Stainglass window
Christmas 2011
3rd Dec Advent Party
12th Dec @ 2pm
Carol Service at Oak tree Court
16th Dec @ 2.30pm
Carol Service at Stratford Court
17th Dec @11am
Carol Singing outside Co-Op
18th Dec Nativity and Christingle Service and Carol Service
24th Dec @ 11pm (Service starts at 11.30pm
United Service at URC Etwall Rd
25th Dec @10am
Christmas Day Service
‘Together in Prayer’
Dear Friends,
That phase is one of the most oft-repeated throughout the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles. It comes time and again like a refrain. The Christians coming together to pray is a recurrent pattern in the life of the early church, and when they do, it is THEN that things begin to happen.
Let me give you some examples:
Acts 2 – just before the coming of the Holy Spirit;
Acts 4 – in the face of persecution. And their prayers were answered, and they were given boldness they asked for:-
Acts 6- in the face of a problem about some members of the congregation feeling neglected, they pray and appoint deacons;
Acts 12- Peter has been thrown into prison. The Christians pray together, and Peter is released- to their intense astonishment and embarrassment!!
Acts 13- they are praying together, and the Holy Spirit sets apart Paul and Barnabas as missionaries.
And so we could go on. The lesson for us should be clear: God responds to the united prayers of his people.
I’m convinced by the argument that says it’s exactly the same as lots of individuals praying on their own at home. There is something special about the church being ’together in prayer’ (Acts 4:24). The early Christians realised that they were all in it together, and so they wanted to pray together. Not to do so would be a denial of true fellowship. We need one another to stimulate and encourage our prayers.
This us a message we need to hear today. so let me encourage you: when you see a prayer time advertised in the newsletter or weekly notice-sheet, that’s not something you can come to if you’re not doing anything else. It should be a number one priority, red ring in the diary event! For the message of the New Testament is that when people are ‘together in prayer’, then God acts.
This month on Saturday 13th September, we are having a day of prayer at the church, running from 9.30am to 4.30 pm. You can come (and leave) at any time you want to. There will be led prayers every hour, on the hour (as well as at the beginning and at the end), and at other times opportunities for quiet prayer. Why not make the effort to come along at some time during the day?
I hope you’ve seen about the ‘Retreat in daily Life’ that is being organised jointly between the churches in Hall Green during October. Have a word with me if you want to know more about it, and let me know if you’d like to take part.
Writes John Stott in one of his books, ‘I sometimes wonder if the comparatively slow progress towards world peace, world equity, and world evangelisation is not due, more than anything else, to the prayerlessness of the people of God’
What do you think ?
Your friend and pastor,
Jonathan Calvert