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intercessory prayer at vcfp: policies
It is a sacred privilege to be able to come before God in prayer,
to ask for help and know that God listens and acts on our behalf.
We see great miracles when we pray.
It is also a great privilege to pray for one another.
In order not to abuse that privilege, we want to exercise great
care when
we receive sensitive information about people's needs and struggles.
The following policies are meant to make it easy for us to appropriately
handle the sensitive information that has been entrusted to us.
As a member of the Intercessory Prayer team, you will receive
prayer requests by email, or verbally during a prayer meeting.
There is only one thing asked of you when you get requests: to
pray. It's probably safe to assume that's why you signed up! But
there are some things we ask you to avoid ...
Prayer Policy regarding privacy and confidentiality: don't
bring up a request unless
invited
In the interest of privacy and confidentiality, intercessors are
not to initiate a conversation about a prayer
request with anyone. They are not to pray publicly about the request
(unless in a church intercessory prayer meeting). Intercessors
should never forward emails or requests to other people
or to other
prayer chains
/ Web sites. They are not
to offer to pray with the person about the request
when it was learned through the Intercessory Prayer list. It doesn't
matter if the request was made by a friend. Treat every
request you get with total respect for the privacy of those who
share personal
needs. It may help to consider
each request as though it was anonymous.
If the person who has asked for prayer begins a conversation
with you about their need, or invites you to pray (as a friend
can be expected to do) ... then, of course, you are free to talk
and pray about the need.
What if I have something to share after praying for someone?
You may send an email to the intercessory prayer administrator
(via
prayer@vcfp.org, or just by replying to the email request) if you
have something you would like to share: an insight or word that
you
sense may
be from
God.
The
administrator
will forward your words to the person who asked for prayer, and
the person who made the original request is free to reply if they
are
comfortable doing so. They are also completely
free not to respond to the communication. It's important to
respect this freedom.
Except in the case of communicating through the administrator
of the list, there are no other circumstances in which it is appropriate
to initiate contact with a person who's asked for prayer, with
the purpose of discussing the request. People who share requests
on
the list may choose to discuss their private needs with anyone
they want:
you may be a part of private or public conversations about someone's
prayer request if invited.
Our policy in summary:
wait for an invitation to pray or discuss a need privately
or publicly. Don't invite yourself.
This policy is meant to communicate our respect for the privacy
of those who ask for prayer so that they continue to give us a
chance to pray for them. It also sets us
free to pray with a
clear understanding of boundaries. Our charge--our
privilege--is
simply to go to God to intercede in prayer for our brothers and
sisters.
If you have any questions at all about this policy, or if you would like to
discuss a real-world situation where you feel the need to challenge this policy,
contact the church office at 650 327 5727.
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