#025 Are We Kingdom First Clergy? by Copi Valdiviez
Where is our first alliance? To our local congregation, pleasing others, growing the church, our family, our denomination, becoming famous, job security...?
Many would say God. However, if your life has been anything like mine, God ends up on the short end of the equation.
I¹ve heard it said that the average clergy spends no more than 10 minutes a day in prayer. Hard to believe? What I can’t understand is why so many of us are all up in a huff about no prayer in public schools, when there is such a lack of prayer in the Church? Let’s get prayer as a priority back in the Church and then worry about the public schools.
I wonder if this is how Jesus felt when he could not get the disciples to pray instead of sleep. But, we aren¹t sleeping. We are doing stuff. It’s hard to spend time in prayer when there is so much needed to be done.
Because of the Prayer Summit 25 of us who went found out, that prayer is God’s way to successfully use us for His pleasure. That prayer is the only road to humility. And humility is the only road to holiness.
We must allow God to empty us of ourselves so we become empty vessels in which He can fill with His Holy Spirit. Then we can be used solely for the Glory of God in the expansion of His Kingdom on earth and in heaven. God doesn¹t need us to do the work. We need Him to do the work.
When we approach the place of humility God gives us a ³we² instead of a ³me² mind set. He expands our vision by showing us our city from His perspective. In other words we become missionaries to the very cities we live and work in. We see that our congregations are only a small piece of what God is doing in our city. And we begin to find opportunities to serve our city together with other congregations.
The following is a check list. Where do you fit in the scheme of things?
Special thanks to Norm ******** for inspiring the idea:
God is organizing us by putting us into relationship with each other. In Toledo like most other cities we have many events scheduled. But, no matter how successful our events may be, we must not rely on working together on events as the primary means of developing relationships.
We must rearrange our schedules so we make ourselves pray with each other. We must develop the discipline of praying for each other, each other¹s family and each other’s ministry. Then the Holy Spirit can do His work in us and through us together!
I invite you to join a prayer group near you today. Don’t wait. Mark your calendar today.
If we don’t make praying together a priority the following will occur:
Christ.
God Help Us.
DAWN PROJECTS FOR JESUS REPORT: A Center for City Reaching Strategies 5151 MONROE ST., SUITE 206, TOLEDO, OH 43623 VOICE: 419/843-9194 / FAX: 419/843-8696 / E-MAIL:
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