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.