From February on Theology of Vocation

This month we will be starting the Season of Lent, in which many Christians will be giving up something in order to show their devotion to God. (It may be a good practice to spend this season focusing on overcoming some particular bad behavior or developing a good behavior.) This is a good time for us to reflect on what the worship life may look like for a Congregation that lives out a Theology of Vocation.
First, you need to reflect on what is the worship life of our congregation (remember that the congregation is the people of God). So this worship life is not one hour a week on Sunday mornings. It isn’t even the additional (not quite an) hour on Wednesday evenings during Lent. There are 168 hours in a week, so how does the congregation worship during these 168 hours? Does a congregation living out the Theology of Vocation worship only one hour out of 168? No, it is seen in our daily life of prayer.
So it is important to ask: does the one hour we get together help elevate, support, or strengthen, our daily devotional and prayer life? I like to think that with our bulletin inserts about the Theme of the week, daily devotional readings, catechism reading, Psalm and collect (Prayer) help to supply a way we can carry the one hour into the other 167 hours. But maybe there are other ways for us to do this. 
I try to use a variety of responsive Prayers on Sunday morning, in order to give various examples of ways to pray for different things. But maybe we can try some non-responsive prayers, in order to provide you with greater examples of how to pray throughout the week. In addition, we keep those who are in need of our prayers and encouragement also printed in the newsletter and bulletin. Hopefully, you are using these lists in addition to other people who you pray for on a regular basis. I find that having a list of people helps me to remember to keep them in my prayers.
You have hopefully heard it said, “the life of a Christian is a life of prayer.” So this means we should be praying at least every day. But let us go a little deeper, as we understand the Theology of Vocation in our worship lives. How do you as Father, Mother, Son or Daughter encourage worship, devotion, or prayer life within your family? How have you been encouraged, or possibly discouraged? How do you as a member of Zion Lutheran Church feel encouraged, or possibly discouraged in your Life of Prayer (or worship)? How can you help to encourage others in our congregations worship life?
I don’t personally have answer for all of you. I know that we have some very faithful people in our congregation. There are several members of our congregation I know have great prayer lives and devotional lives. I know that there are others of you who may not have very good habits now, but maybe this Lent will be a time to change some bad habits into good habits.
Please tell me if you think there is any way in which I or the congregation may help you in your worship life. Sometimes we may just need a little encouragement. Sometimes we may even need to set a goal. How about if we start simple, if you could spend just 20 minutes every day in prayer this month. And continue to try to increase that prayer time ever week until Easter. If you are already doing more than 20 minutes wonderful, maybe you can dedicate sometime to pray for the encouragement of those who are not getting their 20 minutes in yet.

So next month we will talk about additional ways we continue to live out the Theology of Vocation through what are called the Four Realms.

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