Tuesday, November 29, 2005

EFC and evangelism

National Prayer Focus for Evangelism: May 3 to June 11, 2006
At the end of August 2005, approx. 30 national and city prayer leaders came together in Mississauga, ON to seek God for a united prayer focus in 2006. It became very clear both in prayer and from the Bible, that prayer and evangelism were strongly linked in the purposes of God, and we coined the phrase ‘Christ Driven Prayer and Evangelism’! Our prayer focus was then seen to be vitally linked to national outreach initiatives like Alpha Ministries Canada and Celebration 2006. Drawing from the inspiration of Alpha to have a 40 – Day Prayer Blitz, we found that it naturally included a number of significant initiatives from May 3rd to June 11th, 2006.

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006: 40 Days of Prayer Starts with Daily Prayer calendar available

Saturday, May 6th, 2006: ‘Heal Our Land’ – Wave of Prayer from Coast to Coast

Friday, May 26th, 2006: Start of ten days of continuous prayer and fasting prior to the Global Day of Prayer

Saturday, May 27th, 2006: Start of Celebration 2006 a national initiative of the EFC in community based evangelism

Sunday, June 4th, 2006: Pentecost Sunday and the Global Day of Prayer

Sunday, June 11th, 2006: Final Day of the 40 Days of Prayer and Celebration 2006

There's a lot of good stuff here. I think God is using some of this stuff. But I have a tiny bit of unease. Let me try and explain. There are some wonderful things happening in many places - many of those places are in Africa and South America. The west [europe and north america] are places of spiritual drought - I know there are pockets of the move of the Spirit - but that certainly does not characterize Canada. But God is at work. I am part of City Watch here in Kitchener-Waterloo. God is bring pastors and other leaders together to pray together for each other, for ministries we are involved in and for the city.
This morning we had Martin Scott from the U.K. with us. He is one of Britain's leading city-reachers and has recently written the book "Impacting the City" out of his work with "Building Together" - a network of city church leaders in England.
I've had some conversations with other leaders in KW and in Toronto who sense there is a move of God coming. I don't think this is religious posturing, or trying to hype something. But a genuine desire on the part of leaders to see God's kingdom impact our cities.
One of the things City Watch is planning on is a 4-day prayer summit - if leaders will set aside that much time for prayer... heaven is on it's way!

Now to get back to my unease. It comes from looking at a list of events that while good, while connected, while a part of what God may be speaking to his people... shouldn't need a national initiative. Some (many) of these things are what the church... the body of Christ... should be doing out of who we are in Christ, with Christ in us. Maybe we do need the drive of EFC, because the church is too turned in.

I spoke on the kingdom of God a couple of weeks ago... I referred to the Magnificat [Luke 1:46-55] vs 54-55 says "He has helped his servant Israel remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendents forever." That's a reference back to the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 "I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing... all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." [my emphasis]

The Jews had become focused on themselves. Just as the church has often become more concerned for herself than for the world. But when the church becomes self-centred, self-focused, it dispenses death rather than being life-giving. We have recieved, we have been blessed, into order to give, to bless, to serve.
Thus endth the sermon.

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