“My house shall be a house of prayer for the nations”- Isaiah 56:7. “My house shall be a house of prayer”- Jesus, Matt. 21:13.
Our pastoral staff and leadership team has been spending a lot of time over the last year on the topic/issue of worship. What is it? How do we lead it effectively? How do we know it when it happens? How do we engage in it corporately in a way that is biblical and God-honoring? There are several things that have begun to pop up out of these conversations that I hope are starting to take root in our church family on Sundays. I’d like to share a few of them here.
We live in a society that is governed by time, maybe even ruled by time. If we are not our own gods/idols, then time and how we use it might be our idol of choice. We gauge so many things by how much time it takes and if we will have the time to squeeze one more activity in between the other things that are already on our schedule. In our Sunday AM worship times we don’t want to be ruled by time. We want to be sensitive to and desperate for the Spirit to move and do his work among us on Sundays. We are committed to making Sundays about God and not about us or our schedule or our activities.
We’ve entered into a season of some pretty intense praying and calling out to the Lord and ministry during our worship gathering. We are learning to take seriously the Scriptures that talk about God’s house being a house of prayer. We are purposefully leading our church to be people of prayer, people of faith, people of intercession. We invite you to call out to the Lord during that time. Make it an intimate, meaningful, powerful experience with the Lord each week as we call for him to glorify himself through answered prayer.
While we are doing these things, leading you in worship and discipleship and fellowship and prayer, our hope and desire is to be God-honoring in all that we do. Part of that is leading from honesty and sincerity and vulnerability. That might sound easy, but it is not! It is actually quite intimidating. But we’d rather be open and honest about ourselves and lives and what the Lord is doing in us than fake, plastic, impersonal, churchy, unapproachable. We will share things with you in worship and in Sunday messages that might be uncomfortable or not completely formulated, but they will be raw and honest and reveal to you what the Lord is working in us. Its the best way to lead, the healthiest way to lead, the humblest way to lead, and the only way we know how to do this without losing our souls to “the church” or religion. We invite you to pray for us, to join us in prayer, to be equipped to follow the Lord with us through hard times, and to be grateful that the Lord has blessed us with a church family that allows us to be real and open with one another. We will continue to seek the Lord’s face and to lead you from humility, honesty, and sincerity and to model a progressing and sometimes struggling Christian walk.
Pray like it all depends on God…then pray again! We seek your prayers as your pastors, elders and leaders. Pray for us! Pray for protection, for the salvation of our children, for our personal growth and development as children of God, for wisdom and strength as leaders. Pray with us on Sundays and throughout the week knowing that we will share what we can when we can and that your job is to pray with what you know.
Let us pray this week for God’s provision for a building/land/location for The Sanctuary and against the enemy’s schemes that he would use to distract us from pure love for each other and for our Father.
I love you all and count it a privilege to serve with you at The Sanctuary Fellowship.
Pastor Joe
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