“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Matthew 5:6
“these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” Isaiah 56:7
We want a renewed and increasing hunger for God’s presence through the Holy Spirit and His gifts. That hunger comes through prayer by which we express dependence on God. And we’ve been working on this portion of the vision not only through special services in which we urge people to pray, but by reforming certain ministries. Several years ago we reformed how we do Wednesday night services, increasing the emphasis on various kinds of prayer and opportunity for response at the end or service. If you don’t attend a Wednesday night service at Bethany, you will miss out. We call Wednesday the most important service of the week for a reason.
But we don’t just pray on Wednesdays, we have Second Sunday@6 prayer meetings once a month where we have an open style of prayer so that we can seek God’s presence together. We also have prayer events throughout the year and the pastoral staff regularly considers ways that we can call people to prayer and encourage response. We often pray and brainstorm ways to reformulate times of prayer because we want this to be vibrant, effective, and express urgency for it.
And doesn’t this point of our vision sound a lot like that second element of renewal, prayer? We’re doing that. We’re moving in that direction. Do you want to be a part of a church that is persistent in prayer as a means of renewing hunger for God’s presence?