Making the connection

When we began thinking about creating a 24/7 prayer room back in May the thinking was simply to provide a prayer base for launching our church’s autumn programme, but as the idea germinated it began to evolve into a community prayer space where everyone from our community could feel welcomed and included. Realizing that the Methodist Church’s 24/7 prayer team wouldn’t be around in September we invited Jonny and Beth to a pre-planning meeting in June. This meeting helped formulate our thinking and provided us with a core of volunteers who would creatively think through the ideas and prepare the prayer room.

We wrote to local public figures, the PSNI, and local support and help groups that are supporting families in the community and invited them to provide us with prayer points. We were surprised that many of them took the opportunity to respond and equally encouraged by their comments, some of which include:

“Thanks for sending out this courageous and strong email. I appreciate it and believe God will bless all the work in the community as we tune in to his ways”, “What a lovely idea”, “Please convey to your church my deep appreciation for this act of grace, it truly will make a difference to our community”, “Thanks a million for this”, “…Prayers for our clients, their families and the staff working with them are very welcome!”. Our local MP wrote:  “It is great that Jennymount Methodists are thinking of praying about the needs of the local area and I, for one, certainly appreciate that.”

Posters and flyers were designed informing everyone in the community of this initiative, inviting everyone to come; these were posted in local business premises and distributed through letterboxes by a number of volunteers.  We have been truly amazed by the willingness of church members to sign up as hosts in the prayer space around the clock, overwhelmed by the number of people who have been through the prayer space and encouraged by comments like “There’s something really special about deliberately separating yourself from the stresses and pressures of busy-ness. This place is truly sanctuary!” “Needed a little guidance and help with trouble I have” “I have been praying for some time for a 24/7 prayer room in my area…”  Someone wrote this prayer: “Lord, soften our hearts to feel the brokenness of our community.  Help us to weep over it as you wept over Jerusalem.  Several people revisited the room more than once returning for the ‘peace’ and ‘solitude’.

We ended our week with a climatic finale.  We invited everyone from the community to a barbecue in the church car park, after which we released balloons with prayers that people had written attached, symbolizing our prayers ascending to God.

i) hold a time of sustained prayer at the Autumn Synod and

ii) to call people to a District wide Prayer Summit before the end of 2011. (See Conference Agenda p 43; #5)

But….    

WHAT DOES A PRAYER SUMMIT LOOK LIKE?

To answer this question, an introduction and encouragement will be held in:

Edenderry Church, Portadown on Saturday 3^rd September from 10.30 – 3.30 pm

Anyone who is interested in and able to plan and facilitate a District Summit is invited to register for this Introduction in Edenderry. 24.7 teams are available to hold further “Look Like” seminars in the west and south of the island.

The concept of holding Prayer Summits has arisen from the belief that we in the Methodist Church in Ireland seem to be reaching significant points of decision about our future. Conversations and proposals are being held about Collaborative Ministry, improving the Health of Churches, District Leadership, Priority Appointments, Stationing policy, Ministerial training and responsibility as well as the best use of our decreasing material resources. These issues are interlinked.

The purpose of the Prayer Summits is not to debate the issues, or to ask God blessing our agendas, but to recognise our common need for a more passionate spirituality that seeks an overwhelming vision of God. This was another recurring theme at Conference.  A Prayer Summit is different from a 24.7 Prayer Room in that its aim is corporate prayer rather than personal.

This invitation is for you and anyone from your congregation(s) who may be willing to advocate the summit in your Church, or even join in the planning and running of your District Prayer Summit.

Please give this your consideration and complete the booking below or email or phone Theresa at the Home Mission Office + 353 1 4907855

Outline for 3rd September

The Google books link above has a preview of this so you can take a wee read before you buy, you can find it on amazon.co.uk also.

http://24-7prayerireland.com/

Wow!!!
Who would have thought a week of prayer would be such a blast! Seriously if your church starts thinking about a 24/7 session – GET INVOLVED – it will be the start of something special for YOU.

4 diverse people decided to join the 24/7 prayer revolution for Holy Week in Killarney to glorify God, using the local Methodist Church, one man had the vision, three women collaborated on the preparation so that on Sunday April 17th after the morning service the entire church building was given over to prayer.

We launched on Monday evening with a beautiful worship session and we remained available for prayer until Easter Sunday. At one point we had 17 people representing 6 churches praying, another time we had the all local pastors praying. For lots of people there was the quiet of the Cross and peace. The room was peace-full.

Our premise was always inclusivity, anyone could walk in off the street and would be welcomed in to pray. They came, we welcomed and everyone prayed.

How could you tell the stewards – we were the ones with big grins on our faces, we turned up early, stayed late, brought food to share and had the best week of prayer. Not only has the prayer life of the four of us changed, our whole focus has changed. The Holy Spirit moved us, in the silence of the night, in the birds’ dawn chorus, in the shadow of the Cross, the Holy Spirit moved us.

We are all used to the little nudges we get from the Lord, and we all had questions we were asking prayerfully. Some too personal to mention but even meeting us you will see the JOY-BEANS bouncing in us.

Here is a selection from our share book:

• Working with the group has been SO much fun, we did more laughing and bonding than we did work. It is so gratifying to see our plans and visions now in these 3 Rooms come to life. Our single aim for the week has been from Day One:“GLORY TO GOD OUR FATHER AND TO JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR”
• In the quiet time we share with the Lord – we sense.
• Being involved in setting up the rooms was again a wonderful experience, to see everything coming together as planned, and everyone working together with great humour(watching the lads putting up the art wall with us girls sitting like the three monkeys giggling and waiting for them to turn around and see us). Each room adorned with prayers, and each room transformed to provide for so many ways to develop that prayerful relationship with God. We have all been blessed as a group, being bound together with cords that will never be broken. Spending time alone with God is a very special experience, an experience many of us would never have to such a degree in our everyday lives. Time disappears.
• Spending time in this peaceful and peace full church is wonderful. I am blessed to be a stewardy type peep for the 24/7 and for helping the organisers. I don’t think an hour, if that was all I had this week, would be enough. I have so much to thank God for, for the spring in my step, and the joy in my heart and for a thousand other things.
• It is a true honour to know you Lord Jesus and with each day love blooms and grows like a precious flower and the fragrance keeps me alert and know that you are with me. Sharing my life, leading me to better things like this 24/7 it has taught me more about prayer in many ways
• This week we have been given a chance to plug into the power of the Living God! Thank you How wonderful to set aside this time for God, to come into the quietness from all the hustle & bustle of the busy world outside.
• God thank you for this absolute wonderful privilege to experience your peace in these rooms
• Thank you for meeting with me – you had an appointment with me!
• From the day the idea launched itself by the grace of God, my faith took on a new direction. If you merely stagnate in your faith you will soon lose contact with Jesus, so this was something new that I could use to help with my Christian growth Every day that passed added to my life changing experience, I grew daily and once it ended it was like a piece of me being taken down and going away – I miss it very much.

Suzi Gallagher

These can be used in several ways – in place of the intercessions in a Christian Aid Week
service, as a reflective prayer time after the formal worship has ended, or as an accompaniment to a Christian Aid Week exhibition or display. The simple guidelines given for each station should be available on a sheet of paper at the station, and a brief spoken
introduction given at the beginning of the prayer time if it is in the context of a service. Quiet music played in the background, whether live or recorded, is also helpful and allows people to move comfortably from station to station.

You’ll find other ways you can support Christian Aid Week along with worship resources and resources for children and young people here.

The Rock City Diner, a landmark restaurant in Downpatrick that closed in 2010, re-opened for four days during the St. Patrick’s Festival this year as an interdenominational prayer room. Baptists and Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists, Presbyterians and Non-Subscribing Presbyterians all took their turn in hosting the room on St. Patrick’s Day during the Festival Parade and through to the following Sunday.

The restaurant booths acted as natural dividers to form prayer nooks taking their theme from phrases of St. Patrick’s Breastplate. As people walked into the diner they were offered coffee and biscuits before moving to stations where they could pray for the town, the world and themselves. The sense of peace was palpable and folks were often content to simply sit in silence.

One quotation from the prayer room’s journal was thus:

“Just spent a lovely peaceful and quiet hour praying for my family, parish, town and country – wouldn’t it be lovely if this sort of thing was available in the midst of the ‘madding crowd’ all the time.”

The St. Patrick’s Festival Prayer Room was the first official activity of Downpatrick Churches Together, which was launched during the week of prayer for Christian unity in January 2011. The Methodist From Our Knees 24-7prayer team helped us to catch the vision and values of providing a space for people to pray together without ceasing.

Here’s a link to a resource to help young people to learn how to pray the Psalms.

There’s a whole list of the Psalms and a accompanying studies here.

They’ve included Bible studies, prayer stations, suggestions for spiritual disciplines, ideas for worship and discussion activities, and links to other resources to help your young people take time during Lent to look inward and consider their own call from God.

Download the free copy of the book here and please feel free to pass it on and share it with others.

“24-7prayerireland in partnership with Alpha are trying to facilitate a year of prayer for 2011.  The plan is to get people right across the nation of Ireland (north and south) praying for a whole year as much as possible night and day!!”

So far this has been amazing and we have seen God’s hand at work throughout our land with over 60 groups/prayer rooms praying all over Ireland.

So how can you join in? Perhaps you already are planning a prayer room and want to sign up on the website or in April from 4th-10th in Aldersgate House, Belfast there will be a prayer room that you might like to use. What IF a nation prayer, the church united and  you gave one hour?

To sign up for on hour in Aldersgate House simply enter your name and contact details here (and remember to hit ‘Save’)

For more info contact 24-7prayer (at) irishmethodist(dot) org