerusalem, gather together all the believers and they are constantly in prayer.  This behavior is so very interesting to me.  What inspires these prayers?

Is prayer the Christian way to wait?

We will see as we continue in Acts that prayer meeting were pretty common.  As in this case, it seems to be the thing the church did as a spontaneous response to all sorts of situations.   They may have had scheduled 2nd Tuesday of the Month sort of prayer meetings too.  But what we hear about all the time is drop-to-our-knees-we-need-to-talk-to-God prayer meetings.

I’ll try to resist applying what we find in scripture too quickly to today but here are a few observations.

1. For them, waiting becomes prayer.

2. Everyone was included.

3. Prayer meetings are low-profile events in contemporary church culture.

As we return to make some constructive observations about today’s practice,  we will wrestle with prayer meetings.  I am surprised even as I write this post at the contrast between the importance of prayer meetings in Acts and their importance in the life of the church today.  We know more about the prayer meetings of Acts then we do about their weekly worship services.  I am already learning from this study.

(In the next post we will read about the first all church business meeting.)
on the walk
-Ethan