Prayer Postures

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Josh
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Re: Prayer Postures

Post by Josh »

There is an Apostolic Pentecostal (independent) church I visit sometimes that basically has prayer going on before every service. They even out the service time as: 7:00pm - prayer, 7:30pm - evening service.

Last time I showed up at 7:45 it was just a few people there and they were praying (not in tongues I should add), some weeping and some singing. Some people were knelt in prayer and others had hands lifted up.

At my old Midwest Mennonite Church, Wednesday evening prayer often involved hands lifted up and/or weeping esp. in the small groups of busy 3 - 4 men and boys. This made a big impression on me when I was a new believer and came to Wed. night prayer. And it made a bigger impression when it was not every single time, but maybe once out of every 3 or 4 times.
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Valerie
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Re: Prayer Postures

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Neto wrote:
Valerie wrote:
Neto wrote: After I began attending AoG Wednesday evening services (still in the MB church house for Sunday services), on one occasion we were late getting there, and had to sit in the balcony. I was ashamed to realize how much the others seated around me had to do with how I worshiped. (But maybe I shouldn't have been? Does this just illustrate how the body works, and how easily we can "urge one another on to good works"?)
Possibly although in situations in Church where things are more uniform it probably is to remove these tendencies- I know what you mean by this which is why I tend to try, when in worship and prayer I tend to try to forget whose around me but even still with eyes open it's hard not to be self conscious- having come from Pentecost/Charismatic for decades, suddenly going where this lifting of hands isn't practiced, I wrestle with it- it comes natural for me to lift my hands, palms open, and certain other ways-depending on the situation- (mostly during worship songs) but I don't want to draw attention away from the Lord by doing this- either- it's been a little difficult to change or even decide if I should (my husband has never been one to lift hands.
I guess the question might be what do we do when we are all alone? At home? Is it consistent? Or is some of this reserved for the assembling of the saints together only, like some say veiling is?
Did you ever attend services with a Jesus People congregation? (The AoG services were much more 'institutionalized', or seemed all planned out.) There was one particular one in Minnesota that I went to a few times (until they started doing stuff that was contrary to Scripture), and one thing I really liked about it was that there was not a lot of surface talk going on when you came in before the actual service started. There might be small groups here & there praying and 'dancing' - I put it in quotes because it was not like what people think of as dancing, it was more like just jumping, with your hands raised. I sometimes still do that privately, but would never think of doing it in our Mennonite services. (I just do it inside.) I'll readily admit that I've always been an emotional person, and things that took place during the year 2007 broke me and remade me in ways that have made me even more so. So while I don't often raise hands in our services, I often just stand there with the tears running down my face. No one has ever mentioned it to me, and I have no idea what others think. Doesn't matter. But I still can't get completely unaware of other people around me, so the full expression is kept for private times by myself.
It's hard for me to say if I ever attended service of a "Jesus People Congregation". I would have thought the Church I attended starting in 1973, when I got baptized in the ocean- was probably a Jesus People congregation- Calvary Chapel- the original Calvary Chapel. The Pastor left the Foursquare denomination (which is very similar to AOG) and started Calvary- reaching out to the hippie & drug culture who would then have been labeled Jesus People- (I remember being called a "Jesus Freak" in those days and this Jesus Movement became more 'established'. What you describe as your experience is similar to mine at Calvary, yet pretty tame, not out of control or disorderly. There was an afterglow service on Saturday nights where the Spiritual gifts were occurring which included tongues (first time I heard tongues) but I think the more charismatic worship & style somewhat faded out of Calvary- which then Vineyard came out of that- and then Vineyard embraced the 'prophets' but then Toronto Airport Vineyard had strange things occurring so many Vineyards backed away due to discernment- all this to say, worship styles that are not more prescribed but free- probably became free to allow the enemy to counterfeit or interfere with strange things that need to be discerned and addressed
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Valerie
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Re: Prayer Postures

Post by Valerie »

Neto, not to bunnytrail this thread but your question about Jesus People prompted me to look that up- My Church from the 70's is listed in the Jesus People wikipidia article- is this what you were familiar with too?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_movement

(wow- once again I see leaders from churches i came from, become priests in Eastern Orthodox- an entire Foursquare Congregation converted to Eastern Orthodox at one time which I read a fascinating article about how all that transpired- I read an article too about a former Amish bishop, becoming a priest in Orthodox Church- keeps me wondering about this)
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Josh
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Re: Prayer Postures

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Valerie wrote:Neto, not to bunnytrail this thread but your question about Jesus People prompted me to look that up- My Church from the 70's is listed in the Jesus People wikipidia article- is this what you were familiar with too?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_movement

(wow- once again I see leaders from churches i came from, become priests in Eastern Orthodox- an entire Foursquare Congregation converted to Eastern Orthodox at one time which I read a fascinating article about how all that transpired- I read an article too about a former Amish bishop, becoming a priest in Orthodox Church- keeps me wondering about this)
Just hurry up and do it already...
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