24/7 Prayer Weekend – a few thoughts a few weeks on
It seems much longer than just three weeks ago that we opened the doors of the church in prayer on a Friday night and didn’t close them again until the Monday! May has been a very busy month for the church; and with the Carnival and On the Move just round the corner there’s a danger that the HOPE 08 year will be so full of activity that we won’t have time to reflect.
So here’s a part of that reflection for the record.
It wasn’t the first time that we’ve organised an overnight prayer event, but it was the first time that we tried for a ‘low key and personal’ approach rather than the Big church one. The intention was to develop a handful of prayer stations in the upper rooms – on a similar line to the ones tried before over the last couple of years – however the difference this time being that the prayer rooms were aimed at just one or two people for an hour or so at a time. We went for a 72 hour target rather than 24 to encourage us to ‘pace ourselves’ and spend real quality time in prayer, in many cases at times of the day we wouldn’t normally be doing so! The idea was to encourage people to take a slot or two, in groups of one or two. 72 one hour slots take some filling, and we joined forces with the Birchwood Evangelical Church on this one. The prime concern was the overnight slots, however it turned out the last ones to go were the Sunday Afternoon!
I’m not going to describe in detail the various prayer stations, nor am I going to carry on too much about how the weekend went. I will however tell you some of the things that I and others personally reflected on and some of the words and images that were given. But only some; I would like to take this opportunity to ask you the read for yourselves the words of others on the ‘graffiti wall’ in the prayer cell and the vine painting in the prayer room – these words were penned by the authors whilst they were in prayer over the weekend.
Personally I can recall being inspired to think and pray for those in our community whom God is raising up to listen to the message of salvation, that this would be the year that our church would display the Fruits of the Spirit in abundance, that this would be a year of real take up of the message both in the church and outside the doors. Someone else I know was repeatedly reminded of John the Baptist preparing the people for the coming of Jesus. Others will have their own reflections – it would be great if you could write something down drop me a line.
One of the of the things that became apparent to a number of us (and there was well over fifty of us in prayer over the weekend at various times) was that an hour slot wasn’t enough – many who came for an hour booked for more later over the weekend.
And what was it like? Well a few weeks ago I asked if you had any initial thoughts and feelings about the weekend and I’m glad to say that a couple of you found time to write back. I’ve taken the liberty to reproduce the reflections below talking about the weekend experience rather talk myself, what they say gives a real feel far better than I could:
“..it was great to sit in the tranquillity of the prayer room and have time dedicated to prayer, without all the intrusions of everyday life. It’s the first time I’ve ever spent anything like that amount of time praying – most nights I fall asleep mid-prayer…”
“ ..it was lovely to have all the different mediums, in which to sit quietly knitting or just talking to God. I found myself totally immersed and it is so much easier to do it in the prayer room environment. God was there with me, and indeed with all of us, I am sure. It showed me that as a church we can make a difference and the attack we have been under was truly squashed over the last 3 -4 days. Bring it on!!”
It was a brilliant weekend, and I think sets the format for future 24 hour events at the church. Three of the prayer stations are now installed in the prayer cell, so in some way it’s still going on! And in a real sense, one of the stations is growing – the ‘prayer bean’ planting that many of you did has sprouted and is growing quite happily at the moment on our patio, maybe these will be harvested along with our answered prayers before long!
But we were not praying on our own that week. A dozen or more other churches of half a dozen denominations across Warrington spent time from an hour to twenty four praying in relay from Thursday 1st May to Sunday 11th. There’s a meeting in the planning stage to reflect on how the Warrington 24/7 prayer event went – as soon as I’ve more details I’ll let you know. It is more than possible that God has spoken to us across the town, and if so we need to know about it!
Yours in Christ
Ron Gemmell
