PAGE THREE

Home -  Page One - Page Two - Page Three - Page Four - Page Five - Page Six

PRAYER FOCUS

APRIL 2006

SOUTHERN PROVINCIAL SYNOD

Even thought this is the May issue of ONWARD, you will probably receive it before the Southern Province Synod begins on the 19^th of April.  Synod has taken on a decidedly (and intentionally!) missional tone, and we need to lift this time up in our prayers.

At the Pre-Synod Gathering on Saturday, March 25^th, Keynote Speaker Doug Bailey challenged the delegates to focus on the question: what is God calling us to do?  He said that churches should be less concerned with being successful and more concerned with being significant – making a difference in the world.

          The Moravian Church, he said, has been called and anointed by God for a special purpose and a special ministry.  In order to let God do these things in us and through us, though, radical steps are necessary.  Three of them are listed below as points for prayer:

radical understanding of our calling and vocation -pray that God would give us this clear vision!

radical follower-ship -pray that God would give us the courage to follow Jesus wherever He might lead us!

radically welcoming -pray that our church doors would be open wide enough to receive all those whom Jesus would receive!

PEC President, Bob Sawyer, also shared his Mission Challenge 550 with the delegates.  He reminds us that our life as a church began in 1457.  It was 275 years later, in 1732, that God initiated among us one of history’s most remarkable missionary movements.  Next year, 2007, Sawyer said, another 275 years will have passed, and the “power of the Gospel and the depth of the world’s need are as great as they were in 1457 and 1732.”

Brother Sawyer challenged the church by saying that “if there is to be a celebration of 550 years as a church, there is no more appropriate way than to give greater energy to mission at home and abroad… I think the celebration needs to be about mission outreach.”

Pray a prayer of thanksgiving and praise for this mission vision for the church!

Pray that this vision would be reflected in the decisions that are reached, the resolutions that are passed and the plans that are made at Synod.

Here are some of Brother Sawyer’s suggestions to Synod delegates (and to anyone who takes seriously the call to carry the gospel to the world and serve humanity):

1.     Pray.

2.     Think mission outreach.

3.     Look around you for people whom God might be calling to give leadership in mission. Encourage them to step forward.

4.     Dream dreams and catch visions! Try to imagine the great diversity of mission outreach opportunities before us.

        Consider the following affirmation from the Church Order Of The Unitas Fratrum

5.     :“we affirm that we will not remain a living Church unless we minister to our neighbors and proclaim to the world the gospel message.  Being a church that stresses fellowship is only part of who we are.” Pray that Moravians everywhere would accept the “mission challenge”                                                                         S.G