Good Stuff Found on the Web — First Hand Report on Contemplative Prayer Seminar

Thanks to Jim Pierce’s blog, Confessional Bytes, I came across this posting by Frank Gillespie, author of the blog “Putting Out The Fire” talking about his first hand experience at one of the South East District’s seminars on Contemplative Prayer and Spiritual Formation.

Frank Gillespie talking in the intro from Confessional Bytes:


“A bit ago I attended a Prayer and Spiritual Formation workshop put on by my district; the SED. When the class was over I was even more concerned about the direction of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod than I was ever before. This post will be the first in a series of posts on the class. I haven’t decided how many posts to write just yet because there is just so much material that I could spend years on this topic alone. Spending that much time on one topic would bore me to tears and that isn’t something I would look forward to. We’ll see how it all plays out…

According to the presenter the purpose of the workshop was “to reintroduce prayer forms and spiritual disciplines that were lost”[2:47] and that we’d be in our time together experiencing and “reclaiming our ancient heritage going way back, right to the New Testament” The presenter lamented the fact that most pastors (and the laity emulating their pastors out of ignorance) only knew how to pray by talking to God and said that he hoped that we would “experiment” and use some of the prayer forms introduced. He also stated that he would be willing to make suggestions as to where we should go as a congregation and that he has worked with over 45 congregations as well as working with several districts other than the LCMS.”


Read the full report over on Putting Out the Fire and keep an eye on Frank Gillespie’s site for more reports on his experience.

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