Snippet: Respite from the World's Horrors

Snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.

Here’s one from John Witvliet in a Christianity Today article/post:

“Painfully, in the worship of far too many churches, there is barely even a mention of the world’s horrors. Instead of lamenting, confessing, and interceding with specificity and honesty, these churches tend to avoid, deny, or minimize the public trauma that is all around them. The understandable desire for a respite from trauma ends up perpetuating a pattern of disengagement from society.”

One of the best things to come out of Covid for our worship gatherings was the new “prayers of the people” element in our services (we now do it monthly).

It has given us a way to lament, acknowledge the world’s horrors, and (most importantly) pray together for them.

One more snippet on why this is important:

“It aligns our prayers with the breadth of divine concern, it forms us into people of priestly concern for the world God loves, and it responds directly to biblical commands to pray in and about all circumstances.”

Read that again. God’s concerns become our concerns. Our “priestly concern.” Wow!

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash