At the conclusion of this week's Bible Study, we had our closing prayer, and I asked for everyone to share with the group regarding specific prayer requests. While we were sharing, my wife, Kim, spoke up and said a name that I can honestly that I wasn't expecting to hear from her.

Ever.

Britney Spears. Two days after she made headlines again, Kim did what every Christian should have been doing all along: praying for her. We always hear (and hopefully, offer) prayers for our religious leaders, but aren't we missing something? It's 2007, and whether we like it or not, the people on television, in movies and music are leaders. I don't know how popular this statement will be, but as Christians, I feel like we are doing a terrible job of presenting ourselves to the world as a people of prayer. We know all the latest gossip, but we don't pray together like we should. It seems like the only time we talk about celebrities in church is to condemn them while they're living, or mention them when they've died. Isn't there a flaw in there?

I'm not saying that we should excuse the kind of rampant sin infecting society, because we're called to be a light of the world, but just ask yourself a question: when you read or even hear about someone famous who has been caught up in a bad situation, what is your response? Do you read the gossip, or do you pray for the person while everyone else is talking?

So, here's the challenge. Make a list of 5 people you've read about and talked about, but never prayed for. Make a commitment to spend some time in prayer for them, according to some of the challenges we see them facing.