Lengthy prayer

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[nelliepooh]

I was on one of my listening to online sermon sperts from the Downtown church in Des Moines to keep affirming that there are strange thimgs going on and I was surprised to find a lot of the messages that were recent had 30 or 40 minte prayer and no sermon!  so it got me thinking, is this a common thing for gc churches?  Im pretty sure that I dont remember a wh
ole lot of long prayers when I was in the church, but Im not sure.  what do you think the purpose of it is?  Do these pastors lose track of,time or are they trying to sound super spiritual or is it to trance the audience?  Or am I just being crazy? the specific messages I dont recall but there is a series that the one message in particular about making diciples and one about the holy spirit with Tom
Short. Listen and id be interested to hear what u all think.

[ANobody]

You can bet Im not gonna go listen to these audio files to hear it for myself. 

But, are you sure that the 30 - 40 minutes are prayers and not simply a sermon that started with a prayer?  I have heard some preachers start sermons with a short prayer in which they never pronounce a closing or an amen, and they just begin talking while half the auditorium is still in prayer mode, and the audience does not know the sermon has begun because the prayer never had an ending.

If it is a pattern that the sermon is being replaced by a lengthy prayer (I'll take your word for it cause I am not gonna go listen), then there is definately a purpose.  Since prayers--talking to God--are (improperly) considered more holy than sermons--talking about God--it may be a way for the elders to sound more holy.  Maybe they want to be seen as more "Spirit-led."  Maybe people will be less willing to question what they say if they hear it in a prayer instead of in a sermon, a better way to get greater control of the church.

[AgathaL'Orange]

I will have to listen.  I did hear a Tom Short one that had a crazy long prayer in which he told God what God was wanting to teach us and to do.  It's the most manipulative (yet simple) method.  You invoke God as basically using you as His mouthpiece and who can argue with that?  I found myself doing that to my kids a few weeks ago and realized that I was trying to control them with God.  Yikes!  I'm a mini cult leader! 

[nelliepooh]

Well i didnt listen to everything but im pretty sure it was prayer, i would skip forward and listen for a while and i was like man is he really still praying?