“Lord, make us … “: Pastors fill in the blank as part of national prayer campaign

LifeChurch.tv launches national campaign

BY LOIS K. SOLOMON | South Florida Sun-Sentinel June 8, 2008

If you could have one wish for your church, what would it be?

Would you want it to be more energetic? Less preachy? More intimate?South Florida pastors are brainstorming creative supplications for their congregations as part of the national “One Prayer” campaign sponsored by LifeChurch.tv, an Oklahoma-based megachurch with a branch in Wellington. More than 1,200 churches will participate beginning today through the end of the month, including 11 in South Florida.

The prayer to be used: “Lord, make us …” Pastors are free to fill in the words they believe fit the aspirations of their congregations.

At InDependence Church in Weston, the word is “contagious,” according to the Rev. Nathan Griffis. “We churches are guilty of being the opposite of contagious,” said Griffis, who opened the church, which meets at the Sagemont School, less than three months ago. “We push people away. We lose sight of the big picture.”

Griffis said he learned about the campaign from reading a fellow pastor’s blog a few months ago. He said he was intrigued by the simplicity of the message and how easy LifeChurch.tv made it to participate.

Participating churches go to www.oneprayer.com, where they have a choice of video sermons from 60 preachers, each using his own adjective in the “Lord, make us …” prayer. Among the choices: the Rev. Jentezen Franklin of Gainesville, Ga., preaching, “Lord, make us powerful” and the Rev. Perry Noble of Anderson, S.C., preaching, “Lord, make us dangerous.”

The Web site allows congregants to begin conversations about their experiences during the One Prayer campaign. The program includes fasting and a fundraising campaign to build churches in China, India, Sudan and Cambodia.The Rev. Bobby Gruenewald of LifeChurch.tv said the idea began about a year ago, when LifeChurch.tv invited four pastors to share its pulpit during the summer. Other churches also sought to participate, Gruenewald said, and the number of congregations grew from about 400 two months ago to more than 1,200 in 20 countries this month. “It’s a simple way for pastors to explain where they’re coming from,” Gruenewald said. “Churches have wanted to work together for a long time. What’s enabling us to do it now is the technology is there to connect us.

We hope the series is a catalyst for churches to work together on a more consistent basis.”This aspect of the campaign appealed to the Rev. Stan Coleman of South Palm Community Church, which meets on Sundays at Boynton Beach High School. Coleman said he has been looking for ways to show his 1,000 congregants that they are part of a bigger Christian community. Coleman said he also has been working hard to teach members to accept each other without judgment, even if they smoke or have tattoos. His prayer: “Lord, make us a place of grace.”“God called me to start a church that was not a gated Christian community,” Coleman said. “I want to teach our people that it’s not about the religion, it’s about the relationship, and they should extend that grace to other people.”