I'm going to start with a question that wasn't written down so I don't forget it, but it was about written prayers in worship, especially written prayers. Sometimes elders write prayers out and sometimes they don't write prayers. I know we're Reformed Presbyterians, so there's a long history of some contention on the use of a book of common prayer and things like that. But I think if the question is, is it okay for an elder to write out his prayers so that they're well thought out, and careful in corporate worship, the answer is yes. That's OK. There's nothing wrong with that. Now, I would encourage you elders who are doing that to be careful in how you write them, to write them as you would in your own voice, so that you don't try to come off sounding a little different than you might otherwise. So write it in a normal prayer conversational type voice. But that's OK. And it's fine. I used to write most of my prayers as a new pastor. and for corporate worship, just because you want to do it well. And there's a balance between what I was pushing yesterday, which is nobody's going to judge you if you don't pray very well. But you who are elders, you need to learn to do it as well as you can, because people are listening, and people are going to learn to pray from you. And so there's a balance there. So I'm not saying judge your elders for how they pray. But listen to them, and you can learn how to pray from your elders, and so it's okay to write out prayers. It's also certainly okay to not write out prayers, and that's probably more typical in our churches, but both are fine, as long as the writing out of prayers doesn't lead to something overly formal or weird or a new voice that you want to, anyway, you understand what I'm saying. Okay. Taking the initiative to pray with each other, pray with other believers is awkward enough, How can we take that same initiative with non-believers? What should we avoid when doing so? I think praying with non-believers, at least in my experience, is a great thing. It's a great evangelistic tool. It shows love. It shows care. They don't really, of course, they won't really understand what's going on, but unless they're really like hardcore atheists, which there still aren't that many of, despite what it seems like, unless they're hardcore atheists, they're going to say, sure, of course you can pray for me. And why not? Why not pray for them as a way of showing care and love for them? When you do that, you need to pray carefully. There's ways that you can pray, God bless this person, draw them to yourself, encourage them, send your spirit to them, teach them about yourself. There's all the prayers that are appropriate that don't treat them like they're inside the family, but also you're not praying overly harsh, Lord don't let them burn in hell for their sins tomorrow type prayers. I mean, you can do that on the way home, but it's good to pray for. Yeah, so avoid overly harsh things, but definitely pray with unbelievers. Visiting people in hospitals is always a good time to pray. Typically, if you're praying with an unbeliever, it's because there's something going on, and they've opened their heart up to you in some way. This is what we do as Christians, and it can be a great evangelistic tool to say, I believe that God's real. He's going to hear us now because of Jesus. And so let's ask Him for these things. And God answers prayers for unbelievers. Right? When you pray for an unbeliever, God's going to hear you. And He may very well answer that prayer and may very well be that answer to prayer could be a great testimony of the power of God. All right. What kind of practical suggestions do you have for encouraging corporate prayer? For example, should people be encouraged to move closer to one another? Oh, you mean like physically move closer your houses? Yeah, I think that's what it means. I think that's what the question means. Maybe. There are reasons to live at a distance from your church family. The reasons of work or in special rural communities and things like that where people are spread out necessarily. But if it's not necessary, then yes, maybe you should consider moving closer to your church family. At our college retreat this year, Daniel Howe came and he was speaking on the church as as we become a minority culture in America, which we already are, if you haven't figured it out yet, but as we, as the true church becomes a minority culture in America, one of the ways that minority cultures thrive, Daniel taught us is by being together and by moving close together. And as the church is going to thrive in America, I have no doubt about that. The church is going to grow and it's going to thrive. But, but one of the things that's going to happen is we're going to have to be closer together. And Daniel encouraged something that he called the grocery store rule. As a general rule, you should live no further away from your church building than you would live from your grocery store. Just as a general rule. And that's a nice rule because it expands to fit different cultures. If you're out in Kansas, it's going to be different than if you're in Pittsburgh. But if you've chosen to live at a distance from your church because it's just a house you like or a school system that you want your kids to be involved in, maybe you could reconsider. Maybe for the sake of what we've been talking about, of being part of the spiritual community, if we do begin to move closer to the centers of where our church buildings are, which are not sacred places, but they're good headquarters, to come closer can be really good for the community. I don't want to press that too hard because I'm worried about legalism, but that can really encourage corporate prayer and that sense of community. How do we stay engaged in corporate prayer in small groups when others are praying? I think it's harder to not pray, to not be the one vocalizing prayer. and stay engaged. I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm the one who's up front more often than not. I'm the one praying out loud and I recognize that my job and that is actually easier than yours because you have different mental processes you have to use and they're, they're a little more tiring. You have to listen, you have to understand, you have to agree and then you have to pray then you have to kind of as I said, echo that up to God yourself. And so I don't have like a great how do we do this other than train yourself. Train yourself every time you're heading into a time of praying and corporate prayer or praying in a small group, just say, just remind yourself, this is me praying too. And when your mind wanders, and it does, when your mind wanders, snap it back and pay attention and learn to do that whole echo chamber thing in your heart. which is really gonna help you stay involved in corporate prayer. Also, again, not to press this too hard or too far, but posture can help you stay attentive. If you're falling asleep, we tell people this in our church all the time, like, if you're struggling with falling asleep right now, do what those guys are doing and stand up and back. It doesn't bother me at all when people stand up in the middle of the sermon just to stand and back, because they're just trying to stay awake, right? They're trying to stay involved. And one of the things that happens when you sit down is you're really comfortable, you've got those nice, you know, you could stand up. Okay, so posture can matter. Is corporate prayer more powerful than private prayer? I refuse to answer this question. God is powerful. God is powerful. Prayer is not powerful or not powerful. God is powerful. God answers the prayers of his people. God loves it when his people pray together. We have lots of instances of God's people coming together and corporate prayer being a spark of something. But who's to say whether it's God responding to the corporate prayer or whether it's the act of coming together to pray that actually changes us and begins to make us more ready for whatever change God wants. It's really hard to figure that out. The question's hard, you understand, because God's the one who does things. Prayer isn't powerful in and of itself. Despite whatever bumper stickers we may see on the way home, God is powerful. So God will hear you when you pray individually this week. And he will hear you when you pray corporately. And God is powerful. But you shouldn't let the fact that others won't pray with you about something or the fact that you're the only one praying make you feel like, well, I don't have That's right. Just because I don't have two or three with me doesn't mean I'm missing out. God's with me all the time. The two or three thing is really interesting. It's a principle that's given in scripture that God loves to be among his people, but God also loves to be with you. God's with you wherever you go. He's with you when you fall asleep and you pray by yourself at night. What about hands? What about hands, eyes open, closed? I think we close our eyes typically, I mean, it's there in scripture, but I think we close our eyes typically just to prevent distractions. I'm middle-aged now, I guess, and I've often said that being middle-aged means I'm gonna fall asleep every time I sit on a couch. I'm tired a lot, and if I close my eyes for too long, I'm just gonna fall asleep. So it doesn't bother me to open your eyes, just like it wouldn't bother me if you're just standing back. So eyes open or closed, that's about you and not about God's expectation of you. So you can keep your eyes open when you pray, especially if it helps you focus, or you can keep your eyes closed. Your hands, again, why do we teach our kids to fold their hands? just so they don't pinch me when they're, or somebody else, when they're praying. It's just a matter of focus. It's just training. And so if that helps you to focus, if it helps you, you know, that's why we do that. If this helps you, then do that, right? So, yeah, okay. Another good question down here. Guidelines on praying together as a couple during dating. Ooh. That was really fun. You guys are great. Ooh, ooh. Like we haven't offended enough people already today. So. That was probably from Mitchell. Okay. Let's pray. Yeah, let's just pray about that. Let's just pray. Seek advice on that. Seek counsel. That really depends on the dating relationship. If you're just starting to kind of date and it's not super formal, I would encourage you not to be too intimate yet in your spiritual lives. We encourage people to kind of hold off on that. That can be a really private thing or a special thing or emotionally intimate thing to pray together. But at some point, yeah, you gotta start praying together. If you're heading toward marriage and you really think that, then yeah, you begin to build the spiritual aspect of your relationship as you build the other one. So just get a lot of good counsel and don't quote me when it comes to that. Yes, yes. Pray together with other people. I should, I mean, I assume this is private, but if you want to pray together, yes, pray together with other people. And learn each other's spiritual lives in the midst of other people, which is always better than quizzing each other spiritually in the privacy of a romantic candlelit dinner. That's, they're out of control. Okay. All right. All right, one more. Come on now. Come on now. Let's not end like this. OK, one more. How do we encourage a culture of prayer in our churches? I don't want to be too simplistic, but you know the answer. You pray. That's just it. You pray. And I was thinking about this as we were in our discussion groups. Let's be kind of a little brutally honest here. We come to a camp and I stand up here and tell you, we need to be praying together. We need to be going to prayer meetings. But in honesty, the people who come to church camps are the people who go to prayer meetings, typically speaking. And the people who aren't here are, I'm not dissing other people who aren't here, please understand. But a lot of times I'm preaching to the choir here. And you understand you're going back to a church that maybe not be as invested in your church as you are. You're here. You're investing this whole week in each other, in your churches, and those people who aren't here. And understand that, and I'm not, again, some of them are just as invested as you are, and they couldn't be here. Please, it's not a judgment on not being here. But it is to say, if I'm preaching to the choir, you need to understand that there are different levels of investment in your church and in the process of prayer. And one of the things that you can do is not just be the person who's willing to step into the awkward space and let's pray and I'll be the super champion of spirituality in my church, but to understand that people need help and that you can be a leader. You can be a genuine encouragement and a genuine leader in your church family by just being part of the change and by developing that culture in your life and in your circle of friends. If you're here, it probably means that God wants you to be the part of that change and not looking to other people to do it, right? So I would just say, understand that you're going back to church families that have different levels of investment, different levels of commitment to the idea of corporate prayer and things like that. And if you're waiting for everybody to get on the same page as you are, you're going to be waiting a long time. So just be the change, I guess. Not to quote Michael Jackson too freely, but be the change you want to see. I do not want to end quoting Michael Jackson anymore. We had a PBS locally, and true or false, prayers go out with the blessings coming down. What? Oh, yeah. Amen. True. True. Yes. The prayers go up and the blessings come down. We'll stop with that. That's great.