Central Abbotsford

Some of you will be aware that every week, with rare exceptions, we hold a time of prayer before our weekend service at Central Abbotsford. The specific purposes of this time are to pray for the service itself, and all of its different components, for other matters important to the life of Northview Community Church, and for anything that might be pressing and needing to be brought before the Lord for anyone present.

Northview’s mission is to help all who call this church home to become deeply rooted followers of Jesus Christ. Of course, we see in the gospel account that Jesus frequently took time to pray – He delighted in speaking with His Father, and His Father delighted equally. Furthermore, the Father delights in the prayers of His people (Proverbs 15:8). We want to open up accessible opportunities for everyone in our congregation to come together and pray, or even to just hear the prayers of their brothers and sisters in the faith.

Given our building and timing, this accessibility has been a challenge! For a while, we held our prayer time at 4:15pm downstairs, but the growth of our children’s ministry meant that the space that we used turned into a setup highway of sorts. So, a few months ago, we moved our prayer space to the Worship Centre, and our time to 4:45pm, in the hopes that a more publicly accessible venue would allow for more visibility and participation.

However! We didn’t fully account for how valuable a part of our service time the meal is! 4:45pm cut right into the heart of fellowship time around the table, and forced some of you into a difficult choice – prayer time or valuable conversation with your church family. 

And so, we are making another change to our timing. Starting February 21, our Pre-Service Prayer time will be held at 5:10pm in the Unsupervised Nursery. We have chosen this time because it more naturally fits in with when people are finishing their meals and moving in the direction of the Worship Centre, and this location because it is both relatively central and relatively quiet before the service. (For those of you who regularly use that space for its intended purpose, rest assured, it will be available to you for the start of the church service!)

Now, I know 5:10 isn’t necessarily the most common time to start a church event. We are much more accustomed to starting things on the hour, or the half hour, or even the quarter hour (or quarter-to hour). So I thought to myself: “what if I find a verse to tie to this as a helpful mnemonic? Is there a chapter 5, verse 10 that would work well?”

So I started with Genesis 5:10 – “Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters.” Not bad, I thought, but I can probably find a more apt verse. Surely the grand narrative of Exodus will serve me in this regard. But Exodus 5:10 gives us “So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, ‘Thus says Pharaoh, “I will not give you straw.”’” Not particularly inspiring.

Then I remembered! I just did a survey and everyone loves the book of Psalms! Surely I can find something uplifting there…

Psalm 5:10 –  Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

Hmmm. Good words of imprecation from David against his enemies; those who speak lies and profane the name of the LORD. Not necessarily the tone for this prayer meeting. Back to the Pentateuch – maybe Numbers 5:10? “Each one shall keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.” That seems a bit self-serving.

Perhaps I am in need of a prophetic word. Maybe Ezekiel will have that word. What does Ezekiel 5:10 have to say? “Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.” Maybe the unsupervised nursery isn’t the place for that prayer meeting…

Maybe, in order to complete this exercise well, I need to draw inspiration from the early church. The book of Acts! Of course. Acts 5:10 – “Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.” Yes, we are hoping to see the Spirit at work in our prayer meetings, but hopefully not in the way He worked with Sapphira.

You know what? This probably isn’t the best way to read our Bibles. After all, the chapter divisions were only standardized about 800 years ago and the verse numbers added for further ease of reference less than 500 years ago. They are helpful guides but ultimately have no significance beyond that. 

So, there won’t be any handy mnemonic verse, just an invitation to join us for Pre-Service Prayer at 5:10pm in the Unsupervised Nursery, again starting in three weeks, on February 21. We will pray for Central Abbotsford, our service, our church, our community, and one another…

…and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

– Ephesians 5:10