In October, Logos Christian Church will be hosting
the Win a City conference. The one
lesson that stood out during last year’s gathering was the thought that we will
never win a city, or see movement, unless we address the brokenness in a
city. Recently our prayer ministry
leader sent a message where she asked these three questions:
1. What does
the brokenness look like? (Implying in your area, your life, ministry, work
etc.)
2. When do you
pray?
3. Who prays
with you?
These questions really made me think. Firstly, I was thinking: How or where do I
even begin to answer the question of what brokenness looks like? Whose story do I tell? My own, or yours, or yours or yours…? Do I tell the stories of abused women and
children and adult survivors of sexual, physical, emotional, spiritual and
economical abuse? Or do I tell how we as
a society at large are guilty of rather conforming to a conspiracy of silence,
and blame and bully the whistle blowers and protect the perpetrators? Or
perhaps the stories of how we betray each other in business, are unethical,
steal money, and then justify our actions with denials and wonderful religious
reasoning? Or perhaps the stories of
those who attempt or are successful at suicide? Or the stories about rejection by the
church, ministries and culture because we feel called to do things a little
differently than usual or outside of what tradition would prescribe?
No, these are not stories of far off communities or countries or people that we do not know, or that live in some refugee camp somewhere in another corner of the world. It’s our stories, yours and mine. It’s the story of the person that sits next to us in church. It’s the people I work with, gym with or socialise with, it’s their stories. They are ordinary people who have ordinary lives, professional people with private practices, own businesses, loyal employees, students, pensioners or housewives. The vast majority of people I know with stories like these are 100% functional human beings. They drive a car, pay tax, raise children, send them to university, have ordinary lives and are people who love the Lord. They are Christians, members of the body of Christ – I am not even talking about the city’s brokenness yet! Reflecting on this made me realize that maybe this is the greatest brokenness of our time, the brokenness in the church itself and our inability to walk in redemption, holiness, healing and the power of the Holy Spirit. So maybe this is where we need to start – at the sanctuary?
The next question was – when do you pray? While thinking about this I realised there’s a myriad of small groups connected through a common interest and experience forming community in many different ways. We share each other’s lives and pray together on WhatsApp, sometimes on Friday afternoons or Friday evenings over a meal, sometimes we prayer walk together or share a break-away weekend. Some of us purposefully and intentionally move mountains, like making plans to take friends in wheelchairs on prayer excursions of various kinds and to attend prayer meetings or even weekends, defying all odds of what is comfortable or easy. We pray together on ministry weekends or when someone is having a birthday. Sometimes we pray together in church or at cell group meetings. Some small groups form in the wake of ministry weekends, mostly these small groups of people fellowship together and reach out to others as best they can.
The last question was – who do you pray with? The answer? The broken are praying – on their own and together. These same people with these very broken stories are the people who are praying. They are the prayer warriors that understand that nothing happens without prayer. They understand righteousness and grace that walk together at the same time. There seems to be a flexible, fluid network of diverse people that come together for a purpose and allow God to fulfil His agenda, sometimes inside but very often outside of the official structures of what we traditionally would define as ‘church’, yet building Kingdom with what I perceive to be increasing effectiveness. Broken people with immense broken lives all in the process of being restored by God, and the Holy Spirit seems to be moving powerfully in and through us… and yes, we are addressing the brokenness and seeing the movement, movement towards victory and healing. We grow in intimacy with Jesus and worship wholeheartedly. We reach out to one more broken person at a time joining them to Christ so that they can start to taste the wholeness He gives us and intends for all of us. So we may be broken people but we are privileged… privileged to know Him… to live Him… to have each other to fellowship with… to worship together… to love Him… to love each other… What a life we have corporately… what a blessing to be part of God’s Kingdom in this way… in this time… We are surely called for a time such as this.
So having said all this, I undertook to ask you – those that I mention above. If you see yourself as part of this, if you recognise your story or your passion in the above, I invite you to pray with me during the week of 1- 8 September specifically for the brokenness in your city, area, church, ministry group, work, wherever you are. God is a God of the broken, He is the healer, the restorer, the life-giver. Let us ask ourselves these 3 questions:
No, these are not stories of far off communities or countries or people that we do not know, or that live in some refugee camp somewhere in another corner of the world. It’s our stories, yours and mine. It’s the story of the person that sits next to us in church. It’s the people I work with, gym with or socialise with, it’s their stories. They are ordinary people who have ordinary lives, professional people with private practices, own businesses, loyal employees, students, pensioners or housewives. The vast majority of people I know with stories like these are 100% functional human beings. They drive a car, pay tax, raise children, send them to university, have ordinary lives and are people who love the Lord. They are Christians, members of the body of Christ – I am not even talking about the city’s brokenness yet! Reflecting on this made me realize that maybe this is the greatest brokenness of our time, the brokenness in the church itself and our inability to walk in redemption, holiness, healing and the power of the Holy Spirit. So maybe this is where we need to start – at the sanctuary?
The next question was – when do you pray? While thinking about this I realised there’s a myriad of small groups connected through a common interest and experience forming community in many different ways. We share each other’s lives and pray together on WhatsApp, sometimes on Friday afternoons or Friday evenings over a meal, sometimes we prayer walk together or share a break-away weekend. Some of us purposefully and intentionally move mountains, like making plans to take friends in wheelchairs on prayer excursions of various kinds and to attend prayer meetings or even weekends, defying all odds of what is comfortable or easy. We pray together on ministry weekends or when someone is having a birthday. Sometimes we pray together in church or at cell group meetings. Some small groups form in the wake of ministry weekends, mostly these small groups of people fellowship together and reach out to others as best they can.
The last question was – who do you pray with? The answer? The broken are praying – on their own and together. These same people with these very broken stories are the people who are praying. They are the prayer warriors that understand that nothing happens without prayer. They understand righteousness and grace that walk together at the same time. There seems to be a flexible, fluid network of diverse people that come together for a purpose and allow God to fulfil His agenda, sometimes inside but very often outside of the official structures of what we traditionally would define as ‘church’, yet building Kingdom with what I perceive to be increasing effectiveness. Broken people with immense broken lives all in the process of being restored by God, and the Holy Spirit seems to be moving powerfully in and through us… and yes, we are addressing the brokenness and seeing the movement, movement towards victory and healing. We grow in intimacy with Jesus and worship wholeheartedly. We reach out to one more broken person at a time joining them to Christ so that they can start to taste the wholeness He gives us and intends for all of us. So we may be broken people but we are privileged… privileged to know Him… to live Him… to have each other to fellowship with… to worship together… to love Him… to love each other… What a life we have corporately… what a blessing to be part of God’s Kingdom in this way… in this time… We are surely called for a time such as this.
So having said all this, I undertook to ask you – those that I mention above. If you see yourself as part of this, if you recognise your story or your passion in the above, I invite you to pray with me during the week of 1- 8 September specifically for the brokenness in your city, area, church, ministry group, work, wherever you are. God is a God of the broken, He is the healer, the restorer, the life-giver. Let us ask ourselves these 3 questions:
1. What does
brokenness look like where I live and move?
Describe it specifically, single it out, and commit to pray about it directly
and not just in general terms.
2. Are there
others in your vicinity that you can invite to pray with you during that week?
3. Decide
and organise a time when you will pray, either individually or together.
4. If you
feel led to – we would love to hear the stories of your prayer journeys,
WhatsApp me, or mail them to free2celebrate@gmail.com
5. For those
that can and would be interested, consider attending the ‘Win a city
conference’ at Logos Christian Church the weekend of 4-5 October 2019. Follow this link for a program with speakers
and topics and registration information:
https://www.logos.org.za/winacity/
Much Love to all
Gerda Venter
Much Love to all
Gerda Venter
Free2Celebrate
