Pastoral Letter 3
REFLECTIONS ON THE CHURCH FAMILY
CAMP
28-30
A ug 2004 @ Grand Plaza Park Royal
Penang
Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ,
Wow! The Lord is Good! Absolutely Good! I have been
blessed like never before by God's
presence and by your presence! Did you realize that the
greatest gift we can give to each
other is the gift of our presence! A thousand thanks to you
for being there.
God blessed us. Would
you say "Amen" to that? He blessed us with His presence, revelation
from
His Word and manifestation of His Glory! He led us through times of cleansing,
repentance,
forgiveness and restoration. And in response, we praised God for the sense of
release
and freedom we all felt in our spirits.
During the Family Camp Weekend we as a church spent so
much time in prayer. And many
of
you discovered to your great surprise that prayer was not dull and boring! It
was most
satisfying!
Right? I must tell you that the leaders also spent much time in prayer with Mark
Goodwin
- at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon before the Camp started, 2 p.m. on Sunday and
1.30
p.m. on Monday after we broke camp. God was clearly speaking to us as a church
about
the
importance of prayer in Penang Wesley. Remember Mark Goodwin shared about the
outbreak
of revival in Columbia and Argentina - that revivals are birthed through the
corporate
prayer of those in whose hearts, God has placed the earnest desire to
"weary" God
in
prayer together.
Recall that in my 1st Pastoral Letter, I shared about the 3 things God placed in my
heart that
serve
as THE DIRECTION for us here at Penang Wesley namely:
1.
The Call To Brotherly Love
2.
Leaders Must Be Praying Leaders
3.
The Church Must Be A Missionary Church
Well, No. 2 states that Leaders Must be Praying
Leaders. While we the leaders were praying
together
with Mark Goodwin at 1.30 p.m. on Monday, God impressed upon
us several
things
(we will share it all with you soon!) - one of which is
that as a church we should grow
deeper
in prayer. This calls for obedience on our part:
• As
leaders we must be willing to set the example and pace in prayer for the people
we
lead.
•
As a people you are now invited to wake up to the importance of prayer.
This means
you
are to give prayer your highest priority. "The Church's greatest deficiency
today
is in power - not in
programs, strategies, materials, or ideas.
And power for ministry
May I
suggest a few avenues that are ongoing to help you grow strong in prayer:
1.
Come for the Wednesday night church prayer meeting.
It starts at 8.30 p.m. and
ends
at 9.45 p.m. It is at the Gethsemane Room beside the Church office.
2. There is another church prayer
meeting between the two services on Sundays from
9.30
a.m. It is also at the Gethsemane
Room.
3. There is a prayer meeting at
our Hope Outreach Point in Tanjung Bungah on
Wednesdays
at 8.00 p.m.
p:
If you wish to be on the prayer mailing list, please give your name and
e-mail
address
to the church office. If you have no internet access, please let us have
your
address. The monthly prayer items go out at the beginning of each month.
This
is the beginning. There has been the suggestion for a 3 hour / 4 hour / 6 hour
prayer,
even
for an all-night prayer!! As the Lord releases the spirit of prayer in our
midst, I would
like
to call for regular times of more lengthy sessions of prayer. We want our church
to be a
House
of Prayer. ("My house shall be called a House of Prayer". - Matt
21:13) Meanwhile,
we
are in the process of building up and training ministry teams who can assist
during a
prayer
altar call after the sermon or at the end of our worship service.
Do you desire the Lord to move mightily in our midst?
I certainly do! But only when the
desire
to pray is stronger than the desire for sleep . . . only when the desire to pray
is stronger
than
the desire to eat . . . only when we are willing to put our personal agendas
aside to make
room
for earnest prayer.
Friends, I believe this can happen. And it can start
with you. Pray, pray, pray.
God does nothing but in answer
to prayer.
- John
Wesley
The
God of Peace be with you all. Amen.
Sincerely
in Christ Jesus
Pastor
Lawrence Francis
We
can do more than pray after we have prayed but we cannot do more than pray until
we
have
prayed. - A.J. Gordon