Greetings,
We are joined, by the nature of our call as pastors, intercessors and community leaders, to share the blessings and challenges of ministering in the Greater Charleston area. I desire to recognize and honor this God ordained partnership by extending to you this invitation.
Several area pastors and their congregations are setting aside three (3) days (72) hours for a corporate quest. Together we will seek the face of the Lord with prayer and fasting. We would be honored to have you join with us. We recognize the sacrifice this could represent for leaders and their congregations. However, we are convinced God will honor the corporate humility that is needed to complete this journey.
Sunday evening, January 7, 2001 at 6:00pm, there will be a corporate gathering at the Capitol Plaza Theater on Summers Street. The following three (3) days there will be three (3) meetings daily in congregations around the city. The last meeting of the third day will be completed with a corporate celebration in a Concert of Prayer format with fellowship afterward. So, from Sunday, January 7 at 6:00pm until Wednesday, January 10 at 6:00pm, Charleston will experience a multi-congregational, cross-denominational, Citywide Cry for Transformation!
We are urgently compelled to prayer by two factors:
(1) First of all, we are moved by what we see. When we look at our city, we are confronted with the Church’s limited effectiveness. Statistical indicators proclaim that we need a move of God. Our economic, educational and family situations reveal the gravity of our spiritual climate. These realities break our hearts, drive us to our knees and compel us to seek God.
(2) We are moved by what we see but we are more strongly motivated by what we long to see. God has initiated a burning desire in many to experience a sovereign break through. We long to see God transform our city. There are precedent cases in the Bible and in history of God arresting cities with His majestic Presence. In the depths of our beings, there is a cry that He would so glorify Himself in our midst.
John Wesley was reported to have said, "God does nothing apart from prayer." If this is true, then it must be God who initiates the prayer, graces us to pray, then answers the prayer He has given. We believe God is initiating prayer; as evidenced by our desperate condition without Him and our intense longing for Him.
We hope to accomplish two objectives during this time:
(1) The first is to pray together in harmony. May many voices be heard, blending into one sound of intercession. May the resounding theme of that sound be a corporate cry for citywide transformation.
(2) The second objective is that we connect with one another. We need living relationships in the greater Body of Christ across our region. Organic unity will ignite unified prayer that attracts God’s Presence. We desire to see interaction between prayer ministries. As we relate with one another, we can intelligently pray with and for each another. Relational interaction will enable us to more clearly discern what the Lord is speaking to us as a city in the birth pangs of transformation.
This gathering was initiated almost six months ago when God gave us a Prayer Strategy for our community.
My fellow-workers and I strongly believe that there must be an environment where those of like mind can come together. We recognize that there is the potential we could be viewed as being presumptuous. We quickly dissuade this notion. Our posture is simply to create a venue where intercession can be experienced on a citywide level.
We anticipate that these three days will be significant and hope they will be historic. We believe that the spiritual climate of our city will genuinely be altered. Our sincere desire is that you will join with us.
Respectfully, Pastor Dennis Chasteen
For: "The Church in the City!" & WV Prayer Summit
No comments:
Post a Comment