After talking with Matt here at Edgeworth and Geoff Bradford at Liberti, both guys stressed the need for recruiting prayer as a part of our preparation for church planting. And not just a little of it – but “several hundred people to pray.” That makes sense, doesn’t it. If we’re serious about the “Vision” we’ve laid out – there’s no way we can pull any of that off apart from God’s involvement.
This is a huge moment and an important foundation for us. As we’re getting ready to take some concrete steps over the next 12 months, we want a bedrock of prayer support undergirding this entire work. So let’s pray and call others to pray as well. Here are some of the things that needs to happen:
◊ Make Lists
Think about how many people we could garner if all of us could sit down and make a list of every person we can think of who might be willing to partner with us in prayer (friends, family, co-workers, pastors, missionaries, people from church, school, etc, etc). Once we have individual lists, we’ll combine them into a master list.
◊ Draft a letter
We’d need to write a letter introducing ourselves, our vision, and inviting people to partner with us. For those who respond with interest, all subsequent communication can be through email or our blog.
◊ Give
Those of us who are able can contribute towards this mailing (expenses for envelopes, stamps, printing, copies, labels, etc).
◊ Bi-weekly or Monthly Updates
We need to decide how frequently we will send prayer requests to our prayer partners. While there will be no shortage of things to pray for, we’ll need to articulate all of them as well as personal and Core Group needs.
………
We want to try and have these letters in the mail by August 1st. So within the next week or two, please email me a list of your contacts (Name, Email, Address). Also, if you have any ideas on how we can best mobilize prayer, or specific needs to be prayed for, shout em’ out.
Let’s be praying that God would raise up people to pray.
by Ajay Thomas
Ajay lives in Philadelphia with his wife Shainu and their kids Hannah and Micah. He is responsible for preaching and vision as a pastor at Seven Mile Road.