again drive us to engage a lost world with a message of uncom- promised truth wrapped in unconditional love, and that can only come from our private and corporate times with God.
Thirty Days of Prayer
I am calling on the church to join me in “Thirty Days of Prayer” in September. On September 1, a Wednesday night, I want pastors to challenge their members to bring pictures of loved ones who need an encounter with God—friends and family for whom they are praying—and pictures of politicians and lead- ers. Every time we gather in September, I want us to pray for the harvest. I want us to weep, to move beyond prayer to passionate prayer, beyond passionate prayer to crying out to God in holy dependence, in desperation mixed with faith and an anticipation of a great awakening in our nation.
Every Wednesday there will be a fresh call to prayer—a call to personal and corporate repentance, to the humility and preroga- tive of a servant spirit, to the privilege of sharing God’s love, and to the power of living by God’s principles.
On the Sundays in September, I ask our churches to follow these emphases: (1) see God’s face—a call to holiness, humility, brokenness, and transparency; (2) sense God’s heart for the world; (3) serve by demonstrating His love; and (4) share by declaring His truth (the gospel). These emphasize prayer, caring love, and shar- ing God’s truth—the Great Commitment, the Great Command- ment, and the Great Commission in action.
Eight Days of Awakening and Consecration
From September 5 to 12, I am calling for you to join me in “Eight Days of Awakening and Consecration.” We must rend our hearts. We must ready ourselves to be used by God in the great awakening that must come to save our nation. On Wednes-
day, September 8, I am calling for a solemn assembly in every Church of God congregation—for fresh brokenness and sincere repentance before God about our shortcomings. The proclama- tion and preaching of a church that is indistinguishable from the world will always be rejected. Our message has credibility only if we present an incarnational gospel—one we live as boldly as we preach. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times—if necessary, use words.” The message of evangelism from a transformed people is powerful. We don’t just have the message; we are the message.
Eight Days of Action and Care
From September 19 to 26, I am calling for “Eight Days of Action and Care.” We will move from private times of prayer to public action in communities around the world. In the current social and political climate, which is increasingly hostile to the Christian faith, we must find new ways to demonstrate care, to love, and to flesh out the gospel. We must bathe our care efforts in prayer—simply giving away commodities is not enough. We must look for ways to wrap our loving deeds with gentle but radi- cally transforming truth.
The Heartbeat of the Church
We can go forward together in these changing times only by going back to find our future, back to the passionate prayer meetings that drove men and women to the next town to share the message. Prayer is the heartbeat of the Church, and the Great Commission remains our unfinished business. The two are borne forward by a caring and loving people whose lives are marked by uncommon grace and evidence of supernatural change. Pray, care, share! These are three primary elements to engaging our missional mandate.
“The Church of God began as the church in Acts 2 began—with a prayer meeting.”
EVANGEL • SEP 2010 7
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