Prayer Partners– building on the Pray for Me Campaign
“The Pray For Me Campaign,” which we kicked off last fall, is an intentional invitation for every generation within our congregation to invest in the lives of our children and youth. Prayer provides a way to build real relationships across generational lines, while also creating a bond that is lasting. The goal is to create a vast web of relationships throughout God’s Church and live into our calling to be a church where love lives!
But one of the main questions we have received from several of our prayer partners is, “How should we pray?” There are several other questions about prayer that have arisen as well.
Author and pastor Brent Dahlseng, lifts up the reality that God needs and wants you to pray. Dahlseng shares, “In the 18th century, one of the great leaders in prayer in the United Sates as a Methodist pastor named E.M. Bounds. He wrote:
God needs prayers….It is indispensable to God’s work in the world….Prayer is the great, universal force to advance God’s cause; the reverence which hallows God’s name; the ability to do God’s will, and the establishment of God’s kingdom in the hearts of children….and for the simple reason that by leaving prayer out of the catalogue of religious duties, we leave God out, and his work cannot progress without him” (The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer, Grand Rapid: Baker, 1990, p. 379).
The will of God is clarified on earth through our prayers and accomplished through our actions and service. While we pray forGod’s will to be done, God may call us to act on that will. Prayer also enables God to bring about change in our lives and situations. The unexpected becomes suddenly possible when we pray. God wants and needs you to pray.
During this season of Lent this year, we are going to experience a series focused on prayer. We know from scripture that we are supposed to pray, but we often struggle with how to do it, how to make time for it, and how to know if God is really listening. This series will address these questions and others, helping us to experience the power of prayer and inviting us into a deeper practice of prayer. The desired outcome of this series is to raise the spiritual temperature of our congregation as we are empowered to enter a deeper relationship with God and grow together to love like Christ.
I invite you to fully immerse yourself in our worship experiences and open yourself to this Lenten Series.
Pastor Bruce