Dear friends of BCUC,
As we re-engage with face-to-face ministry and open the church to individuals first, then to small groups and eventually gathering together as a congregation to worship, we feel the need to come to the Lord in prayer and fasting. We can make all the plans we want but Jesus is the foundation of everything worthwhile. We have this gift of re-shaping our future as a church at BCUC, as a community and for the world. Prayer is needed for decisions to be made, for giving thanks and for those still suffering around the world during this unprecedented crisis. It is also exciting that we are partnering with InVia church during this call to prayer (see below).
We have much for which to be grateful – the SA and BCUC communities have responded and fared very well, but there are many decisions ahead of us to place before God, including when and how to come back together. Prayer is an integral link in the Christian spiritual life and is the key moment when we have communion with God. It needs us to quieten, open our hearts and call out to Him:
STARTING
Saturday 16th May @ 10am
we launch the 24 hour period with a YouTube live worship and preparation time. Click here to view the live event.
ENDING
Sunday 17th May @ 10am
Finish with the weekly YouTube worship and live communion.
How you can participate
- Connect with both the Saturday morning launch and the Sunday morning worship/communion services online.
- We have prepared a helpful guide to focus your prayer. This can be downloaded here.
- Pray where you are, when you are able and feel moved to pray during the 24 hours.
- You might choose to commit to a 1-hour block (or a time-frame that best suits you).
- You could create a physical prayer space to assist in creating quietness and focus for your thoughts and prayers.
- Connect for group prayer at a special Zoom prayer meeting at 4pm Saturday 16th May.
- Consider using this for a time of prayer AND fasting. Whether that is total (but please take fluids) or maybe giving up 1 food/activity you particularly enjoy and seek each day. Benji and Ashlee will talk more about this on Saturday morning before we begin, but this is optional and won’t be the chief focus and goal of the 24 hours in prayer. Fasting can help bring focus and is a response to God’s grace and goodness rather than a way of ‘earning God’s favour’. For more information on fasting check out this page.
- Spend time listening to the Holy Spirit. Maybe God is saying something to you personally about who you are a child of God, what your passions are, what your commitments are to serving Jesus in the church and in the community, whether it is time to re-assess your service to best fit with your passions, the community needs, your giftings and the call of God for the church and yourself. Write down what God is saying and please email it to us so we know how God is speaking to a community that listens.
Partnering in prayer with InVia Church
We are excited to be partnering in this period of prayer with our Youth Pastor Ashlee’s church plant called “InVia”.
InVia meets at Mawson Lakes and is the latest uniting church plant from Generate Presbytery that currently meets as small house group Wednesday with Ashlee and Tim Littleford as their pastors. There is something powerful in churches praying together and for each other. Church plants are founded in faith and financed by prayer, it would be great to help them. Some of their church will help launch the period of prayer Saturday morning on Youtube Live with a time of worship. InVia seeks to have homes of ordinary people multiplying the ways, the words and the works of Jesus.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Please pass this onto your pastoral contacts, especially those who don’t have access to email.
Thanks so much for taking part.
Your brother in Christ,
Benji
