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Recently I traveled to Nashville and visited with a couple of our families at the Vanderbilt Hospitals. It’s never fun going to the hospital, usually it’s serious, somber, sometimes it’s sad. While I was at Vanderbilt I seized the opportunity to raid their Divinity Library and sit among some great books while studying for a sermon. It was refreshing to be in a beautiful library overlooking a park-like campus.
I left the library and went across the way to a chapel. It was apparent that the chapel was built at a time in Vanderbilt’s history when the sacred was valued a bit more. This enormous sanctuary was a small piece of the sacred among an institution seemingly devoted to the secular. What made that place even more holy was a group of students who had sought retreat during their lunch hour to pray. Fifteen students among thousands pausing in that place to pray – I was standing on holy ground. A second visit to the hospital and I traded the warmth of that place for the sterility of fluorescent lights and lab coats. But my encounter with our divine God in a moment of pause carried with me that day.
These divine moments, seizing the sacred among the secular, are what a lifestyle of worship is about. Carrying Christ with us into sterile and dreary places is the act of a lifestyle of worship. These are the kinds of moments we want to share here at church. One of these sacred sharing places is our worship room. I’ve posted a picture and a thought from my day and encourage you to do the same. Let us claim this year for the Lord and take him with us throughout. Let us live lives of worship, carrying Christ with us always! We make the secular sacred through the presence of Christ in us.

Vanderbilt's Benton Chapel

God’s word is a gift and daily reading is a blessing – although we often struggle with it as a chore.  Below are four steps to help you get the most out of devotional time.  I suggest setting apart 15 minutes a day to read and starting with one chapter daily.  The goal is not information but transformation – don’t read for quantity but quality of understanding.  In order to do this…

• Pray
  • Clear yourself of sin and any agenda you might have.  Don’t read to prove yourself right, read to right yourself before God.
  • Fill yourself with the Spirit.  Redirect your thoughts towards Christ, invite the Spirit’s presence and guidance as you read scripture.
• Read
  • Be intentional, read slowly (maybe out loud). As you read expect God to reveal something to you.
  • Read minimally – mass consumption forces us to skip.  Don’t read 10 chapters in one day and miss the point of all ten, rather read 1-2 chapters and truly digest them.
• Meditate/Memorize
  • Meditate on the principle of what the text has taught you.  Ask God to show you how to live this out today.
  • Memorize the scripture that encapsulates the principle.
• Live it out
  • Ask God to help you apply the truth of scripture to your life.
  • Live with pause in your life to examine your actions in light of that passage.

Here’s a primer to start with daily Bible reading, I suggest the following schedule…

1. Sunday – Haggai 1
2. Monday – Haggai 2
3. Tuesday – 1 Thessalonians 1
4. Wednesday – 1 Thessalonians 2
5. Thursday – 1 Thessalonians 3
6. Friday – 1 Thessalonians 4
7. Saturday – 1 Thessalonians 5

“I will regularly pray for our team of leaders (elders and staff).”

“I will regularly pray for our congregation and their needs.”

Prayer is the foundational work of any ministry.  It is what invites the Spirit in and unleashes his power to go out.  In prayer we discard our own agendas.  We turn towards God asking for his plan, not just his blessing on ours.  Through prayer we strive to know God’s thoughts after him.  Daily prayer is a vital part of every believer’s life and our staff is no exception.  We are encouraged to pray for each other, our elders and our congregation.

We pray for each other because we know the challenge of being in ministry and share the burden daily.  We pray for our elders because they are commissioned by God to lead and do so voluntarily.  We pray for our congregation not just because they ask us to but because we love them.  During our staff meetings we read every prayer need and will pray for them in a variety of different ways.

William Carey said that you can do more than pray once you’ve prayed, but until you pray you can’t do anything.  This is completely true but often forgotten.  There are too many times when I’ve had an encounter in ministry and then later regretted my poor reaction.  I’ll be asked for Godly counsel but come up dry.  Why?  Because I was disconnected from God and I knew it was because my prayer life was lacking at the time.  Prayer ensures that we dig our wells deep and have a constant source of fresh water for the soul.

This is an installment of the “Sacred Space” series – the first post available here explains this series.

One of my favorite places to pray and reflect is in Bowling Green and open 24 hours a day.  Christ Episcopal Church on State Street has a small but beautiful prayer chapel.  The “Duncan Hines Memorial Chapel” is accessible by a combination lock and available for the spiritual sojourner seven days a week.  The church office can be contacted during normal business hours for a code which gives access to the door.  I’ve come to pray here several times and find the stained glass, stillness and that “holy smell” common in more liturgical churches to be inviting.

The focal point of the prayer chapel.

The small size provides for quiet intimacy in prayer

I will continue with this series be sharing sacred space that I have found, with most of them from Bowling Green, KY.  If you have a suggestion let me know, I love to discover sacred space and take advantage of a few hours of personal worship and stillness before the Lord.  With warmer weather coming I look forward to finding and enjoying sacred space outside and sharing it with you, but for now these images from the Duncan Hines Chapel will have to suffice.