Presbyterian Elders in Prayer :: Prayer

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Our prayer guide(s) can be found at the end of our quarterly newsletter

This Week’s Prayer Guide

Jan. 25-31: Read Psalm 62. “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him.” Lord Jesus, January can be such a tiring month for Your churches. At every level of church life we write reports, hold meetings, worry about meeting the budgets, etc., etc. Help us stop and find precious moments of rest in You. Help us to pour out our hearts to You, including our worries about our churches, presbyteries, and denomination. Remind us often that YOU are the Savior. And we pray for special blessings on every Clerk of Session and on the Stated Clerks of the higher courts of the Church…and on our Treasurers and office staff saints.

Prayer Guide for the Debate on Amendment B

by Melany Hamilton

FIRST THINGS: We give you thanks and praise, Lord God, for you are our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble—even trouble within your Church. We turn from fear, and instead choose to be still, and know that you are God. You will be exalted among the nations. May you also be exalted within the PCUSA. We know that you are the Lord, creator of heaven and earth, and nothing is impossible for you.

In repentance and rest is our salvation, in quietness and trust we will find strength. Hear the prayers of our hearts as we confess our personal sins to you. We know that we are all like sheep gone astray, no one is righteous, we have all turned away from you and we do not do good in your Name. Have mercy on us, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion shown to us in Jesus Christ, blot out our transgressions. Create in us pure hearts, and renew a steadfast spirit within each one of us. As we go forth in this amendment process, we offer the sacrifices you will not despise: broken and contrite hearts, joy and gratitude for our salvation.

PREPARATION: Holy Savior, we know that the Word of our God stands forever, we know that your Word is living and active and able to cut through cultural deception. Your Word judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. We ask you to lead us deeper into your Word. We pray for wisdom and knowledge. Jesus, you are the vine and we are the branches. Help us to cling to you, to abide in you, so that every thought will be taken captive to you. We pray to bear much fruit within our presbyteries. Give us the mind of Christ. Put your words in our mouths, and cover us with the shadow of your hand.

DURING PRESBYTERY MEETINGS: Whether we are speaking, offering encouragement to others who will speak, or listening to those who speak, may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. We pray for the fruit of your Holy Spirit to be clearly visible in each one of us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle strength, and self-control. We trust your Spirit to be present and active among us. If we start to feel fear, let us trust in you—in God, whose Word we praise. We know, Lord, that you care for those who trust in you. We choose to trust in your unfailing love. We will take the courage you offer.

AND BEYOND: Jesus, you alone are our Lord and our Savior. The Church, and the congregations, are yours. We recommit ourselves to live and serve as your disciples. May it never be said of us that we were ashamed of the Gospel or afraid of the Holy Spirit. With faith and humility, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices and pray to be holy and pleasing to you. We choose not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but pray to be daily transformed by the renewing of our minds. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be all glory in the church. Amen

These prayers are based on verses from 2 Chronicles, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Mark, John, Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews, and I Peter.

© 2008 Presbyterian Elders in Prayer. All Rights Reserved.

Inserted from <http://www.presbypray.org/index.php?page=prayer>

A Posted Comment in Reply to/on Bob Sutton from: Good to Great: More Evidence That “Most Claims of Magic are Testimony to Hubris”

There’s a misbegotten conceptual blunder in all this. We think we can reduce the complexity of business acumen and leadership to something that is actually at a much deeper level of both personal and organizational understanding. It’s not that we shouldn’t try to articulate how to improve, but to confuse that with a promise, particularly a scientifically verifiable promise, is simply naive. This is not, to my mind, terribly different than the employee, not doing his/her job, who complains: “just tell me what to do!” And if you can’t tell me, then you are a hoax. So we do the best we can to offer the expertise, and voila, we are found out. We took the bait of hubris.

We skimmed over the section that said there are no absolute answers. We skimmed over the section that said we don’t know. The answer to this MAYBE is a community. One where we talk about the real stuff that’s going on in our firms and in ourselves. Seems like, from time to time, that might create a breakthrough.

Posted by: Dan | January 15, 2009 at 06:31 PM

 
 

Inserted from <http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/12/good-to-great-more-evidence-that-most-claims-of-magic-are-testimony-to-hubris.html>

Excerpt(s) from Bob Sutton’s: Good to Great: More Evidence That “Most Claims of Magic are Testimony to Hubris”

the key lessons from this book, and so many others, are:

1. As March implies, there
are no magical leadership or organizational practices that will quickly propel your organization to the top of the heap.  Even the greatest organizations struggle
to stay at the top and are led by fallible people
who make many mistakes.

2. There is no such thing as a single breakthrough study. The best and most valid conclusions and advice are based on a series of studies that have survived the brutal peer review process and that result in a consistent set of findings. In this regard, an interesting contrast is Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick, which is based the weight of the evidence from hundreds of rigorous studies (instead of one that could not survive the peer review process unless the claims were toned way down and the hundreds of past studies that were consistent — and clashed with it — were at least mentioned).  I especially point to Made to Stick, and I would add Influence, because they are so well-written that they show you can combine good scholarship with a great read. 

3. My main objection, in the end, isn’t to the research Collins did — the stories are interesting and I believe that nearly all of the practices that he suggests would make a manager more effective — indeed many if not most are bolstered by more rigorous studies (albeit, even as his research now implies, as signs of competence or even ordinary greatness). My objection is — to use Jim March’s words — the hubris and ignorance about the claims about the rigor of the research and the originality of the ideas.  There are lots of management books, or parts of management books, that are incredibly useful and inspiring, but don’t claim to draw on research.  Orbiting the Giant Hairball is a great example.  Another is Tom Kelley’s masterpiece Art of Innovation. The difference is that these great books don’t make excessive claims – Hairball draws on the author’s personal story and Tom Kelley draws mostly on what he and his colleagues have done at IDEO.

 
 

Inserted from <http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/12/good-to-great-more-evidence-that-most-claims-of-magic-are-testimony-to-hubris.html>