For the fourth experience of living the Lord’s Prayer, I call your attention to the part of the prayer that goes, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” This is where the sharing with your three to five colleagues takes on new communal depth.
As you begin the email that will be passed on to your chosen colleagues, consider your own congregation and identify what for you is one of the major temptations that it faces that can prevent it from being open to the full presence of Christ. In this case, we are not thinking about individuals but the congregation as a whole. What entices the congregation in a way that creates a barrier to their spiritual growth.
By identifying this for yourself and reading and sharing with your colleagues what they see in their congregations, you are probing the depth of your spiritual journey and the challenges of your ministry. After sharing this with your colleagues and reading what they offer as well, it might be valuable to gather together for a time of prayer on each others behalf.
You will notice that the Lord’s Prayer is not an individual prayer but a communal prayer. The pronoun used is plural. By gathering together you are living out that prayer in a new dimension.
