We provide many opportunities for corporate prayer in the life of our church.
Ultimately, only God can change lives; only God can cause us to grow. That’s why prayer must be absolutely foundational to all ministry that happens in our church. As one pastor said: “The proper goals of the life of a pastor (and lay ministry leader) is unquestionably beyond our reach. The changes we long for in the hearts of our people can happen only by a sovereign work of grace.
The essence of the Christian ministry is such that its success is not within our reach. God does all his gracious work in such a way that no human being might boast in the presence of God…which means he usually does it in answer to prayer. Nothing exalts him more than the collapse of self-reliance which issues in passionate prayer for help. Prayer is the translation into 1000 different words of a single sentence: Apart from me you can do nothing.”
So we provide many opportunities for corporate prayer in the life of our church. • We begin each year with a Solemn Assembly. We cancel all ministries in the first full week of each year and meet every night for a couple of hours to pray. The focus is on corporate confession and seeking God for forgiveness and a fresh outpouring of His Holy Spirit on every aspect of our church’s life and ministry in the coming year. • Sunday evenings during the month of September are devoted to praying for God’s mercy and blessing on the nations of the 10-40 Window (a region of the world that lies between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude and from Africa on the west to Japan in the East. We pray especially for the land of Turkey, our adopted people group. • We devote one Sunday evening every month for a Concert of Prayer, seeking God’s presence and power from personal and individual needs to those of various ministries in the church and the world. On these Sunday evenings we also meet at 5:00 pm to “pray for His coming”. This one hour prayer time has only one agenda: to pray for the infilling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit into every ministry of our church. • We have two weekly opportunities for corporate prayer. Tuesday evening from 7:30 -8:30 pm open to all and for men on Wednesday morning from 7:00- 8:00 am • Finally because leadership ought to set the spiritual climate and tone in the church, the Elders Board meet 4 Saturdays a year to pray for one another and for the church. Three of these prayer meetings (March, June and December) run from 9:00 am to noon with the September meeting from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
We urge you to make the first two annual events and at least one of the other times a priority in your participation in the life of this church.
