"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer & petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" - Philippians 4:6 Prayer is certainly close to God's heart. He's wired us human beings for prayer. There's something in our souls that instructs, even demands, that we pray and connect with our Creator. At Living Waters, we've always been a church of prayer and we praise the Lord for the hundreds of answers to prayer we've seen in our short history as a church.
But this is different.
As you may or may not know, we "took a break" from our Prayer Ministry in May of 2021. Honestly, I was worn out. Not worn out by prayer or praying with our prayer team (it's something I deeply love to do!). I was worn out by the burden of knowing we weren't inviting our church to experience prayer in a way that warmly engages the whole body in the process of prayer.
All Summer I prayed about what God might have for us as a church. I sought counsel from many people, including our current prayer team and elders. Their feedback was encouraging and God was stirring inside me towards a vision that could be both biblical and engaging for all.
Below is the vision I believe God has given to me regarding the future of Prayer Ministry at Living Waters. This has been vetted through our Prayer Team leaders and the Elders. Please not that these are SEPERATE CATEGORIES from one another:
1) Prayer & Fasting
We will be scheduling Fasting & Prayer Gatherings once per quarter (4 Meetings Per Year)
These Fasting & Prayer Gatherings will happen early on a weekday morning (Dates TBD)
These Fasting & Prayer Gatherings will be open to EVERYONE at church
These gatherings will require participants to abstain from food for at least 3 straight meals prior to the meeting time
2) Sunday Morning Prayer Meetings
These meetings will take place at 6:30am each Sunday Morning @ the New Building
This group will be led by leaders in the prayer ministry on a rotational basis with each leader leading 1 month at a time
Once per quarter, this weekly group will forego their normal prayer meeting time and will rather use the time to teach & instruct people how to pray biblically and grow in their prayer lives
3) Prayer Walks
We will encourage people to take Prayer Walks when it works best for their schedules
We will encourage people to communicate with the Prayer Group on PCO Messaging after their prayer walks with a small list of prayer requests or praises
We want people to be encouraged to pray WHENEVER it works for their schedules for the Glory of God. We recommend walking & praying at the same time because it helps focus the mind of the person praying.
4) Leadership that Prays
We desire our Leadership (Elders/Deacons/Staff) to have a minimum requirement to participate in these prayer opportunities at church
We want Leadership participation to be easily attainable and hope that our leadership chooses to do more than than the suggested minimums
Pastors & Deacons - attend 1 Fasting & Prayer Meeting per year, 2 Sunday Morning Prayer Meetings per year, 2 Prayer Walks per year
Staff - attend 1 Sunday Morning Prayer Meeting per year, 1 Prayer Walk per year
I'm certainly EXCITED about what God might do through this Re-Start! This new vision comes with a SHARED EXCEL DOCUMENT that our Prayer Team will use to record live prayer requests as well as ANSWERS TO PRAYER! We're covering it all in prayer and asking God for great things. May God make this new vision fruitful and life-changing for our church family and for the 35,000+ people in our surrounding communities. Josh - Acts 20:24