I have recently been challenged on Group Prayer by someone who believes that the Mathew6v5-15 prohibits one from group prayer, particularly because it was an instruction given to us by Jesus.

Here is my response: You need to consider the context of Matthew 6. Jesus is preaching against doing outwardly religious things to get the attention of others. He is not prohibiting group prayer. If that was the case, why do you see group prayer in the book of Acts? Acts 4:24–31 would be a good example.

The important thing in interpreting Scripture is to always consider the context. You also have to compare it to what the Bible as a whole teaches or sets forth as example. Reading the book of Acts, we see that Christians gathered in groups to pray. Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

I would also add that the Bible teaches that we are to gather in community to encourage and grow. That is the purpose of the church. My thought is that if you take the line of thinking that prohibits group prayer, you could begin to make an argument against gathering together to do any spiritual activity. That is just wrong theology.

To be honest, I am having some trouble in determining what to tell you. I feel like the part of GodSquad that helps new students to consider starting a ministry on their campus is the weakest part of the site. I have redone it several times and I am still not that happy with it. It does communicate our vision and how they can be a part of it. I think it is more of a God thing then what we are doing with the site. I think the rest of the site and the valuable resources are probably a selling point.

I have been considering looking at sites like Weight Watchers and others to see what kind of “preview” they give to those considering “joining”. I would love to have some video at some point showing students who have started a ministry. Another idea I have to start is just have some testimonials with pictures and text so that new people could identify with. Here is a recent article that got me thinking more about it.

I wish I could be of more help. To be honest, I am amazed that I get as many contacts through the site as I do because I think it could be a whole lot better. Maybe the fact that we do a fairly good job of laying out the process that reassures them. Again, I think it is mostly a God thing.

I may be short changing myself. I have put thought into how to cast vision for new students and volunteers to start ministries. But I have never been very happy with the solutions I have come up with. I would much rather have images and video that can help create a more emotional connection which is what you want to do in vision casting. I had started learning Flash a couple of years ago for that very reason. I would like to get some video of a successful launch so that potential leaders could “see it” in action.

• What happens at death?
• What determines a person’s experience of either heaven or hell?
• An ABC News Special seeks to answer two questions. “Where is heaven?” and “How do we get there?” Would you be interested in hearing how the Bible answers those two questions?

I want to work on the last question. These were my first ideas.

I was thinking this morning about a survey to get to students that would tie in. I think this program would be a good starting point for a spiritual conversation. It airs on December 20 which is not a time that will work very well with the college schedule.

One final note: I was disappointed that I could not find any information about this show on abc.com or abcnews.com. I find that to be a big useability problem and a missed opportunity when they promo something but have no information on it on their site. I wanted to see the two questions they asked and when it aired. Nothing on their sites about it. I found more info by Googling “barbara walters and heaven.” I found an article on StarPulse that gave me the basic info I wanted.