Prayer Celebration 2009

As a staff we are reading through the Bible in 90 days. As I was going through the Psalms I noticed how they were always encouraged to celebrate Gods goodness. Many of the Psalms were written to be used in corporate worship. It struck me that we should celebrate Gods goodness in all of the amazing ways He answered prayer this past year.

So our newly born Monday Night Leadership Team began to brainstorm about what that would look like and "The Prayer Celebration" was born. The Prayer Celebration began with us decorating the room. We put up some huge posters with the names of God on them and artistically done by one of our artist. We began by sharing with people some of the things God did among us at Experience Life this year: Over 550 first time commitments to Christ, over 250 baptisms, we shared some individual stories of answered prayer. Then we had the full band rocking the house with thanksgiving to God. In between sets we would have individuals come up and share their most exciting time of the past year. One story was the powerful way God moved at two year anniversary at the end of all services as people came up and did cardboard testimonies and we sang "All I Need". Each service left people crying at Gods goodness.

Another was praying over the skating rink where we hold services one night and sensing Gods presence so strongly. It was the first time our people praying circled around the whole rink.

After worship and more sharing we went into a time of communion where people reflected on all God has done in 2009. Finally Chris, our lead pastor came up and shared from His heart about the year. He shared his appreciation to all the people of Experience Life and those who had been a part of corporate prayer this year.

We appreciated some of our volunteers and finally gave a rousing standing ovation for the one who had made it all possible: Jesus. We closed with one more song.

It has been an incredible year. God has been faithful through the good and the touch times. I am looking forward to seeing how we grow in prayer in 2010.

Prayer the Past Few Weeks

The key constant of Monday Night Prayer this year has been the awareness we all have of the presence of God. It is a humbling thing to be in a place where everyone believes God is in the place and working in hearts and lives of the people there.

In the past few weeks we have been privileged to celebrate how God has graciously moved among us in 2009. At the first of the year, we prayed that God would give us 500 people who had committed their lives to Christ for the first time. Two weeks ago we surpassed that. We recognize that this is a God thing. It wasn't something we were smart enough to do on our own. It wasn't something we could have planned. We prayed a prayer we thought was a "Gods will" prayer and God amazingly brought the fruit. Sometimes in the last months we surpassed 200 baptisms. I tell people in prayer it is like moving from awe to awe. I can't seem to get a grasp on how God is moving on one thing and we see Him touching people again and we have to move on to that amazing thing.

We continue to grow with our prayer teams. At Monday night prayer we are now asking those people who have been through our initial prayer training to come to the front and side of the room and be available to pray for various people.

This past week (1st Monday in December) we prayed for people who felt like giving up in some area of their lives. We also prayed for those who were dry in their walk with God. This prayer time followed worship at the front end of Monday night. We had people raise their hands if this prayer request fit them and then had various people pray for them on the mike.

As 2009 is winding down, I find myself seeking God for what lies ahead in 2010. As prayer pastor I am excited. We are starting the year 2010 by bringing our prayer service to the first weekend. The services for the first weekend in 2010 will actually be a prayer service for our whole congregation. We will be doing this twice in 2010. Prayer is a priority for us.
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We are Thankful for:

Commitments to Christ 11
Interested in Baptism 1

Unique Comments:

Thank you for sharing His Crazy Love.
Super job - you guys rock!
This is a reminder of God's crazy true love for us!
Fulfilling!
Great! :) Great Reminder for Me!
All I can say is Thank You!
Very Uplifted!
Amazing! Got Holy Spirit goose bumps! :)

Getting to See the Results of Prayer: Monday Night Prayer November 09, 2009

Each Monday we share highlights of the last week and comments from our services. This week we had some great stories of how God had answered some of our prayers. Kerri Ladd shared about their journey with their daughter Amanda. Amanda had a lung transplant that started giving her problems so ended up having to have another transplant and went through some very traumatic days. So traumatic in fact that the doctors said if things don't get better within two weeks it could be all over. At the end of two weeks things were still on the bubble. A nurse approached the Ladds and told them she felt God was telling her to encourage them not to give up, not to look at the appearance of things and trust in him. Soon after things began to look up.

We spent time praying for children and families that were going through some of these kinds of struggles.

Another story was of a mom named Tori. Here daughter Kimbree has had many struggles also and is in a halo.

Tori said that she had a dream a few nights ago that Kimbree (her daughter) had entered a drawing contest at Scottish Rites and she'd won 1st place in the drawing. Tori said that the drawing, in her dream, was of a horse. Tori said that it felt like the dream lasted all night. At 8:30 the next morning a lady from Scottish Rites called and asked if she was Kimbree's mom. Tori said that she was. The lady then said that Kimbree had entered a drawing contest for a Christmas card contest and that Kimbree had won first place! Tori had forgotten that Kimbree had even entered the contest which was back in the summer. Anyway, Kimbree's drawing of a rocking horse will be on the Christmas cards that Scottish Rites sells! Kimbree's caption that she wrote for the card says, "Have a rockin' Christmas!"

An amazing story of how God gave a mom a dream to encourage her.

We spent time praying for our services, specifically that God would bring in people who didn't know Him and that they would commit themselves to Jesus.

Our prayer teams prayed for people who were discouraged and for our lifehouse leaders.

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We are Thankful for:

First Time Decisions:

Commitments to Christ 25
Interested in Baptism 5

Unique Comments:
• Kelsey from the children's check in area was very helpful. :) (Just thought you ought to know this one!)
• Experience Life Guys, This church is such a blessing to me. I applaud what God is doing here. Great music, great answers, great God!
• FAQ today showed me that I was truly ready! Thank you E-Life!!
• I have a wonderful time here. It's my happiest day when I come to service.
• Wonderful and Eye Opening!
• Right on the mark! It's the message I needed. (this individual committed her life to Christ this weekend!)

Give Thanks: Monday Night Prayer November 2nd

We began with a different opening than usual this week. Instead of our opening worship set, we began giving people a chance to think of reasons they were thankful. There were four pieces of black board around the room. We also left 2 different color post its in every chair. Everyone was invited to write three of life's small things that they were thankful for and post it on the board. Responses like Hagen Daz ice cream, or sunsets in West Texas, iphone apps, or Starbucks mocha popped up. On the other post it we asked people to write two things they appreciated about God.

I explained that Thanksgiving is appreciating what God has done and Adoration is appreciating who God is. We let some encouraging music run in the background as we did this.

We celebrated all who had committed their lives to Christ for the first time this week and then went into our worship set.

we spent some time praying over some corporate prayer requests and then prayed for the individual requests that we give to people as they come in the door each night.

Our prayer teams prayed for those involved in childrens ministry and anyone who had a need.

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We are Thankful for:

First Time Decisions:

CC 6
Baptisms 5

Unique Comments:
• from 5th grader: "I have been reading my bible more since I have been here. I want to follow God for all my life!"
• Great! What a refreshing, REAL look at the word!
• Starting to question my faith...in GOOD ways!
• I got a full time job!!! Thanks for praying over the last few months.
• I wanted to share something with you. I interviewed 2 families today that said the reason they are joining the church is because of the children's ministry. Both families said their kids are learning so much and love coming each week and they have visited other churches that their kids didn't get much out of. They chose Elife because of our children's ministry.

A Little Crazyness - Monday Night Prayer 092609

We arrived at the Sportsplex tonight only to find the electricity was off in that portion of the city. The Sportsplex which is a giant skating rink with some other rooms has very few windows. So we began the process of deciding how we could do prayer in a cold, dark sportsplex with no childcare.

We decided on having an abbreviated prayer time with candles and give parents a choice to head on out or keep their kids with them during this time.

There was something refreshing about having no microphones, no video projectors, and no heat. It brought everything back to the heart of the matter: PRAYER

Mark did pull out his guitar and led us in a couple of worship songs. We had our Large Group Prayer Team stand out to one side and pray for anyone who wanted prayer. We had everyone individually pray through some requests: pray for family, our services the next weekend and for people to come to Christ for the first time.

We had an abbreviated prayer time, but an encouraging one.

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We are Thankful for:

First Time Decisions:

CC 6
Baptisms 5

Unique Comments:

Praise Jesus! I know I need to pay a friend's mortgage now!

Something changed in me today! Thank you!

I am amazed by the growth and love that is pouring out of this church.

Awesome! I love your worship and freedom in this church!

Great job guys! Thanks for sharing. What a blessing you ALL are. May God continue to do amazing things in each of your lives and at ELife!

"Large Group Prayer Teams" go into action - Monday Night Prayer 101909

I was really excited about this Monday night as we had our LGPT in action for the first time. LGPT is our "Large Group Prayer Team". We had a training time for those interested in being on this prayer team in September. I'll share more about that in another post. Monday night, instead of having everyone in the room pray for various needs. We asked that our staff and support staff stand and for anyone in major transition to stand. We then had our LGPTers go to them and spend time praying for them.

We continue to see the devotional prayer time before corporate prayer set the tone. There is something about people coming in early and preparing their hearts for prayer that helps corporate prayer take off quickly at 7:00 pm.

People were connected in worship tonight. Our worship team for Monday nights are our primary worship team from the weekend. They have varying musicians with them each night. One reason our prayer time works is because our lead pastor is strongly behind the this time and is our whole staff.

After three songs I shared about the story of Jacob going to the land of Goshen as Joseph had asked. He was uprooting from a familiar place and going to a new place. I encouraged people to be willing to let God lead them to new places. Interesting too that as Jacob headed to Goshen he stopped at an alter made years before. There are times when we move to a new thing that God wants us to remember the old things He has done. We remember His faithfulness, we remember His promises to us and we remember His love toward us. We prayed for a moment about this.

We had a testimony for one of our college students on how God led her to go home one summer from college and spend the summer praying for her family. She shared how God moved powerfully in that summer in their relationships. She had to give up going on a short term missions trip to do this.

Another of our monthly focuses in foreign missions. We let people come to microphones and pray for specific missionaries and countries. God has developed many in our body who have a heart for the nations. We usually have 10 or more who will come and pray for various countries or missions.

Another night of Gods faithfulness to us as we sought Him in prayer.

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Thanks given for:

18 first time commitments to Christ.
18 people wanting to be baptized.

Connection Card Responses:

Unique Comments:

I feel Christ is really speaking through our pastors!

Way to go staff and how awesome you are as examples as servants for us all.

I feel so welcome here!

A new experience...5 out of 5 stars! ;)


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Strong Presence of God - Monday Night prayer 101209

We continue to see a strong presence of God among us as we come together to pray on Monday Nights. Last night was no exception. One of our key prayer people told me that when they entered the room at 6:30 they were immediately struck by an awareness of Gods presence.

Worship tonight was two slower songs. "I exalt thee" which is a vintage song and "the more I seek you" from Gateway worship. The lights were dimmed and there was a incredible peace for me indicating Gods presence. I could hear sobs to my right and God was moving in someones heart and then someone to the left sobbing also.

Our prayer intern, Matt, really felt led to encourage people that God was there in a powerful way and that He was breaking chains upon people. I got up and had people linger more in Gods presence. I had Mark and Brandon sing I exalt thee again.

As we consistently do we went into a time of thanksgiving where we hear answers to prayer. Everyone gave a great round of applause for at least 30 seconds when the announcement came that we had 28 salivations this past weekend. David Eppler, a local pastor from Cityview Fellowship came and shared about 10 minutes on what it is to be an intercessor. An intercessor is one who stands in the gap and helps bridge the gap from a persons reality now to what the reality of Gods will is.

Tim led us in prayer for a young girl who was wrestling with the option of abortion, we prayed for David Eppler and the leadership of Cityview, we prayed for the prayer movements in the city: Pray Lubbock, 24/7 prayer, Remnant and all prayer gatherings of people, we prayed for people to come to Christ this coming weekend, we prayed for our lead pastor.

During our prayer ministry time we prayed for all public servants: mail, govt., police, fire dept, utilities, we prayed for all those who had gone through intercessory training, and then for any need anyone had.

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Thanks given for:

28 first time commitments.
20 people interested in baptism

Comments for the weekend:

I enjoyed it greatly and felt like God was talking to me through Chris.

THANK YOU! Amazing, Uplifting, Encouraging, Just what I needed!

What awesome worship time! Brandon thanks for reading scripture over us!

Awesome! I loved the loving atmosphere!

Off the chain!!!

Celebrating What God is Doing - Monday Night Prayer 091409

Before our corporate prayer time on Monday nights which meets from 7 - 8, we have been having a devotional prayer time from 6:30 to 6:55. This really helps set the tone for corporate prayer. We have 30 or 40 people who have come to linger with God before corporate prayer takes off at 7. We usually play more intimate worship music over the speakers during this time to set the tone. We encourage people to read their bibles, to worship or just to pray during that time.

Monday Night as most nights people were ready to worship. We had just come off our 2nd anniversary weekend where there were 2650 in attendance. God continues to move in so many people and we hear story after story of life change. With that background you could sense the excitement of people in what God is doing. As we sang "Mighty to Save", "Everything" and "Came to my rescue" people seemed to truly be connecting with God.

We had a huge announcement to make that had so much meaning for us. I wanted that moment to be more that just a "here is an answer to prayer, let's be thankful". I sensed it needed to be a true celebration of our hearts as we heard this announcement. So I spent about 10 minutes sharing about the ways people celebrated. I also wanted it to be light hearted so that people wouldn't feel pressed to celebrate but be released to do that. So I shared on three different levels of celebration: Entry level, mid level, and advanced techniques. Again, we did this in a light hearted way. I had some guys illustrate the chest bump and the tiger pump as advanced techniques of celebration. Then I shared that anyone could use advanced techniques in the next thing I would share if they wanted to. This was all to set up our "Big" announcement. We had taken a risk and prayed for the weekend that 100 people would commit their hearts to Jesus on our second anniversary weekend. I know as a pastor we had prayer meeting every day of the week except Wednesday. And I had everyone stand as we made the announcement. 105 people had made a commitment to Christ for the first time this past weekend. It was a great site to see over 130 of our serious praying people clap, and make noise as they rejoiced in what God had done.

I think all of us continue to be amazed at how our God continues to do amazing things in our church and in our city. This celebration was a highlight for us as we continue to see people make the best decision they will ever make, inviting Jesus Christ to forgive their sins and come be Lord of their lives.

We closed with a worship song tonight.

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Thanks given for:

CC 28
Baptisms 20

Comments:
One of the greatest spiritual experiences I have ever had!

So amazing! It's different-like a breath of fresh air!

Awesome things are happening!

It gets better every week. Thank you!

Very insightful. You are truly inspired by the Lord Yahweh!

A blessing to be here!

Best experience I've ever had! Awesome!

There are not words to describe the way today felt, but it was amazing!

I had a conversation Sat night with a 1st grader that I was working with that was soooo excited because she brought her friend with her for the first time and they were having soooo much fun! The regular attendee looked at her guest and said, "See, I told you it would be fun! Isn't this the most fun ever!" Her friend giggled and smiled and yelled, "YEAH!" (We were singing part of this time, so it was loud :)

Prayer is Growing in the City - Monday Night Prayer 090709

We had 86 people come to pray on labor day weekend. How awesome is that ? Tonight after an encouraging time of worship we had a couple of people share about prayer times they have started. David Gray who teaches in a city lower school has begun a weekly prayer time with fellow teachers. He shared how prayer affects his school. Then Austin Wideman shared how he and a group of friends had started a prayer time for the high school students of the city. They were given a building to use by Frenship by a church plant. Their numbers jumped from 15 to 40 something the second week.

Cale York a college student shared about how God has called him to get involved in Youth with a Mission. He will be headed to the YWAM Missions base in Australia for training before he goes to serve an unreached people group in the world today.

Chris shared about our two year anniversary coming up the next weekend. We are moving to five services to be able to reach more people. We prayed specifically for 100 people to come to know Christ on that weekend as well as all the others aspects of the weekend.

We ended the night praying for anyone who needed prayer and praying specifically for single moms and stay at home moms.

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thanks given for
6 first time commitments
17 recommitments

Comments:
A breath of fresh air
Great, Pastor was amazing:)
Blew me away!
Wonderful series, great message
Needed to hear all of it. Thanks.

A Night of Intimacy and Prayer - Monday Night Prayer 083109

Last night was a time where there was such a sense of Gods presence with us as we worshiped and spent time cleansing our hearts before God and then on to various prayer topics.

I was reminded last night of a time when I was about 27 years old. I had just broken up with a girl I was very serious with and was struggling knowing my next step in life. I was very discouraged and broken. During that season I was in church one night and the worship leader came back up to the platform after the service was over and continued to play and lead worship for anyone who wanted to stay. I stayed and soaked in the gracious presence of God that night. I thought to myself right before i left "God I don't want to go back out there to the real world and deal with what I am going through" and I heard in my mind "It's okay, I will be with you". I knew God was saying He would be there as I walked through this tough time. And that season passed and I made it to the other side. I sensed last night the Lord was encouraging some others who were going through hard times emotionally that He would be with them.

We prayed for revival in our midst and in our city last night. We prayed that our two year anniversary coming up would be an amazing time of being in Gods presence.

We prayed that God would make Himself known in our day and in our time.

We ended the time praying for those who struggle with anger.

Logistics that worked tonight:
Turned the lights down to create an atmosphere where people were not as conscientious.

Read through passages in 1 Peter and Ephesians 4 calling us to put away our former ways of life and spent time asking God to show us any ways we were not aligned with Him.

Had everyone envision other parts of the building and pray for the ministries invovlved there

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Thanks given for:
13 first time commitments this week
10 recommitments to Christ

Tim-I needed that laugh! Thanks a lot!

Greatest Experience of my life! (this was a person that committed his life to Christ!)

So very freeing. Grounding!

Very encouraged and pointed to Christ,

Save the Childrens!...Love it! I love how we can praise Jesus, and still have fun! :)

Started Praying for People in the Marketplace - Monday Night Prayer 072109

Monday night prayer is my favorite time of the week. I guess that's good since I'm the prayer pastor. This Monday did not disappoint. We continue to have a good turnout of people wanting to spend time in devotional prayer from 6:30 - 6:55. There seems to be a calm sweet presence of God as people meditate and pray.

Our theme for tonight is that "nothing is impossible with God". In Luke 1:37 the angel speaks that to Mary after she is told she will have a baby and she is perplexed at this because she is still a virgin.

Worship, again, was a great time of adoring Jesus. We spent time remembering what we have been saved from and then what we have been saved to. We spent time rejoicing at 12 new commitments to Christ and 5 recommitments. We gave God a rousing handclap of praise because we are going to be baptizing over 100 people this coming weekend. How amazing are all the stories that are coming in of how Jesus has encountered peoples lives and they have come to know Him for the first time or they have come back to Him and refocused on following Him.

We prayed for two new ministries. On Monday Nights we will begin to teach all the kids prayer in their classes. We prayed over our childrens ministry as they prepare to do that. Then we prayed for our compassion ministries. Two of our ladies have taken up the point on ministering to people in need, whether a funeral, an ailment, singles moms, and an wide assortment of people who need something tangible. We want to be Gods hands to these.

We prayed for many requests. Our ministry time tonight was to those who are in sales in the marketplace. We also prayed for our youth group trip this week. We prayed for all of those who had been involved in a divorce, whether as a child or an adult. It was a striking site to see the whole room of 146 people engaged in praying for one another towards the end of our time. Something in my heart thought, this is how the body of Christ out to be, giving to one another in prayer.

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Thanks given for:
12 first time commitments
5 rededications

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Things that worked tonight:
Began a time praying for people in the marketplace. Tonight we focused on people in sales. We had people around them lay a hand on their shoulder and pray for encouragement and favor for them. We prayed that they would be a light in their workplace.

Worship at 110% - Monday Night Prayer 071509

How encouraging to see people come and soak and pray during our devotional prayer time at 6:30 - 6:55. As usual corporate prayer kicked it with a room full of worshipers singing at 110% during our worship set. Connecting our hearts with God in worship has been key to our prayer times. As we sang "How Great is our God" last night I kept thinking that anything opposed to God must be vacating the building as we lifted our voices. And then at the end of our worship set people clapped, giving God a hand. I appreciated that this wasn't the "I'll be kind and give a little clap" type of praise. It was a "God is God and deserves a powerful affirmation" kind of clap.

Colby (one of our interns) sharing about going out on the streets the previous week and how they had a man pray to receive Christ. the man was so moved by this, he had his nephew call later and get wisdom and prayer from our team. We prayed for boldness for our people at prayer a couple of weeks ago and have been praying for people to come to know Christ in our city. This is an answer to those prayers.

We prayed for righteousness to be raised in our city and for wickedness to be uncovered and those involved to be encountered by Jesus and led to know Him.

We prayed for individual needs from prayer requests we received in the services.

We finished with ministry prayer for people at the gathering. We prayed for those who have been having nightmares, those involved in the public schools, and for anyone with a specific need.

It was a little warm last night, but when I asked if it was worth suffering a little heat to be able to change history through prayer we had a strong response that it was well worth it.

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Thanks given for:
5 new committments to Christ this past week and 6 recommittments.
quotes:

Connection Card Comments:

. I'm glad I found a church based on scripture!

. Thanks for making me feel welcome every time I am here.

. I love being here, it releases my stress and worries about everything.

. It was actually a very welcoming place. The first time guest area was a great way to learn more about the church and programs offered.

. Thank you for all that you have done for our family and all of your prayers. Without them, we would not have made it.

. I found employment and I begin tomorrow. Thanks for the prayers! God bless all prayer warriors.

. The Lord blesses those who wait on him and trust in him. The Lord has blessed me with a new job - - God is good all the time & all the time God is good!! Thank You for your prayers for our family.

More People Showing Up At Monday Night Prayer 070609

We had a full house in the back room Monday night. Our final worship song in the worship set was Mighty to Save. How cool was it to hear and see 129 people all standing and singing at the top of their lungs "Jesus is mighty to save". That type of adoration to God sends chills down my spine. It seems like God reaches into the atmosphere as we engage in worship to Him.

Our devotional thought: When Jesus ran the money changers out of the temple and declared "my house will be called a house of prayer". The next thing he did was pray for the lame and the blind and they were healed. Jesus began by teaching and finished by Doin the stuff he taught about.

We prayed for our Elife interns, the new series Chris will begin next week called "Church on Fire", those who don't know Christ in our city. We opened the mikes for people to pray whatever God put on their hearts. Some prayers were for fathers and men to be strong leaders, for the breaking of addictions in people, confession of sins and our need for God to teach us how to pray, for God to show us how to reach out to the broken in our city.

We prayed over those who have been feeling disconnected with God and not experiencing his love and for those with financial needs and job needs.

We closed by asking anyone who wants more of Jesus to stand to be prayed for and not a soul was left sitting.

We continue to see 15 to 20 people show up for our devotional prayer time at 6:30 - 6:55.
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Thanks given for:
we had 4 first time commitments to Christ this week and 12 who recommitted their lives.

Amanda Ladds recovery from the lung transplant is going well.

Also we prayed for Talon Oechsner who had severe burns. The doctors are sending talon home today. He was supposed to be in the hospital two more weeks. doctors are baffled at his recovery. Were not baffled. We know God answers prayer.

Services: Inspiring, I loved it and will tell my friends! this service hit me like a freight train.

Here We Are Send Us - Monday Night Prayer 062209

Tonight,

The people really engaged in worship. I continue to be amazed at Gods presence that is so strong during our prayer times. Colby shared about his trip to Rwanda and how God used prayer with their team. He told of several people coming to Christ and one woman who was physically healed of a chronic stomach problem.

We spent time praying for people who don't know Christ in our city to come to know him and that God would bring revival to His people in Lubbock, Texas.

Closing prayer was about people who are called to pray. We had everyone stand who had a call from God to pray for our city. We probably had about 20 people who stood. It is encouraging to see God moving in peoples hearts to pray. We also prayed for anyone with a need they wanted specific prayer about.

Like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 "God here we are send us !"

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Thanks given for:
6 new committments to Christ this past week and 2 recommittments.
quotes:
• Life Changing! (this individual committed his life to Christ, also)
• I visited your church on the recommendation of a friend and it was the best advice I've taken in a very long time!

Highlights this far

Some of the prayer highlights of this year for us.

• First two weeks of June we had 125 and 135 people join us for prayer.
• Cruz Pierson was completely healed of cancer the first week of June.
• The first night we prayed in the rink there was an incredible presence of the Lord with us.
• Worship has been dynamic on Monday Nights and people engaged often.
• We have sensed God's presence in our services.
• We had 2800 people come to our Easter gathering.
• We had 10,000 - 12,000 thousand people come to our Easter Egg drop.
• We have had over 200 people find Jesus this year already.
• We have people praying during our services on the weekends.

Prayer does make a difference.

The Prayer Key

Tonight at Monday Night Prayer I shared from Matt 16. Jesus said he gives his people the keys to the kingdom. Prayer is one of those keys. It has the power to unlock (loose) or lock up (bind). Like a key to your car, it really is only useful when you put it in the ignition and turn on the power of the car. You can have a key and never use it.

Using the key of prayer puts the super of God into our natural giving us supernatural results. Why wouldn't we want to pray often. I know left to my own strength I don't have much confidence in how far I can go, but with God giving strength it is not wonder Paul could say "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Tonight we prayed for fathers, for Gods love to be in our services, and we prayed against the drug trafficking in the city of Lubbock. We prayed over prayer requests. We prayed as a group specifically for Amanda Ladd again. We prayed in the rink for Experience Life.

It was cool to see our circle of people praying stretch to the very edges of the rink all the way around. There was a very real sense of Gods tangible presence with us. Many were moved by God during our prayer time, some with encouragement, some with tears.

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2 gave their lifes to Christ
3 rededicated life
Quotes:
• Wonderful message of God's love.
• It was great - can't wait for next week.

My House shall be called a House of Prayer

We began the evening praying for the individual prayer cards that we get each week in the services.

We showed a video of Jim Cymbala speaking on prayer tonight. It is a powerful video. Some statements he made were:

• The church was born while people prayed.

• The earmark of a true believer as seen in the Bible when Annanias was being convinced that Paul had become a believer. It was said that "he prays"
  
  
• Paul told Timothy first of all prayers and supplications should be lifted up for all men.
  
  
• How you do Gods work (through the power of the Spirit from prayer) is as important as doing Gods work.
  
  
• The minute prayer ends in a church, the Spirit lifts.
  
  
• Gods house should have the aroma of prayer about it.

The final portion of our time was spent as people called out to God to let Experience Life be a house of prayer. There was a real sense of Gods presence as we prayed.

Answers to Prayer
One testimony tonight came from a lady within our body who had been walking with a walker for the past three years who God touched and she is walking without her walker now. We had seven first time commitments to Christ this past week and 8 recommitments.

How Great is our God

We had probably one of the biggest prayer gatherings we have had tonight. We added the mission trip group from Berg Community church who is in Lubbock this week on a service trip. We began prayer for our Easter outreaches and prayed for Easter services for churches all over the city of Lubbock.

I shared about five various forms of prayer which we include in our prayer service:
1. Worship
2. Thanksgiving
3. Intercession
4. Petition
5. Confession

A theme that set the tone for the evening was "How Great is our God". No matter what the situation we can pray and believe because our God is Great.

Answers to Prayer
We celebrated that a couple of hundred were saved this past week at the "Get Motivated" seminar at the United Spirit Arena. There was an intercessory prayer team from the city that prayed all day at the United Spirit Arena as the seminar was going on. We had five first time commitments to Christ this week and five recommitments.

Monday Night

Monday night we prayed through Jeremiah 9:23,24

²³ This is what the Lord says:
“Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom,
or the powerful boast in their power,
or the rich boast in their riches.
²⁴ But those who wish to boast
should boast in this alone:
that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord
who demonstrates unfailing love
and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth,
and that I delight in these things.
I, the Lord, have spoken!

It is easy for us to cry out for help in the areas we are weak in, but at times we can forget to ask God for help in those areas that are going well or that we are more efficient in doing. As a church that is having some success we don't want to begin to subtly think we are doing anything on our own merit or by our technique. We understand it is God who works all in all. So we asked for help in some of the parts of our church that we are doing okay in.

Prayer Blog

The objective of this blog is to chronicle our journey in prayer at Experience Life. This would include topics God has led us to pray, answered prayers and memorable moments.