A Month of Prayer with Fasting and Worship to seek the Lord and listen to His voice.
We are planning to set the month of May 2021 aside for a focus for prayer with fasting and worship. Our aim is that we might quieten the noise of our life and amplify the voice of God!
Across our church we will be making space to hear his voice again, praying, worshipping, and fasting as we press into His presence and His purposes for us as church.
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” 2 Chronicles 7:13-14
The most powerful words in these famous verses are easy to miss: ‘When’, ‘if’ and ‘then’. ‘When’ (not if) trouble comes, ‘if’ (not when) we pray, ‘then’ God will act. Hardships are inevitable in life and God’s people are not immune. But sadly, when these trials come, we often turn anywhere but prayer.
That’s the big, fat ‘if’ hanging over us in this present crisis – ‘If’ only we will pray, God promises to heal our land. How wonderful that God has promised if we pray and seek his face in this passage to hear our prayers and to heal our land.
So we are calling us as a church to P.R.A.Y. Each day we will
- Pause to be still.
- Rejoice with a Psalm and Reflect on Scripture.
- Ask for God’s help
- Yield to His will in your life.
What we shall do:
- We shall gather online at 9am Mon to Friday online live beginning on Tuesday 4 May and join Andy on the You Version reading plan called Lord Hear Our Cry – A 30 Day Prayer Challenge
- We shall encourage the use of a couple of Apps – You Version and Lectio365 to help people to regular read their bible and pray.
- We shall have a weekly “prayer focus” highlighted in our live streams and in an email from Sue Glover with some specific prayer pointers on each theme.
- We shall highlight the Prayer Course Part 2 , which you can watch online & discuss in your MC’s. We encourage you to purchase & read the updated version 2020 ‘God on Mute’ by Pete Greig.
- We shall gather on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month in May to discuss the Prayer Course Part 2 and spend time praying together.
- We encourage you to pray for at least 5 of your non-Christian friends, your People of Peace.
- We encourage you to pray for healing, wholeness and freedom for those within our church family and those you know in our congregations who are unwell.
- We shall have a Fasting Focus for 24 hrs each week from Monday 7pm to Tuesday 7pm
- We are providing some resources to help families to pray together and help teach their children to pray.
- We shall hold an online Encounter evening with worship and prayer on Sunday 9 May at 6.30pm.
- We shall hold a Prayer Watch Special on Monday 11 May, 8.30pm for one hour and a Church Family Gathering on Monday 24 May at 8pm via Zoom for 90 min.
Thy Kingdom Come will run from Thursday 13 to Sunday 23. We will engage in this 11-day period linking in with the wider church in Chester as we pray and seek God together.
Sunday 23 May is Pentecost Sunday and we shall, hopefully hold an “in person” outdoor gathering at Bishops High School Playing Fields at 2pm. Our focus will be worship and prayer for a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit on our congregations, communities, city and country!!