What To Expect When You Come To Church

Dear Church Family,

When you arrive at church this Sunday, immediately you’ll notice the Sanctuary is set up differently.

Some of you will think, “Wonderful!” Others of you may have different reactions…

We have organized the room to allow maximum participation in prayer together. We will be sitting in groups of chairs, so that when we have prayer times during the services you will be able to hear one another and agree in prayer, either verbally or silently. No one should feel pressured to pray aloud. But I do hope all of you will be encouraged to participate.

As you read the Book of Acts, you find Christ’s disciples all in one accord, “devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14). This continues throughout the story.

We are gathering for prayer over these next three Sundays because God wants us to “set our sails to the wind of his purpose.” And what does God intend to do when his people devote themselves to prayer? Three things (from John Franklin’s book, And the Place Was Shaken):

• God wants to reveal himself to us so that we can know him, glorify him, learn to live in relationship with him, and become like him.
• God wants to move us onto his agenda, so that we can get on mission with him and he can work through us to change the world.
• God wants to build and minister to his people through his people, so that our love for one another deepens.

Over the next three weeks we will be focusing on three themes:

• Week One | Rejoicing in the work God can do: he restores our fortunes (spiritually & relationally).
• Week Two | Repenting & rekindling the work we must do: it is time to seek the Lord.
• Week Three | Following our Savior on the Calvary Road: he came to seek and to save the lost.

Each Lord’s Day, we will continue to incorporate all the main elements of our worship services into our gatherings. But it will be more participatory and more prayerful. We will confess our sins, praise our great God, hear his Word, and be led to pray together silently, aloud in groups, and with one voice. We will have Communion together on March 15 & 29 in the mornings – on March 22 we will celebrate Communion in our 5:00 p.m. service.

Please don’t be afraid of this! Instead, believe that God has something fresh, something deep, something needful he wants to do in your life and in our church family.

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

Looking forward to praying with you,

Pastor David Sunday