I thought I would simply post a joke about prayer this week. Not mine, but if you haven’t heard it before, it’s quite good. (I’ve tweaked it a little to reflect my Pentecostal church background – but I’m allowed to do that.)
A famous coffee company arranges an urgent meeting with the Chair of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship.
After being led to the Chair’s plush main office, the coffee official whispers,
“You’re a difficult man to reach. I’ve come to propose an offer for you…
We are prepared to ‘donate’ £111 million to the Pentecostal church if you change the Lord’s Prayer from ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ to ‘Give us this day our daily coffee.’”
The Chair responds, “That’s impossible. The prayer is the very word of the Lord. It must not be changed. Prayers are powerful. We believe in the power of prayer. It is unthinkable!”
“Well,” says the coffee man, “we anticipated your reluctance. For this reason, we will increase our offer to £333 million.”
“It’s impossible, the prayer is the eternal, unchanging word of the Lord. It cannot be altered! Besides, we are merely one part of the whole worldwide… admittedly slightly disunified… Church.”
The coffee guy says, “Sir. We respect your public adherence to matters of faith, but we do have one final offer…. We will donate £66…6 million to your church if you would only change the Lord’s Prayer from ‘Giveus this day our daily bread’ to ‘Give us this day our daily coffee’… Please consider it.”
And he leaves.
The next day the Chair convenes with his church executive council.
“There is some good news,” he announces, “and some bad news. The good news is that the Assemblies of God will come into a very useful £66…3 million.'”
“And the bad news?” asks a colleague.
“We’re losing the Warburtons account.”
Nick White Writing 