Would You Be Willing to Quit, If You Were Told That You Could Not Pray?

A friend of mine belonged to a networking organization for almost 2 years. This group met weekly and every week before their lunch meeting, the group bowed their heads, blessed their food and thanked God for the opportunity to gather together. The prayer was always a simple thank you, a show of appreciation and respect to God for blessing the group.

After two years of a weekly prayer, the head of the organization visited their meeting and told them that they would have to stop praying immediately or they would all be thrown out of the business club. They were told that prayer was not part of the agenda and that they were there for the purpose of doing business and passing referrals, not for 'religious' purposes.

This group of 25 people (all Christians) who had been meeting for 2 years were faced with a decision. The group, as a whole decided that they would follow the rules and just say a quiet prayer to themselves before the meal. They all love the organization and truly cared about each other and wanted to stay together. My friend was not happy. She said "You can't put God into something and then just take him out of it. For two years, God has blessed us with great relationships and added business and I think we should let them kick us out and start our own group and continue to thank God every week.". While the group understood her passion, they decided to follow the rules and stick it out.

She was alone in her stand. She quit the group and decided it was no longer for her. A week later she decided to start her own organization. All of this happened only 7 weeks ago. In 7 short weeks, she and her husband have created an entire business plan, built a website, created and printed marketing materials and have recruited well over 100 PAID members into their new organization. At last count, they had 8 chapters of people meeting every week and they are growing every day.

Tonight, they held an "open house style of event" and had more than 250 people attend. They expect many of them to join their organization.

Guess what? Prayer is allowed at their meetings. We truly serve an awesome God. Keep praying!