During our Sermon on the Mount Series last Fall I was particularly struck by the fact that at the very heart of the Sermon of the Mount is the Lord’s Prayer. If we don’t get prayer, I fear we won’t get the Kingdom.

So, what is prayer? What did Jesus teach and demonstrate concerning prayer? How can we pray effectively as individuals and as a community of faith? Whatever you’ve learned thus far, I want to challenge you to set aside your assumptions and learn about prayer afresh over the next 5 weeks as we explore what scripture teaches. Here’s how this will work:

• Prayer will be our topic of study and meditation during our next 4 Sunday night gatherings.
• Between those gatherings, we’ll use this website as a community “gathering place” for meditations on prayer every Monday through Friday.
• Each day we’ll post scripture readings and exercises in prayer for you to experiment and leave your comments.
• Please be sure to leave your comments. We learn from each other and we can’t do that if you don’t participate.
• We’ll explore prayer from an individual and group perspective during the coming weeks, and experiment with different forms of prayer.

Also, I’m excited to announce that Christ Church, a new missional church community in Fort Wayne, Indiana will be joining us for this journey (or, maybe we’re joining them!). Their Pastor, Ben Sternke, will be sharing blog posting duties with me during this time – so some of the posts you see here will be from him. Take some time to visit their site, welcome them, and perhaps even engage in their conversations on prayer!

Today is our day to practice worship together. If you’re not part of Ikon Community, get together with a group of friends and practice the following exercises:

• Eat together
• Receive communion together (choose a reading from John 6:43-58, or 2 Cor 11:23-26, a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer)
• Read all, or some portion of the beatitudes from Matthew 5:1-12 or Luke 6:17-26, together and share your experiences from your exercises this week
• Pray for anyone in need

Today is our day to practice worship together. If you’re not part of Ikon Community, get together with a group of friends and practice the following exercises:

• Eat together
• Receive communion together (choose a reading from John 6:43-58, or 2 Cor 11:23-26, a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer)
• Read all, or some portion of the beatitudes from Matthew 5:1-12 or Luke 6:17-26, together and share your experiences from your exercises this week
• Pray for anyone in need

Today is our day to practice worship together. If you’re not part of the Ikon Community, get together with a group of friends and practice the following exercises:

• Eat together
• Receive communion together (choose a reading from John 6:43-58, or 2 Cor 11:23-26, a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer)
• Read all, or some portion of the beatitudes from Matthew 5:1-12 or Luke 6:17-26, together and share your experiences from your exercises this week
• Pray for anyone in need

Today is our day to practice worship together. If you’re not part of the Ikon Community, get together with a group of friends and practice the following exercises:

• Eat together
• Receive communion together (choose a reading from John 6:43-58, or 2 Cor 11:23-26, a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer)
• Read all, or some portion of the beatitudes from Matthew 5:1-12 or Luke 6:17-26, together and share your experiences from your exercises this week
• Pray for anyone in need

Today is our day to practice worship together. If you’re not part of the Ikon Community, get together with a group of friends and practice the following exercises:

• Eat together
• Receive communion together (choose a reading from John 6:43-58, or 2 Cor 11:23-26, a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer)
• Read all, or some portion of, Matthew 4 together and share your experiences from your exercises this week
• Pray for anyone in need