In this episode on Prayer, Mitchell Buchanan and Brandon Galford discuss the importance of prayer in the Christian community. They emphasize the need for individuals to prioritize prayer in their daily lives and the impact it can have on personal growth and relationships. The speakers address the lack of attendance at communal prayer nights and suggest practical discussions in accountability groups to encourage engagement. They also highlight the significance of prayer in Sunday worship and the potential for new possibilities when engaging with God through prayer. Overall, the video calls for a collective commitment to prayer and the removal of excuses in order to experience the transformative power of prayer in both personal and corporate settings.
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[00:00:09.82] - Mitchell Buchanan
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the sermon podcast for the Community Church for GODI think I do that a little differently every time, and that's who we are. My name is Mitchell Buchanan. I love doing this. I'm here with great friend, great preacher, uh, part of our pastoral care team at church, Brandon Galford. Silent intro both times. That's yeah. If you want words from this man, you have to earn, You have to work for it. And I've been working my butt off. I'll do.
[00:00:42.96] - Brandon Galford
I don't do intro's well
[00:00:45.52] - Mitchell Buchanan
No, we're pumped for this. Thanks for joining us. And we wanted to at least give a couple recaps from the summer. The summer was busy. We were all doing stuff. We were like the we were talking about the sermons doing prep, listening back to him, and then it was like, was I there? Did I just listen to that online? Like we, we don't have memories from what we were doing for the summer and I'm sure you do too, but we want to give at least some time. We did a podcast on mission. This is going to be covering a podcast for prayer. If you don't regularly attend the Community Church for God . We're going through a value series this whole year. So this is things that as a we value prayer. And then we had different preachers come up and give, like a 'Hey, this is a different nuance on what we value for prayer, how we can live it out, how can be part of our lives. So without further adieu, we had I think 5 sermons on prayer.
[00:01:48.95] - Brandon Galford
that's correct.
[00:01:50.31] - Mitchell Buchanan
Thank you.
[00:01:50.76] - Brandon Galford
Five of them.
[00:01:52.00] - Mitchell Buchanan
There were5 . Parker started us off with the Lord's Prayer, which tried and true number one pick in any prayer fantasy draft. I'm pretty confident. It's like praying this way is kind of how the the passage goes. But he did a great job. There's so much in the Lord's Prayer that I think we can pull out. I think he really highlighted at the back end of that forgiveness and how, you know, forgive others just as you're to be forgiven. That how that plays out into our social lives, how that is a command that like if we want to experience an intimacy with God and with others that we need to to live that out. It brings us to a place of forgiveness. You picked up on the next week, which is really like a like the best primer for prayer. Like you took the passage pray without ceasing. And then I think it was just such a great dive into what prayer is as like a construct, how we find intimacy with God through prayer. And then like, what is the benefit where to be praying without ceasing? It's like, what are we getting from that? And like, not just like how do I receive it, but like this dynamic we have, as, you know, created beings with our creator as like, you know, mortals to God. Like, what is this dynamic? What do we get from that? And I think it was so great to, to get like a preface and not just like a preface on like, hey, we're going to talk about prayer, but like a really great learning block of like, hey, if you consider prayer, if you can like listen to this and then like everything else can kind of branch off from that. That's kind of how I talk about it.
[00:03:31.59] - Brandon Galford
Yeah
[00:03:32.59] - Mitchell Buchanan
You preached it dude. Do you want to kind of give some thoughts on what you were thinking, what you wanted to kind of leave people with or?
[00:03:39.31] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:03:40.40] - Mitchell Buchanan
What led to this sermon?
[00:03:42.03] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, I think I I wanted to first of all, give some background as to why prayer is for me personally such I think a central part of my life. I mean, we're we're believers, we're Christians, right? Amen. Prayers for everyone.
[00:03:56.08] - Mitchell Buchanan
Cut the podcast, We are believers.
[00:03:58.71] - Brandon Galford
And that was one of the things I wanted to drive home is that prayer isn't just a, a spiritual gift of some. It's not just for the overly emotional or the feelers or the whatever. But prayer is a responsibility for all of us. And, and not just something we do occasionally in our lives or when we wake up, go to bed or eat food. But it needs to be the fuel of our lives for all of us. And I, I, I just, I felt the need to share of just the ways that I in those early years of my walk with Jesus, saw God move through prayer in ways that were just inexplicable, No explanation other than the fact that I spoke these words to an invisible entity. And then the things happened and that just kept happening. And I, I think that not just that, not just the response aspect, but it really the intimacy element. And that was what I, I really wanted to drive home is that I know for me when I look at my walk, 20 plus years of being a believer and I seasons of health and unhealth, correct correspond directly with how much am I in prayer? How much am I, you know, taking the time to sit with Jesus, really like talk to him, open my heart to him, unload on him what's going on in my world, ask him conversationally for direction and advice. Reading the text with that kind of of openness, asking him to speak through it, like my health directly corresponds to whether or not that's happening in my life. And so, you know, speaking communally, I, I don't think that's unique to me. I think that that's pretty universal for believers that we've got to stay connected to the vine if we're going to bear fruit and be healthy. So I, I just wanted to use that short text, you know, 2 words in the Greek pray without ceasing and, and just really emphasize, guys, are we being intimately connected to Jesus on a daily basis? Is this a, as the Hebrews use the metaphor, walk, Is this our walk? Are we, is this consistent? Is this what we're doing' cause if it's not, we're not going to have a healthy community. It's just we're not, you know? And, and so that I just really wanted to emphasize that and yeah, preach from that experience of my own. Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:44.63] - Mitchell Buchanan
I know we chatted before I, I was said something I want to bring up was the, the community night of prayer we have on Wednesdays, which me and you have talked about before off camera, off mic as we're both on the pastoral care team trying to figure out like, how is this not like going? How, how is this not more successful with people coming? And I, I was, I wanted to bring it up on this because I think it's a known thing that we announce it every week. It for sure happens because we make the announcements that some people come, but it's very, it's generally the same people and it's not a lot of people. So I mean, we've had conversations where it's like, is there ways that we can do this better? I'm sure there are. And where it's like, why is this? Why are people not coming? But I was like, it feels bad to make announcements and kind of knowing very few people come, which in US talking, I think we left for the conclusion like it's never a bad. How could it be a bad resolved to just say, you know what, we're going to announce it. We're going to open up, We're going to open up the sanctuary for prayer. Please come. Like, I think no matter how many people come, that's never a bad result of that. Hey, we as a church are giving an opportunity for people to pray together for an hour on Wednesday. Now I think it's could be a matter of like, is it the right time or the right day or all these schedules or whatever. It's like I don't think we've gotten feedback on like, hey, I'd love to come. This is at a bad time. Can we or anything of that sort in forever? And like I said, I think there's caveats galore of like, well, why don't you frame it in a way or do specific prayers or do this, do some worship. It's like, I'm sure it could be better. But I think when you're sharing of like this conviction to pray, right, that this this element of like it's part of our walk and like there's so much benefit that we should be engaging with the Lord and prayer to set our minds right of of being healthy spiritually. That surely this that we're under utilizing this just as an and this Wednesday night thing as an antidote for are we actually engaging in prayer? And it's like, maybe it would just be, is there some practical discussions we can have in our accountability groups? Like I think are we praying enough? Or why is community prayer not something that we are engaging in?
[00:09:22.39] - Brandon Galford
And I think those conversations, they definitely need to happen and not in any sort of judge mental way or but just sincere inquiry. You know, what does, does it not work for your schedule? Like there's, you know, myriad reasons why, you know , 98 % of our communal body doesn't come. You know, we, we, we Max out some days with, you know, 12 to to 14 on the, the, you know, our our most hop and nights. And it's mostly students, you know, college students got, you know, plus, you know, a a a couple of others, but it's mostly students. Those conversations, I think, do need to be happening in our accountability groups. You know, why, why are we in those who are coming, you know, can testify why they are and why they keep coming. And those who don't can share the rationale for that, you know, again, non judgmentally, but just what's going on because there's something going on. You know, there's that, you know, maybe it's it's that I get enough prayer on my own. I get I get spiritually fed enough that I don't feel the need for that. Wednesday nights are one of my only nights to be able to just relax with the family. People have their reasons, but I think it would be good conversation for people to share those reasons and maybe, you know, push back with one another in conversation because I do think that the communal prayer aspect of who we are is very important. You know, that each individual's walking with the Lord essential, but that it also that we're coming together to do that as, as one voice, one body, also essential. Yeah. So I would, I, I would feel good knowing those conversations were happening, right. People were, it was being forced upon people's radar to think about and even ask themselves, why don't I come? You know, there are some who don't know why they don't come. They just don't come. They haven't thought about.
[00:11:24.12] - Mitchell Buchanan
It, that's the thing, it's the type of. I think it's the type of question or the type of conversation that can be easy to overlook because there there's kind of like a a definitely, it's simple. You ask them like, hey, is prayer important? Of course, like that's kind of answer you get. Or it's like, should we pray? It's almost like a straw man question. Like should we pray? It's like, of course we should be praying, but no one takes like the discipline to do something like setting aside time to pray. I think we all have moments in pockets where we pray. I know there's some people, there's a couple prayer groups happening where they're committed on a morning a week to pray together. Just fantastic. I just think, I think in general we probably lack that intentionality to do it. And so I think we probably just assume, yeah, I pray, but it just knowing that it it feels and again, I think that it's fun to talk about this on the other side of all the trips and after mission, we had prayer as like, you know, a community value knowing all the great things and the great possibilities God has around the world that he is doing in students around the world that he did in the interns that went and the testimonies from that from your trip in May. It's like knowing that we can still go through pockets of like, So what are we doing around here? Like I'm tired or I'm doing this or that that. I think conceptually we could all acknowledge, hey, those trips were special because people were intentionally connecting with the Lord in prayer, in times of worship, in times of reading his word. The spiritual disciplines were very high in those moments. I think the week to week in our church, it can be easy not to have those as high of mind of like I need to pray. If we just ask people, Hey, do you think our our church would be change and be more passionate, more engaged on mission with God. If we took time to pray, everyone would be like, yes, So then it's like what you're saying is like, what is the obstacle? Because if we all trust that we're here to follow the Lord, we all trust that we are. You know, we acknowledge God's word is paramount to our say our growing and maturing and living out sure this Christ like this Christ like life. Why aren't we praying? You know, it, it becomes like very, I think it becomes humiliating to admit that we just don't want to. And again, I think I'm saying we this is like me personally, because when there are times for community prayer, Bren will go and I'll stay home with the kids where it's like, maybe that's a practical element we can't avoid. But I'm also not making those efforts personally outside of that. So I think it's just a humiliating moment to say, yes, we should pray, yes, we should do that. Either I'm having an admission that like, I don't do something I know needs to be done and I'm worse for it, or we're having to, I think, make the bold statement of like, that's four children. That's pedantic. Prayer doesn't really affect change in my life or our our corporate life because I think maybe that people can approach it that way. Where it's easy to associate prayer with someone who has like good intentions, they just don't know any better or like, oh, I'm going to pray for that. Like you kind of have like a sweet old lady picture in your mind. I'm like, she's praying. And it's like, I think as you become educated and think it's easy to disregard prayer as a spiritual discipline and the the value it holds in our lives. It's easy to dismiss it as something that you would engage in if you lack education or if you lack maturity.
[00:15:32.67] - Brandon Galford
I think there are some who even subconsciously maybe that's there.
[00:15:37.32] - Mitchell Buchanan
Say their name say, but I, I think so I think that what you're saying of like analyze, why are we not doing that? And the, the easy thing to pick out' cause we all share that experience is like the announcements made. We know what happens. No one ever comes. And it's like either it's a bad night and time for everyone or for some reason it's we aren't, we just aren't connecting collectively as a body of like we aren't praying together and.
[00:16:09.79] - Brandon Galford
It's like I, I wondered, you know, I think there are some who maybe think that, you know, people are coming together and praying it's happening. Therefore, what am I going to, what benefit am I going to bring? Just adding one more voice to it. It's happening. You know, I think there are some who potentially think like that. I, I don't feel like I'm there almost every week. I'm there every week because, you know, I'm responsible for it, right? I, you know, the handful of weeks I've missed and had someone cover the, you know, it's part of life, but I'm there almost every week. But I think back to, you know, before I was responsible for it and I, I wasn't, I wasn't always there, you know, I, I, so I'm thinking back to, you know, instead of judging people, I'm evaluating myself. Why didn't I show up every time, you know, like, and I can think of eight, 10- 12 different reasons. I think as human beings, we're exceptionally good at finding justifications. We can find so many reasons why to not do this thing or that thing that is not the most comfortable. And prayer in a communal context is not comfortable. It is not a flesh practice. It is, it is spiritual. It's it puts you in a like speaking vulnerably to God out loud as most of us do in there, there with everybody to hear you. And it there. It's it's not a fleshly experience. And I think that it's easy to find ways to be like, maybe next week, you know, yeah, maybe next week.
[00:17:53.92] - Mitchell Buchanan
Yeah, yeah. And I think this is probably a whole other can of worms. I think the evidence of people, not us as a church, not engaging Wednesday night prayer collectively together right where we're hearing one another, praying for each other, having that moment together as spiritual people engaging God. I think it's evident in how worship starts every Sunday that it's like we have no other, you know, as a body, right? No other spiritual touch points with each other. Now, personally, there's tons of stuff that happens, but I think we kind of come in Sunday morning and there's no other like connective point all together where it feels like, oh, I know like these people I have like prayed with alongside them, with them, where, you know, we've invited God into our moments, into our weeks. And it's like if we had more people there on Wednesday, like how much would our time together on Sunday be impacted and, and be like change. It's like,
[00:18:57.20] - Brandon Galford
We don't know, but let's find out, right?
[00:18:59.75] - Mitchell Buchanan
I mean, we've talked about both of like worship can be a struggle sometimes. Like prayer is like a struggle on Wednesdays. Like I don't think I've ever connected them till right now. It's like, I think there's definitely like if.
[00:19:09.64] - Brandon Galford
You're onto something yeah.
[00:19:10.96] - Mitchell Buchanan
Prayer would thrive in attendance and people I think are in utilizing the time and finding, I think, a joy in doing it with others. It would be infectious into our Sunday mornings.
[00:19:23.79] - Brandon Galford
I agree completely. Yeah, I do, yeah.
[00:19:27.24] - Mitchell Buchanan
Well, that's all I want is your approval.
[00:19:30.72] - Brandon Galford
Well, you got it.
[00:19:31.59] - Mitchell Buchanan
And I think something, yeah, I think we've kind of hit that on the head. I think something that you brought out, which maybe was a lot of other people talked about a social element with prayer where I I know Ashley's , which was with James 3 connected. A lot of, you know, prayer is a way and like and utilizing prayer in conversations with others and friendships with others, that there's a depth that you have with people through that and that there's a a connection with others that affects your sociability and. In in how you relate to one another. Parker brought up forgiveness in his passage. I know Rachel gave so many examples in in how she lives day- to- day and basically incorporating prayer into her daily life as a practice that affects how you respond to needs, how you encourage others. I think yours in particular was very even internal of like, hey all those are definitely true. Prayer has like what happens when we pray either with others or inwards effects everything that we do outwardly. And I think yours really kind of shined a light on like the the focus of there's a value and importance in me and God having a time together because I think either we can be so solution oriented or so like practical oriented where it's like, all right, what's thetake away here? Like what are we going to say about it? Where I think yours like really just sat in that moment of like here is why we have to be characterized by prayer And it's a intimate moment with God where we're trying to seek out meaning from the word, seek out his will for our life of like anxieties we have. And I think you kind of sat in that more than the other preachers, which is a great reminder of it is a practice where we center ourselves on God and allow God to reorient how we see ourselves. It's not just about like, hey, you know, someone brought up a need I'm going to, how can I pray for that? And really my personality is like, how can I pray for, pray and then find a solution to that? And it's like, I think your whole sermon was, hey, we need to find our health intrapersonally in prayer. And I think that was like a great.
[00:21:51.44] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, that's, yeah, you nailed it. That just that time with him, that intentional time with him is so vital to our health.
[00:22:01.72] - Mitchell Buchanan
We either aren't honest with ourselves or trick ourselves where that that time we spend in prayer is like, I pray in the shower or it's like I pray when I'm driving, you know, to Kroger. And it's like if we really analyze that, not saying you can't pray, but those are short segments. Hey, that's a 10 minute shower. That's a 5 minute drive. And it's like, I think there's a value you kind of extrapolated like if we can set it like take 30 minutes , 45 minutes, if we can commit ourselves to some degree not maybe it's not practical everyday, but maybe it's necessary for segments of time. I think you kind of pushed in that direction.
[00:22:38.00] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, yeah, yeah. My argument was that the quality of those times where I'm driving down the street on my way to Kroger and I'm interacting with him, that the quality of those times is, is really, you know, kind of burst out of the longer times that where we just sit with him, where that intimacy and relationships being developed. And, you know, the, the, the text relationship was the analogy I gave the text relationship that we have with him throughout the day. There's, there's substance to it. It's not awkward. You know, we've spent time together. It's we're close, you know.
[00:23:15.79] - Mitchell Buchanan
i think all it's like whatever it is in my, you know, early my faith, I'll say in my early Christianity, I was like, this sounds so awkward, like why I'm a doofus right now. I think just like younger in my faith, there's a, you know, kind of like an element of oh, you know, you should have a quiet time. You should pray. And then I think like that that kind of escapes us or the the the importance placed on that. I think we, we kind of like put that in a box of like, oh, that, that maybe that's a time and place or like, Hey, I can see that it is helpful if I can wake up early and and pray and and read the word. But like it's not crux to what I'm doing this week, you know, but I think you you bringing those up made me it was a challenge, I think, even to analyze that and like, Hey, pray without ceasing isn't birthed out of I have pockets of time here and there. What can I do? But it's, it's a life of like, Hey, I am dialoguing with God and like, if I'm, if I'm not allowing time to have a conversation to hear from him, to sit and meditate, to allow I think myself to be removed and allow God to speak, I'm just having a bad conversation. You know, I'm just having crummy conversation with God of like, Hey, God, I really needed help on this answer. And it's just like, hey, it the, the more that we can, I think, set aside time, intentional time, I think to spend with God. It's the more qualitative the the whole week is going to feel, which is what you reiterated. I think it's like maybe changing our perspective from hey, when can I squeeze it in to hey, I am approaching every day with the fact that I need to be in prayer, right? And so it, it, it takes over, I think our, it takes over our approach to our days as opposed to hey, when is it going to fill in the gaps of our day? And I think we just cheapen what it should be when we say, yeah, I'll pray about that. And we tuck it in to like a drive. And it's not, it's not given more than that, but.
[00:25:42.92] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, I agree.
[00:25:46.11] - Mitchell Buchanan
So I think that was something unique. I, I spoke on prayer from Luke18 , which I, I kind of gave the sentence to sorry if we're doing a fantasy draft of prayer, this would be my number two pick. And I thought I got lucky that it fell to me at four. I was happy about that. It's a parable to his disciples like, hey, let me let me give you a teaching on why, like praying and not losing heart. I'm like, dude, he says it right there and it's like a a slam dunk. Like we're gonna.
[00:26:16.64] - Brandon Galford
Did that fall before?
[00:26:18.35] - Mitchell Buchanan
Idiot. But let me see Brandon was not smart and Ashley was not smart. That's what that's my only deduction. It's a really cool parable. I, I think there's a lot to pull from it, but it's, it, it's very simplified where it's like there's a, a widow knocking asking for justice from this unjust judge. And you see this fun thing where God is set up alongside this unjust judge and how much quicker will he grant justice to you? Which the answer is obviously very soon, right? Like, yes, God is better than this unjust judge who doesn't fear anyone who is just annoyed by this widow, but will grant her justice so she'll shut up. We act like that with some people because we persistence works. That's that's what we're saying. But I, I think I, my, my kind of take on it was that it's a very interesting activity from this widow that she is her persistence and the personality of who would do that. And I, I think it ultimately, you know, I pulled some, some passages from Kierkegaard, which I thought were interesting connected to this, where we looked at necessity or possibility and kind of how that aligns with different people's personalities. And I think the this widow just is looking at this, I'm going to knock every day and there's a possibility the next time I knock that I'll be granted justice, you know, like, and I think that's a very refreshing thing that Jesus is kind of highlighting in that passage where prayers like, Hey, there's a need to always pray for his disciples. Because on the other side of that, there's always a possibility that God can work. There's a possibility that God can meet us and that our circumstances can be changed. And I think as in our community, we've been around for, you know, a decade plus with this church, you can easily, I think even if your life is going great, well, I think we all have struggles in our life where it feels like, oh, this is never going to get fixed or like I'm having a health struggle, I'm behind financially and I can't get out of debt. And I feel like I'm trapped. But I think even if things are going great, we can come to a place where it's like, oh, people never show up on time. Oh, this program never gets the people they need to to volunteer because people don't care about it. Or this deterministic mindsets where it's like, hey, we kind of have solidified, oh, I've been here a while. I know how this goes. I know how that goes. Even in ministry, we can come with this mindset where it's like we can shut off possibilities. And I think Jesus is using this to open up those, open up our eyes and like lift the veil of like, hey, there's a need to always pray because God never has determined. There's never deterministic things with God where he's saying, well, we can't do that. I can't use that person. I can't do that. It's like with God, there's always that chance for a new creation, new life, for possibility. And engaging God with prayer is engaging in that opportunity where it's like, hey, even if today was bad, tomorrow can be different. Yeah, even if this is going terrible, God can meet it and you're.
[00:29:32.07] - Brandon Galford
Combining resurrection theme and prayer theme right now is just fantastic.
[00:29:35.96] - Mitchell Buchanan
I know I I gave an illusion to that because that was my last term was on resurrection. So, yeah, but and I think that's something where maybe just kind of looping back to where we started, where, hey, what is something that can like fundamentally change our community, our church community and how we approach everyday life? If we can commit ourselves, I think to praying personally, Hey, I'm going to take set aside time to engage with the Lord to figure out how he's moving in my life to to remind myself of scripture and how I should be reading it. If we can commit ourselves to coming together corporately for times of prayer where we can call out to the Lord together to hear needs and to pray for others, like the possibility that lies on the other side of that is like, so amazing.
[00:30:24.79] - Brandon Galford
It's amazing.
[00:30:25.79] - Mitchell Buchanan
And I think it feels very churchy to like kind of air quote that to say we can have a revival if all we did was just pray or if we did this if you know, like.
[00:30:37.40] - Brandon Galford
God, we will move.
[00:30:38.40] - Mitchell Buchanan
We've seen you said of like we, we asked for the nations and then it's like we kind of settle into our routine of like, well, our kids have practice till 7 on this night or whatever. It's like we, we really need to come to a place where we kind of remove excuses from our schedules in our lives. And we say this is important if this is a value, again, this is our value series on prayer. If we truly do value it from those who are the most educated to the newest believers among us, to those that are the busiest to to those that have only free time, you know, it's like we all value this. So it's like regardless of where you're coming from, it's a command that we should pray without ceasing. We need to come together. We need to pray. And I think the possible is on the other side of that. Like we can't even, we can't even feel how great God can move in our midst. And it, it's really is weak. I think it's kind of like weak rationale or weak excuses. And it is lowering the expectation. It's lowering the bar that we should have as a contrast community, as a community called out from this world that says we want to be a holy people. It is just in a lot of ways unacceptable the amount of time we put into prayer.
[00:31:56.72] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, I agree.
[00:31:58.40] - Mitchell Buchanan
And I, I think I've said a lot, you can.
[00:32:01.79] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, I know you you brought up the you didn't want to get to churchy with it, but you didn't want to throw out the terms and, you know, awakening or revival. Yeah, That, that, that that's God will move. Whatever you want to call it God's spriti will move.
[00:32:16.31] - Mitchell Buchanan
Every church says that and then every pastoral care team in the US and Mexico, all around the world, wherever you're at, every church says we need to pray, come to this prayer time. And then every leadership meeting kind of knows, well, people really aren't going to get excited. They're not going to come to prayer. And it's like when we came, you know , Greg's mom, Mrs. Garner, was here and that was her life was an outpouring of a life spent in prayer. And I think if you, none of us would dare tell, Misses Garner, I'm not going to come to your prayer time because it's not important.
[00:32:51.16] - Brandon Galford
It wouldn't happen. We wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare.
[00:32:53.68] - Mitchell Buchanan
But I and I think losing her, you know, she's since passed. I think without her being here is without that reminder of like, do we not know what a a chain, a life committed to prayer can be like, You know, it's like.
[00:33:09.75] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, and we wouldn't dare because on one level we respected her to the degree that we did, and on another level we knew how powerful the times were. Like, objectively, this was a powerful time where God moved, did stuff, touched us and affected things. And, you know, that that combination of of respect for her as this conduit for, you know, great spiritual power and authority. And then the experiences we had, you're right. No one was saying no to that, Right. You know, I mean, if you were doing really bad, you might try and hide, but nobody is saying no. Yeah. And yeah, those were incredible times. Yeah. Incredible times. And.
[00:33:52.68] - Mitchell Buchanan
I don't know, I try not to like make over overstate things, but I think it is on, you know, unacceptable corporately. I I think it's hard to say like, oh, you're not, you know, it's, it's impossible to say you're not praying or you're not in prayer, but I think corporately it's unacceptable how we've executed that, how we've shown up for that and participated. And I think in the end you're saying, hey , 1214 students come each week. I we should really, you know, as a church to talk about I was saying we should I think just come to a conclusion of canceling it all together because it really is somewhat shameful, I think for those students to come each week and know, hey, no one else really comes to this. And it's like that's shameful on our whole church body that their students for the institute kind of having that experience. And I don't think it's hey, you're making logical jumps. You're speaking for a lot of people. It's like it's just real. We kind of know everybody knows it's announced. Very few people come. You've said students come. And I think that's like, man, this looks that it feels bad that we aren't exhibiting a a life of prayer better than we are.
[00:35:11.63] - Brandon Galford
You guys heard it, Mitch said. Shut it down. We're done.
[00:35:16.67] - Mitchell Buchanan
I mean, yeah, let's make it better. Let's shut it down. And I think we should just. We've got to make it better, so.
[00:35:23.07] - Brandon Galford
Yeah, that, yeah.
[00:35:24.92] - Mitchell Buchanan
But shut it down. Should be on the table if we're not going to.
[00:35:28.40] - Brandon Galford
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not with you on shut it down. But I agree there needs to be.
[00:35:32.67] - Mitchell Buchanan
Do you not think it's shameful to have prayer announced every week and only students come?
[00:35:40.67] - Brandon Galford
I mean, yeah, there's some shame in it, but I don't think that that the shame should drive us to abandoned ship. I think the shame should be broadcast like, like we're doing right now. Yeah, yeah. And the and the broadcasting of that will hopefully incite some enthusiasm.
[00:36:01.80] - Mitchell Buchanan
We kind of talk, this is probably all of us we talked about in the past and I, I think we've come to the conclusion it can't be a bad resolve to say we're opening up the church. Please come to pray. I just think it's it's a poor reflection of the spiritual maturity we want to. Ascribe to
[00:36:24.28] - Brandon Galford
I agree it's frustrating. Really is.
[00:36:27.63] - Mitchell Buchanan
And it, it, it feels like any, any way you kind of tackle this, I think we all want, we all have an acknowledgement. We should be praying without ceasing. And it's kind of like I'm, we're all kicking ourselves or it's like, Hey, I'm not giving myself to this like I should. Hey, I'm not present at those moments of communal prayer like we should be. But it's something that I think I speaking to existence, we're going to change and it's going to be better. And I think God's going to do so many great things because what option do we have to, you know, turn around you, you Jesus has the words of life. Where else are we going to go? and if we aren't there in that moment with the Lord, seeing this call to be on mission, this call to work, this call to, you know, be in that mindset of, hey, we want to be connected with God's Spirit. We have to be a people of prayer. And it's like, and we can keep, I'm sure there's a lot more to say, but yeah, I think this has been a a great podcast challenging for me personally. I am more challenged now than I thought I would be. And I think I've committed myself to quite a bit here and I have to live it out. That's all there is. So thanks for joining us. If you're not in our church community, I hope this bless you. If you are, please use this in accountability groups, in conversations at work, at times where you're on the job with other believers, have these conversations where why are we not praying together? Why are we not praying personally at what is holding us back? And it's I think we'll find a lot of life on the other side of that. So thanks for joining us. And until the next time, give us a like or subscribe. I'm supposed to say that?
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