Intercession Observations

Over the past few weeks, I've been conspiring with Brother Maynard and Emerging Grace on the July issue of the Porpoise Diving Life e-zine; our theme was "Charis-missional". We managed to get all of our articles together and submitted by deadline, only to have Bill Dahl (the brains behind PDL) email a few days later to say his computer had eviscerated itself, and it will be August 15 before the Charis-missional issue will appear. In the meantime, the July issue of Next-Wave is now online, and Bob Hyatt snagged the previous post here (Through The Looking Glass) for that issue, but his cover story, Why I'm Not Done With Church, is really smoking up the comments. Bob certainly knows how to stir the pot, and this time is no exception!

Last weekend was a busy one for me, as I played bass with three different bands in two days. It was a total treat to play in a band that included Graham Ord, Russ Rosen (of Rise Up Band and March For Jesus Canada notoriety), an incredibly talented keyboardist and worship leader from Rwanda named Ezra, and Dave-ski, one of the most talented drummers I've ever met or played with.

(NOTE: not exactly the most recent picture of yours truly)

The day before, I had played bass with two bands (opening band and closing band) that were involved with Arise Kelowna, a twelve-hour worship/intercession gathering instigated by three teenaged girls, intended to coincide with The Call which occured in cities all over North America. Because my policy on playing bass is simply "play with whomever asks", I often end up being a part of a wide variety of venues and "streams" within the Body. This tends to keep me from being too narrow in my ecclesial connections, and helps me to more fully appreciate what God is doing in the Body.

Some interesting observations of this particular worship and intercession day:

1. The three teenagers did an incredible job of facilitating the whole thing.
   
   
2. The day was dominated by two main age groups: youth/young adults and grey-heads. Very, very few people my age (who weren't in some of the bands). Almost no pastors or church leaders. But lots of youth/young adults and lots of elderly saints.
   
   
3. The teenagers in particular seemed most focused on worship, silence before God, reading Scripture aloud, and a simple but very meaningful celebration of Communion.
   
   
4. The elderly saints loved reading Scripture aloud and singing some old hymns "from the floor". They even seemed to enjoy when we ripped through a high-volume rendition of Delirious' My Glorious. :)
   
   
5. I also had the privilege of playing with a local youth pastor in a four-piece band that included my son Caleb on lead guitar.
   
   
6. The usual suspects at these kind of intercessory gatherings -- the ones Wendy & I often refer to as the "wailers and flailers" -- were few in number, and the youth didn't give them much space or encouragement (without being rude).
   
   
7. Whenever (about two or three times, as I recall) somebody would make some grandiose prophecy about "the chosen generation that will take the land the previous generation failed to", one of the teenaged leaders would gently tell everyone that no generation was above another, and that we all walk together in seeing the Kingdom advance.
   
   
8. The pastors who did attend functioned mainly to keep it a "safe place" and to give the three teenaged girls backing as they led the day.

I'm glad I went. It was a refreshing experience, and I also want to think about what I observed a bit further.