churches and privacy

do people really make those sorts of things public in prayer lists menagerie? I guess Ive never seen them done quite so detailed.

of course then there's just the talk that gets around our churches, too. THAT can certainly be damaging.

our prayer letters only consist of things like "health issues", but they are not usually described beyond a word or two, like "cancer", or "back problems".

Im sorry about getting too far off topic here.

 

I see.

Ive only belonged to a very small church once, and it was only for a year when I was a teenager, so I must not have noticed it much. Im sure it happened though!

Our pastor has made quite a point of not sharing things with other people in the "guise" of it being a prayer request. Too often this is a way for people to try to be spiritual while also gossiping.

I don't know that there's much more a preacher could do though, besides preaching and teaching on it.

 

well if I get back on meth I hope and pray that knowone is silent about it because it's so important to pray.

 

I have seen printed prayer requests that I thought provided more information than I needed to know, and I have been in church groups that discussed things about other people that I really was uncomfortable knowing. If the affected individual discusses a prayer request with me, I do not repeat it unless I am asked to.

I may be missing some blessings because I do not share all my concerns with others.

I think we can pray without knowing all the details.

 

We have 3 prayer lists at church. Two are made up from Sunday Schools, and left in the foyers. The first of those says, "named requests," the other says, "unnamed requests."

On the named request list you will get things like, "Pray for John Doe, he is having open heart surgery on Friday." The unamed request list will say, "Pray for Jill Smith."

The third list is made up of requests that go directly to the Pastor and Staff. They meet every morning to go over it, pray together, and whatever is on it never leaves that room, even if you don't care whether it does or not. These can be emailed, phoned, or dropped into the offering plate.

 

We don't have one, but I wish we would exercise some discerment when sending out email updates.

I'm happy to pray for someone, but I'm tired about hearing that they had a colonascapy and the doctor found x number of polyps and the person had to have catheter, etc.

We should leave that stuff out.

 

Our Church has a Confidentiality policy for the staff. If they spread anything about a person that they heard or overheard in a confidential meeting, then they could be subject to termination. I think this is the way it ought to be. I have seen too many times before and been the victim of when people spread gossip about you or reveal confidential information about you in the form of a prayer request.

Joseph Botwinick

 

I tend to agree with respecting a person's wish if he or she does not want to be put on the prayer list. It's best never to post the reason for the prayer listing.

On the other hand, as a ministerial staff member, we need to be told if there is a need for one of us to visit or go to the hospital etc. I'm in a small town, but not in the loop.

An observation I have made is that some times (definitely not all) "prayer request time" is merely a form of "sanctified gossip."

Another related question - if a person says "I'm going in for minor surgery, there's no need for you to come by the hospital" and/or "I don't want anyone to come by." What do you do or think about this?

 

If they ask for no one to come by, then by all means we'd respect that. If they said its no big deal, no one has to come by....that might be a case where ya go by if you have a moment, or you go see them at home later to see if all is well.

We had a case like this last night at a worker's meeting....and I thought of you all....

Lady started to say this and such about something going on at her apartment house, and someone else started to say something about we don't need to know, and she said, Oh but she needs prayer....and continued on with details I still think we didn't need to know.......

So with me sitting right there, what do you think? Should I have spoken up? BTW, it wasn't a public meeting, it was only a worker's meeting, and we WERE this girl's counsellors.....