About 10 years ago, I came to the conclusion we were never going to reach our cities by employing our current church theories, structures and practices - we were loosing ground. We needed an overall revamp, a conspiracy of love from the gut to the skin. We are seeing signs all over the earth of a new generation of spiritual farmers, seed sowers of a new variety. They aren't angry - just bored with the current modus operandi of the Church.
There is a longing in many tired hearts to rediscover two simple pillars that birthed the early church: Prayer and Community. Acts 1:14 ("steadfast in prayer....in one accord.") These two ingredients were the posture of the disciples when the Spirit was poured out upon an unsuspecting city.
Two years ago I fell in love with The 24-7 Prayer Team. Now in over 60 nations, Pete Greig and his team have seen a plethora of prayer rooms popping up in churches, store fronts and even busineses - such that it is somewhat out of control. That's good. So, good that I jumped in with them and now find myself serving the movement on the International Leadership Team and giving enouragement to the teams in the US and Canada. Now CityForce and 24-7 are joined at the hip - invading our cities with an all out asault of day and night prayer and genuine community.
When you pray with people you fall in love with them -community is born. Now we are seeing a number of new communities, bands of friends popping up in various places: inner city youth in Kansas City, University students in Madison, snowboarders in Whistler, BC, and the artistic community in Minneapolis to name a few. In the 24-7 family we affectionately call them Boiler Rooms.
This is all the result of many leaders praying for the manifestation of new forms of Church. These communities tend to love the poor, not be very religious, are militantly loyal to each other, love the unsaved, are oozing with creativity and tend to infiltrate societal life together in small culturally relevant clusters.
Their direction is primarily centrifugal not centripetal, heart honest and a bit crazy. City leaders need fear little from this neo monastic expression of the Church. Ten years from now we will thank God for their pioneering efforts in a church phobic culture.
Check out the 24-7 Prayer US web site: http://24-7prayer.us/
and the International website http://www.24-7prayer.com/.
Read Jessica's Story and see the effects of "sacred space" on an unsuspecting young lady." READ MORE
Saturday, August 18, 2007
24-7 Book Titles
I wanted you to get a taste of the heart and spirit of 24-7 Prayer and Boiler Rooms. These three books are a great start. For other titles and to purchase any one of these great reads, link over to www.24-7prayer.us
Red Moon Rising
By Pete Greig
Price: $10.00
A new generation is learning to pray and obey like never before.
From Communist China to the ranks of the Salvation Army to anarchic German punks, the 24-7 Prayer movement has been interceding continually, night and day, since 1999 in more than fifty countries. This book demonstrates that anything is possible when ordinary people say yes to the whispers of an Almighty God. to
Red Moon Rising
By Pete Greig
Price: $10.00
A new generation is learning to pray and obey like never before.
From Communist China to the ranks of the Salvation Army to anarchic German punks, the 24-7 Prayer movement has been interceding continually, night and day, since 1999 in more than fifty countries. This book demonstrates that anything is possible when ordinary people say yes to the whispers of an Almighty God. to
Punk Monk
By Andy Freeman and Pete Greig
Price: $10.00
Price: $10.00
Fleeing the compromises of the 4th century church, the Desert Fathers founded monasticism. In reaction to a Christianity they scarcely recognized, these radicals fled to the Egyptian desert to model a different, radical style of discipleship, filled with sacrifice and continual prayer.Who are the new monks, the new revolutionaries? The answer lies in an upsurge of 24-7 monastic communities around the world. Read about the beginnings of 24-7 Prayer Boiler Rooms with a discussion on the roots of monasticism and particularly its ethos and values, and how these can be applied in the third millennium. Drawing on influences from the Franciscans, the Celts and the Moravians, Punk Monk highlights the counter-cultural and revolutionary force of monasticism and asks whether it is time for a new monastic movement. It also takes punk as a contemporary expression of monastic spirit and asks whether a “silent revolution” is coming.Find out how Greig and Freeman know “when the gospels are taken seriously nothing can be the same again. When put into practice, the lives, the community, the nations, the world will be changed. It’s guaranteed.”
God on Mute
By Pete Greig
Price: $12.00
Writing out of the pain of his wife's fight for her life but also the wonder of watching the prayer movement they founded touch many lives, Pete Greig wrestles with the dark side of prayer and emerges with a hard-won message of hope, comfort and profound biblical insight for all who suffer in silence.
"If you are hurting and secretly wondering 'Where is God?' and 'Why's this happening to me?' and 'How come my prayers aren't working?' then I dedicate this book to you..."-Pete Greig
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Jessica's Story
"I just got your message tonight and I wanted to send you my story. I do not know if I can put all of it down on one page but I will do my best. Please feel free to share my story and even edit if it is too long. This is my complete story. Here goes...
"I was brought to Believers Church on business, I was working on a real estate transaction for Mark and Debbie Tietsort with my real estate partner Cathy. Before we sat down to go over the contracts Debbie was proudly showing us her church and telling me and my partner all about the work she does there. I must stop and tell you that at this point in my life I no longer even believed in a God, much less Jesus Christ. I was raised in a home where God played no role.
"As an adult I have been to numerous churches ranging from Pentecostal, Catholic, Methodist, Southern Baptist to Mormon. I could not even tell you the names of all the churches that I have been to in my search for God, but I can tell you of the judgment that was passed on by the members of that church. So I gave up, without truly ever getting started. Then Debbie Tietsort showed me the prayer room.
"I have a hard time putting into words the emotions that overcame me at that moment. Still a nonbeliever, I was rocked to the point of no longer being able to stand on my own two feet. I simply had to sit down. As Debbie continued talking with my real estate partner and the world continued on, I was overcome with emotions. I sat there shaking with tears that I desperately tried to hide, I FELT something but could not, until now, put it into words. I FELT God. I simply felt HIS presence and was shocked. I was here on business, not for God. I thought I had given up on there being a God. The idea that this church would build a room that would be open at all times to come pray in seemed selfless to me. Why would they do it?
"When we left that day I told Cathy, a deep believer, about what had happened and she immediately pulled the car over and prayed. I continued to feel His presence but by the time I got home I discounted these events as nothing. I continued to live my life in the manner that I had before, a nonbeliever. Then a few weeks later I received a call from my sister who was due a month later that she was on her way to the hospital after leaving her doctors appointment. Our baby was very sick and they were inducing labor immediately. Cathy was with me at the time and before I left she put her hands on me and prayed. She called her church and put my sister and the baby on a prayer list. My grandmother did the same and so did many others.
"My sister delivered a healthy, beautiful baby girl to the amazement of all the doctors working on her case. While my family continued to talk of the ignorance of all things medical I once again was rocked to my very soul. I KNEW that I had just witnessed a miracle beyond the one of life. I knew that my niece was healed through the power of prayer and I was instantly and to my own shock a great believer in Jesus Christ.
"That Sunday I entered Believers Church and felt peace instantly. I do not recall what the sermon was about, or what songs were sung. I spent the majority of that morning in tears and when total and complete strangers put there hands on my children to pray for their safety, their continued faith in God I was brought to my knees. I finally found what I had been searching my entire life for, home. I still fumble my way through this walk and feel inadequate about my knowledge yet I know that Believers is the place that will show me the way. That the people inside this church are the same as me, fallible. I rejoice every time that I enter this church and am thrilled to be surrounded by people who are enthusiastic about God and Jesus Christ.
"I pray that my story may inspire others and remind them that God is always with us, even when we think that we don't want him to be."
"May God continue to bless you,
Jessica"
"I was brought to Believers Church on business, I was working on a real estate transaction for Mark and Debbie Tietsort with my real estate partner Cathy. Before we sat down to go over the contracts Debbie was proudly showing us her church and telling me and my partner all about the work she does there. I must stop and tell you that at this point in my life I no longer even believed in a God, much less Jesus Christ. I was raised in a home where God played no role.
"As an adult I have been to numerous churches ranging from Pentecostal, Catholic, Methodist, Southern Baptist to Mormon. I could not even tell you the names of all the churches that I have been to in my search for God, but I can tell you of the judgment that was passed on by the members of that church. So I gave up, without truly ever getting started. Then Debbie Tietsort showed me the prayer room.
"I have a hard time putting into words the emotions that overcame me at that moment. Still a nonbeliever, I was rocked to the point of no longer being able to stand on my own two feet. I simply had to sit down. As Debbie continued talking with my real estate partner and the world continued on, I was overcome with emotions. I sat there shaking with tears that I desperately tried to hide, I FELT something but could not, until now, put it into words. I FELT God. I simply felt HIS presence and was shocked. I was here on business, not for God. I thought I had given up on there being a God. The idea that this church would build a room that would be open at all times to come pray in seemed selfless to me. Why would they do it?
"When we left that day I told Cathy, a deep believer, about what had happened and she immediately pulled the car over and prayed. I continued to feel His presence but by the time I got home I discounted these events as nothing. I continued to live my life in the manner that I had before, a nonbeliever. Then a few weeks later I received a call from my sister who was due a month later that she was on her way to the hospital after leaving her doctors appointment. Our baby was very sick and they were inducing labor immediately. Cathy was with me at the time and before I left she put her hands on me and prayed. She called her church and put my sister and the baby on a prayer list. My grandmother did the same and so did many others.
"My sister delivered a healthy, beautiful baby girl to the amazement of all the doctors working on her case. While my family continued to talk of the ignorance of all things medical I once again was rocked to my very soul. I KNEW that I had just witnessed a miracle beyond the one of life. I knew that my niece was healed through the power of prayer and I was instantly and to my own shock a great believer in Jesus Christ.
"That Sunday I entered Believers Church and felt peace instantly. I do not recall what the sermon was about, or what songs were sung. I spent the majority of that morning in tears and when total and complete strangers put there hands on my children to pray for their safety, their continued faith in God I was brought to my knees. I finally found what I had been searching my entire life for, home. I still fumble my way through this walk and feel inadequate about my knowledge yet I know that Believers is the place that will show me the way. That the people inside this church are the same as me, fallible. I rejoice every time that I enter this church and am thrilled to be surrounded by people who are enthusiastic about God and Jesus Christ.
"I pray that my story may inspire others and remind them that God is always with us, even when we think that we don't want him to be."
"May God continue to bless you,
Jessica"
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