The clock of the Stapleton Road chapel in Bristol is permanently stuck at twenty to eight[1]. Blazoned across its face are the words:
Time
to Seek
the
Lord
The clock no longer functions to tell the hour of the day, but it does remind us of the more pressing truth: the right time to seek the Lord is always now. As a community, God has been speaking to us over a number of years about prayer. In fact, when we recently reviewed all the prophetic words that had been spoken to the Church over the years, the themes that emerged most clearly were a focus on the supernatural, and being 'a house of prayer'. We have responded to this call to prayer in the past, and have met with God powerfully in those times; now, we are feeling a fresh call to do so again.
We are not looking so much to spend isolated moments in intense prayer, as to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer, and to help us in this, we have planned in five 'weeks of prayer' throughout this year. The next one starts on November 6th. We'll gathering together as a Church to pray on the Monday evening, worshipping together at an Encounter Evening on the Friday, and joining together to celebrate on the Sunday morning - but our desire is that those meetings are not a 'shot in the arm', but an overflow of the praying we will be doing all week - individually, with friends, and in Missional Communities.
What prayer habits do you want to cultivate between now and then? How might you dig deeper in prayer with your Community during that week? It is time to seek the Lord - are you ready?