Wisdom Wednesday: Pray For Our Church

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays. I’ll be posting videos each Wednesday, sharing church news, discussing our church book studies or, like I’m doing today, offering a devotion.

I’ve shared before in these vides passages and prayers from my favorite devotion book: This Day a Wesleyan Way of prayer.

Today’s devotion focuses on the church.

Here these words from the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24-25:
Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.


Rev. Larry Stookey, the author of this book writes: As it takes an entire village to raise a child, so also it takes an entire congregation to nurture a Christian God has created us in an interlocking system of relationships, apart from which we cannot flourish.
The church is a gift from God in order that we may be provided with a community of faith in which to grow and encourage us in our Christian journey. Regular participation in the life of the congregation is intended to be mutually beneficial. As other spur us on, so also, we spur others on.
Rev. Stookey asks us: What do you cherish most about your life in the Christian church? What are the ways you have been blessed and what are the ways you are blessing others?
I am grateful to God for being part of Peakland and for being part of the United Methodist Church. I’ve spent most of my life and all of my professional life as a United Methodist, and I’m grateful that we United Methodists enact our love of God by showing love to each other and to all of our neighbors.
Sometimes I fail showing love to others, many times we in the church fail. That’s why I take seriously the reminder in Hebrews not to give up meeting together, not to give up on the church life. We at Peakland believe Christ is calling us by reaching out, serving all and extending God's table and extending God’s love to each other and to all of our neighbors.
So in the days to come, I ask you to pray for Peakland, for our people and for our denomination. Pray for clarity on the ways we can reach out, serve all and extend God’s table.
Let us pray together now: God of all people, look with favor upon Christ’s flock in here at Peakland. Cause our congregation to be an effective witness of your love and power.
Banish from us petty rivalries and speaking ill of one another. Bind us together by your love and cause us to know ourselves to be a people called out of darkness.


Thanks be to God and Amen.