Five Minute Friday - Crowd

"Crowd"

GO:

Sometimes I just have to withdraw, to get away from the crowd. Because life, at times, it feels like I’m surrounded and it can be overwhelming. Claustrophobic.  And it’s thick and heavy. And I need to regain composure. And breathe. And be. Away from it all.

And then I get back in there. Into the crowd. Because life happens there. There is hope. There is freedom. There is healing. There is forgiveness. Life happens in the crowd.

A woman. Pushes her way through the crowd. She’s contaminated. She reaches through the crowd and touches the end of his cloak. Healing.

A young boy, with such a small offering, his own lunch, is used to feed a crowd of 5,000. Provision.

A woman, no longer condemned, no longer named adulteress, as the crowd dissipates. Forgiveness.

A crowd, gathered, listening to His teaching. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

A great crowd followed.

And Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.

Life happens in the crowd, but sometimes, you just need to get away.

STOP.

Today I'm linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker for 5 Minute Friday - Every Friday a bunch of writers, spend five minutes writing on a one word prompt, no editing, no perfecting, just however it comes. Beauty. Today's word ... Crowd. 

And the formula for instant church growth is ...

Prayer. Nothing like keeping it simple huh?

Today I experienced for myself what unified, dedicated, agonising prayer can achieve in a church family.

We have a church family which usually averages 105 on any given Sunday. Ha! Not today! This morning we had around 150 people come to share in worship and fellowship.

Let me explain that we aren't resourced for 150 people on a Sunday morning. The space we currently use for church is an old bowling club, it's not large and we have 126 seats, which fit in the room rather snuggly. On top of that we have the current prayer tent set up in the corner of the room. So this morning, it's fair to say ... we were overcapacity, people had to sit on the floor. What an awesome problem to have! What really blew me away was the atmosphere. The place was buzzing, it was a hive of activity. There was joyful enthusiasm as we worshipped, it was loud. It was almost as though the corps family had experienced a revival and had a new lease on life. It was lively, enthusiastic. It permeated Christ's life in all its fullness.

Tonight, we had an evening service. It was a Praise and Prayer night to celebrate our week of 24/7. Usually, our evening services avergae 15 people. Tonight we had 45. SO MANY ages were represented, from a 6 month old baby to adults in their late 70's. People have tasted and seen that God is good, and have a desire for MORE!

I'm not sharing our numbers to boast about how many people we got to church today ... that's not the point, the exact number is irrelevant. Whats is relevant is the significance a week of 24/7 prayer had in our church community, and the growth we saw as a result. The growth goes deeper than numerical growth though. Corporately there was growth in unity and faith. We have seen some significant growth in the individual lives of our people.
One friend told me about her desire to now make prayer in solitude a priority in her personal life at home after having experienced it in the prayer room.
Anothers faith increased all the more as God gave her a new insight into what it meant to 'love your neighbour'. She felt strongly to start loving her physical neighbours, those who live beside her. When the opportunity came to invite her neighbour to join her in the prayer room, the offer was accepted ... she was able to pray for her neighbour, and her neighbour came to church this morning.
A new song was written by some of the youth in our corps as they spent an entire night in the prayer room.
A teenage boy prayed in church for the first time this evening with boldness and courage.
Where some were hesitant at first to sign up for time in the prayer room, as the week progressed they signed up again and again because with each hour spent with God, their hunger for him increased.
Tears have flowed, hearts have softened, hurts have healed, pains forgotten.
Forgiveness and Freedom, sought and found, Grace, hope, mercy and love abounds.

I gotta be straight up and say that today was Childrens day, and our theme this morning was "Ice-Cream Sunday". Part of that meant that some of the time at church today was making Ice-Cream Sundays and eating ... BUT I don't think that is what caused the growth in numbers ... if it was, we wouldn't have seen such increase at night church. Ice-Cream wasn't the attracting factor ... there was a greater force at play. The power of prayer.

Today I've witnessed some of the fruit of a week of 24/7 prayer. I'm excited to dig deeper and experiment with how we can make prayer even more of a focus in our church family. People are hungry and enthusiastic for more, it's exciting.

Just want to sign off this 24/7 prayer series with a few (ok a few more than a few) quotes on prayer:

"Charles Finney was also convinced that if the
church would just meet the basic conditions for Revival - deep

repentance and heartfelt, 'agonizing' prayer for the outpouring of God's
Spirit, then Revival would ALWAYS result."

"When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is to set them a-praying."

Matthew Henry

"Shall I give you yet another reason why you should pray? I have preached my very heart out. I could not say any more than I have said. Will not your prayers accomplish that which my preaching fails to do? Is it not likely that the Church has been putting forth its preaching hand but not its praying hand? Oh dear friends! Let us agonise in prayer.”

C. H. Spurgeon

“You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God...This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame.”

General William Booth

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray."

Samuel Chadwick

"When the glory of the Father
Is the goal of every prayer:
When before the throne in heaven
Our High Priest presents it there;
When the Spirit prompts the asking,
When the waiting heart believes:
The we know of each petition
Everyone who asks receives"

Author unknown,

"This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
 Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one."

Jesus

Thanks for sharing the prayer journey ... long may it continue.

Itsy Bitsy SamMe.



24-7 Day One: Experiencing the Presence

There’s a buzz of conversation. People are chatting and laughing as they cluster around tables. Knives and forks clang against each other. Chairs scrape back and forwards against the wooden floor. The smell of spaghetti and meatballs wafts through the room. People play with napkins in their hands, rolling them and unrolling them, tearing them up, keeping their fingers busy. The sight really is something to behold, a group of people; diverse in age, ethnicity, socio-economic status and religion coming together to share in a meal. This is our weekly community meal, where anyone is welcome and everyone is equal. Regardless!

Tonight though, there’s a difference. In the corner of the room sits a big white Marquee, a tent. It looks a little out of place. Draped across the tent is bunting which reads “24/7 PRAYER”.

Before the food is served it’s announced that there is a space for prayer in the corner of the room. That this week our church family will be praying for 24 hours a day. The offer is made for people to wander through the prayer room, and someone will be in there, if they want prayer for anything at all. The meal is served and people eat.

No one comes into the prayer room during the meal seeking prayer. The buzz continues. It’s noisy. Yet, within the prayer tent … tranquillity and peace. It’s a little bit surreal. There’s this overwhelming sense of calm. Quietness. Stillness. The noise could be overpowering … but isn’t, at all!

For the last couple of nights, I’ve lost sleep with excitement. Excitement about what God has in store. And this! It exceeds my expectations!

His Presence is like a blanket, it covers with peace, rest, joy, hope and life.

As I look around the room, a Martin Luther King, Jr quote on the wall captures my attention: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

I breathe, I pray.

He is good. He is faithful. He hears our prayers. He responds.

People leave the meal and a small group of us gather for a time of corporate prayer. We are reminded that God IS 24-7. He never sleeps or slumbers. Where-ever we are, what-ever time, He is ready and available. Much of our time in group prayer is spent in silence as we sit … wait … soak.

We lift praise and adoration, we confess, we thank, we uphold others and their situations, we speak light into places of darkness, we make change in the spiritual realms and our Father is moved to action through our prayer.

As our time draws to a close we are acutely aware that although we leave this place of prayer, we don’t leave his presence. He goes before us, He hems us in from behind. We can continue in prayer, pick up where we left off, anytime, anywhere. We leave for the night, knowing that a fellow prayer warrior has taken up the prayer baton. That through out the night the prayer will continue. 24-7.

Thank-you Jesus for making the way for us to come to our heavenly Father in prayer. Let this week of prayer be for your glory. Let your Kingdom come, let your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. “And now, dear God, be alert and attentive to prayer, all prayer, offered in this place.” 2 Chronicles 6:40

Actually ... "It takes a village..."

Zachys new thing at the moment is the word "actually". The other day he did something deserving of 'time out' and so I sent him into the hallway and as he got to the door he turned around, looked at me, and said ever so calmly "Actually, I don't want to go". No tanty ... just a calm objection to the consequence of his own behaviour (trust me, it's not always like this)! I had to bite my lip so i wouldn't lose it laughing. Since when has he known the word "actually"? He sounds so grown up when he uses it, it just doesn't seem right coming out of such a little person so matter-of-factly! Someone called him monkey the other day, and he quickly responded "Actually, my name is Zachary Millar!"

Actually, you are Zachary William flipping cute, gorgeous, bright, intelligent, loving, kind wee boy Millar! (Who says Mums are biased?)

Actually, one of the key thoughts that have impacted our parenting is the proverb "It takes a village to raise a child". I'd never really thought much about it until after we had Zac. I mentioned in my last blog about how I was studying when he was born, I had 8 weeks off, and then went back too it. The thought of putting Zac into Day care broke my heart. I couldn't bring myself to do it, he was so little and so vulnerable, and he'd been given to us to care for, so for me personally I just couldn't do it ... so Zachy joined our class as I trained to be an officer in The Salvation Army. (I will be forever grateful to the family orientated leaders and staff who supported us and enabled this to happen).

I think its fair to say not everyone in the class was on board with the idea to start with, however as the year went on Zac just became a part of the class and everyone began to take a role in caring for him. In our first days in class if i struggled to settle him, staff members would be more than happy to take him for a wee walk and cuddle while I sat in class. My Class mates would take their turns helping me out by feeding him (with the bottle, just to clear that up), cuddling him or changing the odd pooey nappy! Their help, their support, their investment into Zacs life kept me sane, so i could be the best mummy to him! I could not have studied and cared for him in that environment all by myself, Everyone became involved in Zacs growth and development.

It was around this time that I really began to understand the saying "It takes a village to raise a child". Zachy was cared for by us as his parents, but he had a village raising him, caring for him, influencing him ... our family extended to those doing the journey with us at BCM and those in our church family.

Of course this includes our own extended families, but because we live so far from them all :( the input of this wider family counted all the more!

 We set the boundaries, and we set the rules, and those around us helped us to enforce them. They helped to take the pressure off us, they supported and encouraged us ... I am so grateful for community. Once I had finished at BCM and we were appointed to our first corps in Upper Hutt (we are still there), I was up the front most weeks. Whenever I was up the front I entrusted the care of my child to someone else. (I picked who they were, and if they failed to enforce our boundaries and the rules we put in place, we didn't ask them to look after Zac again).

For example during church, once Zac started crawling the rule was that he could play on the floor, but he had to stay in a specific area. We got a mat and during church the mat was his boundary ... he wasn't allowed off it. I spent the first month of crawling Sundays down the back of church teaching him this new rule. He would crawl off, I would pick him up, put him back on the mat and tell him, "no moving off the mat during church" or "Stay on the mat". After a month, once i kicked back into 'up the front action' I simply told those looking after him on a Sunday morning he wasn't allowed off the mat and they enforced it. He tried to push the boundaries, but by having the same rules enforced by people who loved and cared for him, it solidified what I had already taught him. I think when we have others around who back us up and support what we have put in place it really helps to consolidate the importance of what we are teaching them.

So as a parent, I appreciate the influence others have on Zachy and Evy. I not only appreciate it, I welcome it ... there are just some things I can't offer and teach my kids, but others can. Brenton and I look to the support and encouragement of others to help us raise our children. We can't do it on our own!

I also realise the impact and influence I have in the lives of all the children around me, whether they be mine or not. Every child deserves love, care, affection, but not every child receives that. For me, every child who I have a relationship with, is in my village. My example to them of Jesus, the way I treat them and the love I show them will influence them in years to come. I've heard it said that every child needs 6-8 adults (other than their own parents) to take interest in them for them to grow into well-rounded stable adults. I look back on my own childhood and think of the many adults that influenced me positively. People i will be forever grateful for.

I also recognise the support I can give to other parents, last Sunday in church our kids shared about their experience at Supernova Kids camp. One single mum stood up and challenged the corps family by pleading with them ...  "Please take an interest in our kids, they need you, they need your support ... some of these are my kids, and I'm a single mum, I can't do this on my own, please take an interest".

In saying all of this ... actually ... all I'm saying is "It takes a village to raise a child".

Who are the children in your village needing your influence?
Who are the adults in your village who can influence your children?

Itsy Bitsy thoughts from SamMe