November 24, 2020
Good morning,
Since we are going to virtual worship for a time, the question has been raised about prayer concerns, should we provide a complete worship service. This could be a challenge to provide appropriate requests for prayers, while keeping gossip to a minimum. Yes, people need our prayers, but there is also a need for confidentiality.
My recommendation is, that we accept prayer concerns during the week, preferably before Friday. We will share first name only and enough information to guide the prayers. We will protect the person being prayed for and any confidential information between them and their doctor. I realize we live in an “inquiring minds want to know society”, but inquiring minds do not need to know every little detail.
Also, since we cannot filter the information since our worship is virtual and broadcast throughout the “Web”, only information that will not be harmful can be shared. If a person makes a request that something not be shared, we will honor that request.
If people have questions, they will have to call the pastor to make those requests, no exceptions. Gossip is one of the unforgivable sins, and we will not feed the gossip mill by our requests for information that does not need to be shared. John Wesley’s first simple rule was “Do no harm”. We will do everything in our power to follow that rule for prayer requests.
The person being prayed for will have to give their permission before a prayer can be shared. If they prefer not to be mentioned, we will honor that, no exceptions. Please keep your pray requests simple and straightforward. It will be the pastor’s discretion how to share prayer requests if we choose to use them during prayer time for virtual worship.
If prayer requests become too personal or informative, the pastor will have full discretion to make those prayer requests anonymous.
