Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Global Day of Prayer North American Reports

NORTH AMERICAN GDOP REPORTS:

To the 198 nations who registered for the GDOP globally, the over 10,000 venues, and the hundreds of millions of participants across five continents, we add the following sample reports from the USA. As was true in 2005, the main site for the USA was Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX, whose meeting aired on television and radio networks domestically and internationally. Presently, Dallas is fully engaged in The 90 Days of Blessing for which many thousands of area Christians, from dozens of churches are registered to build or renovate low-income housing, serve in clean-up crews, block parties, back-to-school fairs, and various other outreaches to the inner city.

Not added at this time, are reports from Canada where some of the largest gatherings in North America took place (Calgary and Toronto, for example).

For hundreds of international reports, please visit: www.globaldayofprayer.com.

The following are various; randomly selected; and a mix of large and small. This list is not comprehensive.

Reporters Name

Benita Lawrence

Event City

Tukwila

Event State

WA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

800

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

HighSchoolStadium

LocalChurches

Community prayer walking

St. Thomas Parish Dinning Hall

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

25

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

work with the Way Back Inn to help refurbish two properties & community block party

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

My future goals are: continue to bring awareness to the power of corporate prayer.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Gregory Dunn

Event City

San Diego, Inland

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

550

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Sanctuary

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

8-10

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Beth Nephew

Event City

Forest Lake

Event State

MN

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

180

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Worship with segments of the World Prayer prayed by local pastors. With some of the reports mingled in.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

10

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Capetown Africa, Indonsia, Hong Kong - one was power point picture, one was verbal, another 3 min. internet streaming. We would have enjoyed to do more but they did not stort to become available until the midst of our events and were too timely to download. What we saw was great.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Our GDOP has not yet expanded to any large focus on the 90 days of blessing. May be more next year? We continue to meet together to pray 2 times a week, worship & pray in the park together once a month, have a large youth outreach scheduled over the 4th of July weekend. Community wide we are working together in many ways, PTL!

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Though we may not have had large numbers come out from area churches, there is great passion in bieng involved in leadership of the churches present. We plan on gathering together again next year. This year as a community we did 24/7 prayer for th! e 10 days leading up to the event and that was a huge connecto! r and bl essing for our area.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Liz Schlafer

Event City

Bradenton/Sarasota

Event State

FL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1500

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Convention Center

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

45+

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Each person attending was asked to sign up so a database could be developed and be contacted about 90 Days of Blessing. We had over 19! 0 people sign up to volunteer for Rehabitate. We will help remodel 34 homes owned by people over 70 who cannot afford to fix up their homes. We also plan to prayerwalk every zip code in the two-county area.

Another activity is Clean Sweep. This activity gathers people from church to clean up parks and other public venues. We also have another group who will be working with an elementary school.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Florida has so many people of retirement age and many feel they are through with life--full of complacency and lethargy. We felt there was a spiritual breakthrough of their recognition of their continued value to God.

GDOP also brought together different prayer groups scattered throughout the area who didn't even know the other existed. Now they will begin working together.

Sincerely

-----------------------------

Reporters Name

Rev. Nathan Kline

Event City

Pardeeville

Event State

WI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

47

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

School gymnasium

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

3

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We are hoping to gain some more momentum for next year.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Bowie Curry

Event City

Fredericksburg

Event State

VA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

250

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

10 different local churches for the 10 days leading up to the GDOP.

a local church for the GDOP on June 4th.

we will definitely use a public venue next year.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the eve! nt(s)?

24

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

3 minute intro and the Houston/Philipines update

6. Describe on! e idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We plan to implement that phase of the event beginning next year. Haven't discussed what that might look like.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Barbara Lachancd

Event City

Hartford

Event State

CT

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

4300

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Convention Center

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

200 or more

4. What ! reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We had the event filmed

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

City wide festivals in Hartford and New Britian CT, visiitng homes with free food. Festivals include childrens games, ! evangelism teams, prayer teams, speakers and medical outreach, ABC Woman's Center Counseling and free store filled with food and over the counter medical supplies

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

WE have a great vision for next year. We told the people that 15000 would be expected (or more). There is great excitement and people have been calling all day with reports and the unity was tremendous. We have every denomination, cultures and the Spirit of God all a wonderful combination. We made coverage on the front page full color of the Hartford Current. TV coverage, etc. It was great PRAISE GOD! You can call for any questions that you might have.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jeff Sanders

Event City

Fort Worth

Event State

TX

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1500

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Trinity Park Outdoor Amphitheater

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

73

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Hope Fest - Outdoor ministry to the homeless and poor

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Tim Taylor

Event City

Bellingham + 9 other cities

Event State

WA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

700+

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Large church auditorium

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

2! 2

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Streaming

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We have many expressions... ie. 3 churches in one community made a book of test! imonies that they are distributing to homes in their town

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We used Operation Rolling Thunder (see www.CONECT.US for details) to tie NDP with Prayer Week & GDOP to launch an on going local prayer movement. We had over 235 churches cover at least 1 day with 24 hour prayer and including those who did more than one day............ we had over 300+ hours of 24 hour prayer that covered Washington. In addition 3 counties, 1 city and 1 church were covered with 24 hour prayer as well as our state. Unprecedented cooperation. Now, I have just sent a letter to all leaders challenging them.......... we just covered our state, 3 counties, 1 city and 1 church with 24 hour prayer for a whole month......... why stop! I'm challenging them to prayerfully consider praying whatever day they prayed in OR! T next month and every month there after. In doing so our state will be covered with a canopy of prayer. This is an expression of what GDOP asked us all to pray on May 26....... on going local prayer movements. In doing so we can turn every day into a National or Global Day of Prayer.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Esther Leonard

Event City

Fresno

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

200

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Church Building

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

5

4. What reports o! r broadc ast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

None, because we couldn't find one. I was under the impression that there would be a seven minute availabe to incorporate into the program from the days events. (we are pacific standard time). But nothing was available. On your sample program you have a spot designated at the end for the seven minute vidioe and I assumed that would have been made of the days events but I guess I misunderstood that. We ended up showing the power point of Indonesia after out gathering was over. We put it to a song but it was only 2 minutes long. We would have loved to have more footage available. We did use the 3 min. summary from 2005 - 2 times on Sunday morning and the 11/2 min. summmary one time.

5. What contact person would be will! ing to answer further questions and /or receive information about further GDOP events? Please include email, address, or phone

myself, same as above

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Community sports camp.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Some how this event needs to be publicized in the US. The word is not out in America and that is really sad. We are missing out. We had an amazing time during these 10 days with 24/7 prayer and 4 evening prayer concerts. It is so good to focus on the needs of the world and pray for the nations. Thanks you so much for making this happen. The Web site has been amazingly helpful during these days. I al so appreciated the daily prayer being read. We downloaded them and used them in our prayer room daily. Bless you all for being faithful to motivate God's people to pray for the nations.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jennifer McCoy

Event City

Tukwila

Event State

WA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

500+

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

High School Stadiium event followed by a fellowship luncheon at the local Catholic Church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

20+

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

An online Virtual Ministry Fair and a 90 day Project. Info at http://churchoftukwila.org/MF.htm During the 90 Days we will also host a Church of Tukwi! la Block Party for the community.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Goal #1: Aggressively pursue and court relationships with those churches who were not active participants in the event. Improve lines of communication.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jonathan Brownson

Reporters Email Address

jbrownson@rca.org

Reporters Phone Number

616-886-1815

Event City

Holland

Event State

MI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

500 & 50

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Hope College Chapel for two services one in Spanish one in English

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

25 & 10

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Indonesia/Houston

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We will send a video describing our local effort. Globally, we are praying about sponsoring a nation (Indonesia) as a city (Holland) using Houston as a model

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

There were several Latino pastors who participated in our Spanish language service and it may be that God intends to bring them together weekly for prayer as a brother group to our HAPI Holland area prayer initiative group

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Kathy Krueger

Event City

Brainerd

Event State

MN

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

150

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

School auditorium

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

8

4. What reports or bro! adcast p ortions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We opened the program with the 'Welcome to the Global Day of Prayer' video segment, also showed the 3 minute summary from 2005 gatherings and show a 2 minute clip from Taiwan's gathering that we downloaded that afternoon.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We primarily focused on the united prayer aspect this year and plan to further promote the adding of the 90 days of blessing to next years agenda.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Since this was our first year participating as a community, we plan to begin working now to gain further involvement next year and will work on further promotion of the 90 days of blessing for next year.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Rick Porter

Event City

Arnolds Park

Event State

IA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

225

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Bible Conference Tabernacle

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

9

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

2005 11 minute report....we wanted to use 2006 event downloads, but had trouble downloading and most came too late for us

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We will consider next year's event....I did not have the sense of Spirit momentum this year, but I had surgery and that may be coloring my perception. Also, our area had never done such and event so we were breaking new ground in spiritual and church cooperation realms. I think we also demonstrated the low level of commitment to a prayer event in our area. But...like the kingdom, it begins as a seed.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jacque Hildreth

Event City

Oak Harbor

Event State

WA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

40

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Prayer and praise then tuned in to the simulcast in Dallas

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

7

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

satellite broadcast

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Maria Dillon-Remy

Event City

Scarborough

Event State

FL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

120

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

School Hall

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

10

4. What reports o! r broadc ast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Local TV station captured the event. Have not seen it yet

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Meet the health needs of a poor community - also Vacation Bible School

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

to start planning for next year now

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Scott Forsythe

Event City

West Plains

Event State

MO

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

300

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Church Building

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

4

4. What ! reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

3 minute summary & downloadable prayer resource materials

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Turning one of our facilities into a community outreach building called "everyday blessings"

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals an! d Visions, etc.)

see our entire area come together for prayer at the civic center

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Bob Lowman

Event City

Charlotte

Event State

NC

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

200

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Church site

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

15

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Encouraging the prayer-care-share model with intercessors and church groups.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jane VanderPloeg

Event City

Tualatin

Event State

OR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

75

4. What ! reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Pastor handed out booklets, emailed the 2005 video to people ahead, published the prayer to use in the service, and directed people to a gathering of churches over the river in Oregon City for evening prayer connected to the global events. Several elders read a portion of the united prayer.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

we had lunch together and met with a leader of community development who helped us think about the ministries we are called to and are doing

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

This was the first time this Christian Reformed Church connected with a global movement and truly celebrated Pentecost. Thanks for the assists and the quality materials! Fresh energy and hope was a result!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Kay Robinson

Event City

Gulf Shores

Event State

AL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

100

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Civic Center

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

12

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We got started too late to do an outreach this year.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

The Spirit of God was so evident at our 1st event, we know that next year's will be even more powerful! I can't wait!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Adda Sutter

Event City

Columbus

Event State

OH

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

45

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Bob Perry

Event City

Nashville

Event State

TN

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

250

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Global Cafe

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

12

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We are doing a 21 Day turnoff now where hundreds are gathering each day to pray in a 4 hour period for purity in the church in the front of Hustler Hollywood

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

It was a great time in prayer and a significant time for our city.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Deborah Gregory

Event City

Farmington

Event State

NM

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

250

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

The Oasis Church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

15

4. What report s or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Intro to Global Day of Prayer to begin the service ... We showed the Dallas event via Sky Angel prior to our own service.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Our state senator and local officials have called upon the comm! unity of faith to pray and to develop a faith based initiative to strengthen families to combat the problems of "meth", suicide, and violence in our community.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We invited pastors and ministry leaders to lead our prayer time and the result was an increased call to break down denominational barriers and to come together to pray. They are already talking about how we can draw more people together for next year's Global Day of Prayer, and the faith based marriage initiative.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Dave LeRud

Event City

Oregon City

Event State

OR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

250

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Nazarene church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

7-10

4. What reports or ! broadcas t portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

10 min video of Global Day 2005

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Woody Young

Event City

Huntington Beach

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

50

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Community Center

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

10

4. What rep! orts or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Video from GDOP

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Part of our promotion for GDOP was on Friday nights to go the Huntington Beach Pier to evangelize and we how plan to continue this and have also planned a Band Concert for hard to reach teens next month at the same location we held GDOP.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Vision for the future would be to have connection to church groups around the globe directly praying for one another on a personal level. It is one thing to pray in general for others, but it is so much more powerful when you have connection with whom you are praying for. If GDOP could start a coordination between different country groups so each church would be in contact with another church group from a different country and then on Penecost all the churches in the community come together and pray as a group for each others church and the foreign churches as well.

We have had wonderful prayers meeting the last two years, but the comments were if we could have only connected someway with some of the others it would have been even better.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Wayne Feigal

Event City

Burr Oak

Event State

KS

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

30

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

We gathered for from 4 PM til 5:30 PM outside in the city park. There were four or five churches represented.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

5

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Thank you for the vision, resources, and planning that went into this event.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Tom McCrossan

Reporters Email Address

tmccross@nycap.rr.com

Reporters Phone Number

518-356-5154

Event City

Schenectady

Event State

NY

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

170

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

10 churches for the 10 days of prayer, and Schenectady Central Park, outdoor Music Stage for the 2 hour GDOP gathering on Pentecost Sunday

3. How many different churches (est.)! participated in the event(s)?

20

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

… Next year instead.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

the bulk of the offering at GDOP was given to City of Schenectady from the churches to bless the city.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Michael Mau

Event City

Benicia

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

120+

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

9 days of prayer gatherings hosted by three different churches in town. The tenth day we had a prayer walk around the perimiter of our city. We had different people throughout the week at each gathering which averaged around 65 people per night. We had at le! ast that many for the prayer walk. The global day of prayer wa! s hostedby one of our local churches and we had a 2 hour celebration that evening.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

3+

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We downloaded the clips from the web sites and showed them throughout the week and also as a promo before the ten days.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We will continue to keep our church open, as a place of prayer, for the next 90 days. during that time we will be completing a prayer room, which we intend to make a public place for prayer. We have three major outreach events in our local downtown park, scheduled in tandem with other area churches. It will include a free bbq to the community along with a day of music, art, dance, etc. We will also join in whatever opportunities come our way to bless our community for Christ. We will be meeting with other area churches regularly for prayer and looking to join forces to reach our community with the love, hope, and salvation message of Jesus Christ.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We are outfitting our church with a satelite dish and hope to broadcast all of next year's GDOP events and make that an exciting part of 2007.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Tim Franklin

Event City

Middlebury

Event State

VT

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

30

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

5

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

family outreach events in July - vacation Bible school, party in the park, family hike

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Roger Will

Event City

Bismarck

Event State

ND

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

170

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Christian School gymnasium

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

25

4. What reports or b! roadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

12 minute video of 2005

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Doug Edwards

Event City

Tillamook

Event State

OR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1000

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Local Churches in the morning

and a combined service in the afternoon at the fairgrounds (3 hr.)

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

30

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Written report and slides from Internet report from Indonesia

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We have been emphasizing Adopt-a-Block along with other Dream Center programs (54 total)

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We hope to have an event next year that reaches more people. We will do 40 Days of Prayer again only start at Easter so it ends before the 10 Days start

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Madeleine Prendergast

Event City

Carlisle

Event State

MA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

600

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Tremont Temple Baptist Church. We understood that GDOP prefers the location be secular or non-denominatinal, but this is the first time we held this event in Boston.

3! . How many different churches (est.) participated in the event! (s)?

planning? or had members attend?

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

2005 GDOP DVD We could not get live-in or live-out from this location.

3 3-min DVD reports from local leaders

6. Describe one idea or plan you have ! for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Prayer walk in inner-city neighborhoods and around our State House

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Doug Daugherty

Reporters Email Address

doug@resourcefoundation.org

Reporters Phone Number

423-488-0435

Event City

Chattanooga

Event State

TN

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1000

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

A large church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

90

4. What r! eports o r broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

the two that were available. I think one was from Tapei and on was from Chili

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We have established a new ministry called Serve Chattanooga. Our initial goal is to get volunteer into the 80 public schools during the summer

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

I think more thought needs to go into how to make this more than an annual event. I would suggest monthly or quarterly prayer meetings on a smaller scale.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

John Isaacs

Event City

San Jose

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

900

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

A Chinese Church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

15

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Haven't developed it yet

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jimmy Dorrell

Event City

Waco

Event State

TX

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

49 (10 churches; 7 denominations)

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

7:00a.m. gathering in a park

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

10

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

have already emailed and encouraged and reminded of next year's date

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Pastor Sherry Jones

Event City

Philadelphia

Event State

PA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

30-40

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

We prayed for the nations and those in authority.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

2

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

I would like someone to talk with who could give us some ideas

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Gina Doumate

Event City

Marin City

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

20

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Neighboring Church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

2

4. What reports or ! broadcas t portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Began with video of 2005 GDOP, incorporated other videos before sections from Transformation Video Series and a video on Christians being persecuted.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Each person will separately participate in 90 days of blessing as led by the Lord.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

My pastor is planning working on uniting the six churches in our small community and noted that he would like all six churches invited and participating next year.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Steve Weber

Event City

Kansas City

Event State

KS

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1100

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Local Church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

30

4. What reports or bro! adcast p ortions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

1 minute 30 second introduction, plus the 3 minute summary.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

July task force meeting to plan city wide response for 2007.

Other Thoughts (Ideas! , Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

The Citywide Prayer Movement in Kansas City is developing plans for having Bob Bakke come and meet with us.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Tim Taylor

Event City

10 + events in cities across WA

Event State

WA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Stadium, large auditoriums, local churches

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Streaming

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

This is a second report just to clarify. I serve as the WA state coordinator for National Day of Prayer, Global Day of Prayer and Operation Rolling Thunder. I participated in 2 of our 10+ events in cities across! our state. We are using Operation Rolling Thunder to move the church into an ongoing local prayer movement where we turn every day into a Global day of prayer. We are doing this through ORT (31 days of 24 hour prayer). In ORT we covered our state, 3 counties, 1 city and 1 church with 24 hour prayer for a whole month.

Sincerely

Hello

A user of your website has used a form to submit the following data to you:

Field

Data

Reporters Name

Pam Olsen

Event City

Tallahassee

Event State

FL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

120

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

a church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

6

4. What reports or broadcast! portion s (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

couldn't find the update info from the day to use that evening, we did show two videos from your website showing the history of GDOP and welcome video

Blessings in your community.

we will work with Refuge of Love to meet people's needs

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

like to get more churches on board

Sincerely


Reporters Name

Joanne Turner

Event City

New Providence

Event State

NJ

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

75

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Sanctuary of Presbyterian Church of New Providence

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

10

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Showed report of last years event from GDOP website and tuned into Dallas satellite feed after about 2 hours of local prayers continent by continent led by pastors and passionate intercessors in about 5 languages

5. What contact person would be willing to answer further questions and /or receive information about further GDOP events? Please include email, address, or phone

Joanne Turner as above

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Inviting our non-Christian neighbors to a backyard bar-b-que to get to know their names in our suburban community

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We prayed in local homes from 7-9 pm each of the 10 days prior to GDOP - immense blessing.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Paul Grabill

Event City

State College

Event State

PA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

2200+

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Outdoor commerical parking lot

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

13

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Collected food/money for Food Bank

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

see http://www.centredaily.com/mld! /centredaily/news/local/14741905.htm

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Angela Adkins

Event City

sarasota

Event State

FL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

2400

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

we met in a community conference center and were also partially broadcasted on local radio

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

about 50

5. What contact person would be willing to answer further questions and /or receive information about further GDOP events? Please include email, address, or phone

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

to help habitat for humanity with 70 houses for the elderly in the urban area of sarasota/bradenton

Other Thoughts (! Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

God is hearing our cries, and we have had an increase of dreams and visions, many about the refining fire and the revival and glory of the Lord. after the gdop we had incredible change in the atmosphere of our church. we participated in the 24/7 prayer and there is revival breaking through. in our youth service one of the girls backs was healed and there were many people crying and repenting and the presence of God was so incredible! i can't wait to see what God continues to do as we continue to cry out to Him as ONE BODY IN CHRIST. several youth groups are beginning to take steps to work together using their strengths to complement each other rather than to compete. yea, God!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Pastor Ron Owens

Event City

Fresno

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

140

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Our church sanctuary. We expanded our Sunday morning service from 75 minutes to a full two hours. We sang a lot, prayed a lot, and I gave a 10 minute message about how GDOP came to be and why we were involved.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Some of us are in conversation with the Mountain View community Church of Clovis with the hopes of growing our Fresno involvement. I've also begun to share about GDOP with other churches that I am in contact with. So that longer-range planning can lead to greater involvement.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Rick & Joan Smith

Event City

Sapulpa

Event State

OK

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

376

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

When we became aware of GDOP through Pray! Magazine, it was too late to organize an event. Instead we chose to provide the 10 day prayer guides encouraging people, families, small groups to pray each day. Then on Pentecost Sunday we had a special service. The Message was "Pentecost and You," and a report of a recent Nicaragua Mission trip was given. We ended our worship time praying A Prayer for the World.

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

For 3 weeks prior to GDOP we present the 3 minute promo video.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We had an bulletin insert - "Becoming the Blessing of Christ." We listed 15 practical things that individuals, Sunday School classes, small groups could do, and asked them to pray for other things that God would show them.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We have a Prayer Team of 55, and have been praying this last year to become a House of Prayer. We are thankful for the opportunities of GDOP to open our eyes to the world!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Marte Kellogg

Event City

San Antonio

Event State

TX

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1100

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

We did not have an event per se but passed out 100 10-day prayer guides and used the GDOP prayer in June 4 service which is televised to about 12,000 people

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jennifer Devlin

Event City

Huntsville

Event State

AL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

500-1000

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

baseball stadium

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

40-50

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

revitalization of neighborhood and local schools - school supply help and school clean up/fix up.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future ! Goals and Visions, etc.)

A severe thunderstorm blew through during the event, but God was SO glorified in that time - we all continued the prayer meeting under the cement entryway - shoulder to shoulder in prayer. It was awesome.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Pastor Charles P. Daugherty Sr.

Reporters Email Address

prayer@inavia.net

Reporters Phone Number

319-378-0337

Event City

Cedar Rapids

Event State

IA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

925

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

We gatherd at the baseball stadium in Cedar Rapids. We had full use of the PA system, the 'jumbotron' in center field, GDOP 3 minute video projection as well as songs and order of the day. 16 local Pastors participated in leading prayer or singing, we had a 19 voice choir from Nagaland and a 4! 2 voice African American choir representing 3 local congregations. Our 'international' prayer leaders were from Nagaland, India, China, Mexico, Australia and NIgeria - all praying in their mother tongue. We ended with flas from 27 nations on the field surrounding the African American choir and the international prayer leaders.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

23

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

3 minute summary off the web

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Immediate:

National Night Out on Tuesday, August 1st. We are recruiting what we are calling the "Serve The City (STC) 100." 100 households that will host a neighborhood picnic under the STC banner of "We Care."

Long Range:

As this is our first year, we do not have anythning in place, however, we are in the planning process for 2007. The 90 days would end with a ! massive "Carefest" 2007 in the fall.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

This local GDOP observance is hosted by Serve The City which is an local expression of the Mission America Coalition. We plan to Care for our community on an ongoing basis, letting our "light so shine before men..." We will be back at the ballpark on May 27, 2007. The stadium seats 8,000. We asked the Lord for 800 this year and He gave us 925 plus. You can view some pictures by going to www.friendsclass.blogspot.com and scrolling down the left side

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Kelvin

Event City

Cleveland

Event State

TN

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

2000

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Large Church Sanctuary

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

Approx 50

4.! What re ports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

Internet Streaming

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Working with the Habitat for Humanity. Volunteering with Different Social Organizations in the City.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals an! d Visions, etc.)

Continue with the GDP plans to 2010.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Kenneth Rochell

Event City

Ypsilanti

Event State

MI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

300+

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Marriot Eagle Crest in a tent

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

20

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We are meeting in different churches that attended the GDOP.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We have decided to go to 11 different places of worship and hold prayer meetings so that we will grow our numbers for next year's GDOP.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Ron Sukut

Event City

San Juan Capistrano

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

200

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

City Park

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

6-9

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Incorporate more churches in the planning next year

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Joy Chinen

Event City

Honolulu

Event State

HI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

373

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Hawaii's State Capitol Rotunda

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

17

4. What! reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We prayed the prayer from the website as a group, with our Lt. Governor making the last declaration, "Come Lord Jesus!"

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Youth groups in our area will be going to the schools in the area to do service projects.

Prayer walk our communities and bless the people.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We had a time of repentance for abortion with two people confessing before the Lord, of their own participation in abortions. This was very powerful as it was done at the State Capitol where abortion was legalized 36 years ago, being one of the first States to do so.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Art Rader

Event City

Racine

Event State

WI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

8

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

a room used for 24/7prayer

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1

5. What contact person would be willing to answer further questions and /or receive information about further GDOP events? Please include email, address, or phone

Art, the guy mentioned above

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Nehemiah project - a city project

now in 3rd year

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Matt Sass, Assoc. Pr.

Event City

Hastings

Event State

NE

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

130

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

130 in adult sunday school - used prayer guides, also prayed for our missionaries

450 in worship svcs used Prayer For the World from guide in services

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

we try to have congegational prayer gatherings 3-4 X per year

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Maureen Bravo

Event City

Orlando

Event State

FL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

@ 300

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Gathered from 9 AM - 9 PM in an indoor ministry center in downtown Orlando- called THE PORCH

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

@ 25

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

internet reports

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Had a meeting today about developing a downtown compassion network to help the homeless in a 1 mi sq area - David and Erma Hunt are spearheading that !

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Looking forward to next year's GDOP with more participation from the community. ...but It is building! THis year we had a multi lingual, multi cultural, trans denominational gathering that focused on our AUDIENCE of ONE!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Robin Williams

Event City

Baltimore

Event State

MD

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

120

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

outside on property owned by our church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

3-4

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Doug Daugherty

Event City

Chattanooga

Event State

TN

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1000

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

50

4. What reports or broadcast ! portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

The report from Taipai and the report rom Brazil

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We have linked up with the entire public school system. Our goal is one or more service projects in every public school.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Joe Walsh

Event City

Sacramento

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

2000

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Large local church. Adventure Christian Church, Roseville, CA

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

20-30

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Silver Slipper community outreach to single women in Sacramento region.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Now building coalition of pastors and expanded committee.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

stephen lalor

Event City

Albany, NY

Event State

NY

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

180

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

10 days of prayer and fasting in 10 different churches/ GDP joint meeting from 5 to 7 with pastors leading prayers followed by people praying in small groups. It was "smokin(g)" because there was fire present. We went 45 minutes over time with very litt! le loss of attendence.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

12

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary,

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

I don"t think we are! readsy for this. I'm inviting 15 pastors with wives together to promote our unity - doing a dinner _ but want to engineer for success. I am open to the Holy Spirit on this.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

as mentioned above - a dinner - to be followed by a Personality Profile training to help these men and their families.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Pastor Arthur Hedin II

Event City

Waianae

Event State

HI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

47

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Power Point plus Movie clips

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

4

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Day of Youth Event plus concert

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

like to get more people to show up, and more help.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Rusty Savage

Event City

Platte City

Event State

MO

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

400

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

High School Theatre

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

4

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jon DeBruyn

Event City

Traverse City

Event State

MI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

400

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

High School gymnasium

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

20

4. Wha! t report s or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We showed the 12 minute GDOP Promotion video

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We do not have any. We tried but we did not come up with any particular ministry that was appealing to a broad spectrum of people.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We appreciated the opportunity to gather with many others from around our community to pray for the world. The Pentecost Day is a wonderful opportunity to do it. Regretfully it coincided with many graduation celebrations in our community and it was a beautiful day, in contrast to last years cold and rainy day. So attendance didn't grow to what we had anticipated. But God was graciously present and we had a great time of worship and prayer. We are eager to participate again next year!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Joe Rhodes

Event City

San Diego

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1000

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

A 2 hour praise/prayer gathering

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

20-30

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

3 minute summary

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Plan to participate in next years GDOP

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Nina Korsen

Event City

Thornton

Event State

CO

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

35

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Prayer meeting on Saturday and then Sunday a.m. church service

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We are preaching on purpose of the power of the Holy Spirit and thus, lifestyle evangelism; everyone choosing 3 people to pray for, care about, develop relationship; share faith as appropriate

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jan Sutterfield

Event City

Little Rock

Event State

AR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

14

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We are not going to "despise the day of small beginnings" Last year we only had 6 me! et the TEN DAYS...but this year we had 14! We are growing and I am hearing of a few more churches getting involved in our area. We are praying that one day God will FILL a stadium with Believers in Little Rock to pray on the Global Day of Prayer!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Leigh Smith

Event City

St. Albans

Event State

VT

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

6

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

House Church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Coordinate with already established March for Jesus network.

Provide a short DVD so that those who are not able to get broadcast could view and remain "in sync"... similar to what is given out at the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Addie Johnson

Event City

Los Angeles

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

40

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Church was used

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

6

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We haven't gotten that far. We already have in place an outreach feeding. We will increase our exposure within the community as we have in place an intercessory group of 4 churches that meet and pray monthly for the communi! ty our churches reside.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Although we were few in numbers the Spirit of the Lord was very actively involved in our prayers and praises. We are currently contemplating next year and our desire to using a more public arena such as a local park where people can just come and join without the formality of a church setting.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Colleen Sherman

Event City

Sutton

Event State

NH

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

30

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

The original plan called for the meeting atop Pinnacle Prayer Mountain. But the rain forced us indoors. We met at a home instead.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Vickie Gonzales

Event City

Las Vegas

Event State

NV

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

55

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Prayer Service

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We received a call from your office to post our event. We didn't have much notice to think about this but after being contacted, we will definitely plan something in the future.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Linda Weiss

Event City

Turlock

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

12

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Church basement

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1

4. What reports or bro! adcast p ortions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We used items from the prayer guide, and the extended responsive printed prayer.

5. What contact person would be willing to answer further questions and /or receive information about further GDOP events? Please include email, address, or phone

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Dave Grammon

Event City

Roseburg

Event State

OR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

225

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Ist Conservative Baptist (lg. bldg)

* World Prayer

* Combined Prayer

* Individual Prayer for community

3. How many different churches (est.) part! icipated in the event(s)?

10-12

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

12 minute video clip

Powerpoint updates

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

The church is coming together to meet needs of th! e real needs in the community:

* Boys Ranch

* Prison Ministry

* Hope Pregnancy Center

* Casa De Belin (homeless)

* Thereapeutic Foster Homes

* Biblical Counselors

and best of all, COMMUNITY WIDE PRAYER!

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Summer events for church to come together...

IE in Roseburg all the churches are meeting at a baseball park on Wednesday evenings for prayer and praise.

- Qtly. promo events

- More info. out to churches of update for June 4, 2006

- Early info. about 2007 event

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Mary G. Ferris

Event City

Cambridge City

Event State

KY

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

300-400

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Individual churches. In ours, Cambridge City Christian, we had a brief homily about prayer and what God promises, then had individuals pray specifically in 4 areas: for our church and community, our nation, our continent, and the world. The ! congregation was asked to be on their knees or faces as able, ! and pray for each of these topics.

It was effective and moving. We have 250-280 in 2 services.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

@6

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

VBS for community, Food Pantry

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

I'd like to see a community ser-vice like ours next year.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Dan Ladd

Event City

Guthrie

Event State

OK

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

30

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Park pavillian

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

9

4. What reports or broadcast! portion s (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

several written prayers, at the event, we are not technically astute, but all your info helped us prepare for the event

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

pray against the apathy we sense

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Last year we had 120 show in Guthrie, a town of 9,000 that was ok but this year we only had 30. We had ours in the Mineral Wells Park pavilion at 4:30 and it was 97 degrees which may have kept some away but I had a lot see me or call and say "when is that prayer event?" and of course it was already over. We really felt our time was worth while and effective. It seems that there is a lot of distractions and apathy in the churches right now. And that will be one of our prayer focus until it changes.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jon Thompson

Event City

Redding

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

200

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

outside park, Library park

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

15

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

we should see a larger core team working this next year. Last year we hosted! 100, so this is double attendance.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jacquie Tyre

Event City

Atlanta

Event State

GA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

700

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Outdoors in front of the Georgia State Capitol in downtown Atlanta

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

50-75?

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Food distribution to 16 homesless camps in Atlanta; Back-to-School jamboree at Turner Field to stuff back-packs with schools supplies; ministry to elderly at high-rise complex; "KidMix" Block party of inne! r-city children; Help with renovations of an old church facility that had become a bar & restoration and is being restored for ministry

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

While holding an outdoor event had exciting elements to it, and was far less expensive than using an arena, the weather disrupted our event causing us to cut it short by almost an hour. Even so, our event was significant and we have received a lot of positive feedback.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Marilyn McNeil

Event City

Wichita

Event State

KS

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

44

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Local Church Amphitheatre

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1



Reporters Name

Judy Niednagel

Event City

Evansville

Event State

IN

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

800

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

a church bulilding

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

30

4. What reports ! or broad cast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We saw a few minutes of the event in Taipei, Taiwan. Some stayed for a while to watch the coverage.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We took an offering for Aurora, a community agency that is working! to eliminate homelessness in our city.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We plan to start much earlier next year so we can inform and enlist more people and can plan for the 90 Days of Blessing.

Sincerely

Hello

Reporters Name

rocky basques

Event City

waikiki

Event State

HI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

10

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

prayer walk around the community center in waikiki

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

1

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

this is our first year,more support from other church.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

advertist,tv.radio,newspaper,word of mouth.prayer walks

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Chris Bratton

Event City

Moraga

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

800

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Church

4. What reports or broadcast portion! s (3 min ute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

10 Days of Prayer Prayer Guide and Prayer for the World

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Prayer and "goodies and notes of encouragement " to soldiers in Iraq especially those from the community.

Commiting to ongoing prayer for our President , nation, and world

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

I would like to have a summary of this year's events and estimated numbers to give to my Pastors to increase their vision of GDOP. Maybe next year have a communication directed specifically to Pastors helping them understand why they should be involved in GDOP so they catch the fire the intercessors have!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Jenny Almquist

Event City

Menomonie

Event State

WI

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

93

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Church gym

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

5

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Encouraging people to pray through the booklets and special prayer gatherings, prayer walking, etc.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We hope to gather more people next year. We saw pastors work together in new ways which was wonderful and encouraging.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

carla eisenhauer

Event City

wellsville

Event State

NY

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

200

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

music;prayer;ministers from several churches reading and sharing;prayer of all and praise. and more prayer.

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

8-10

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

to share Gods Blessing wiht others whenever God leads and opens the door. Continue prayer for all.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

It was a awesome time for sharing and uniting with other Christians from various churches.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Fran Rex

Event City

Yuba City & Marysville

Event State

CA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

300 known

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

10-Day Prayer before Pentecost

Day of Reconciliation Gathering

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

7

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

used 3-min GDoP promo in two churches during services; did power point of history of Christianity coming to the Yuba/Sutter county areas for DoR ceremony -honoring our past, present and future generations of Christians

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days! of Blessings in your community.

Have struggled for two years to get (over 200) churches/

ministries "on board" with prayer, involvement, and/or communicating with each other. Though a "small step" our prayer group will endeavor to personally prayer for each church (5-10 each week) and then notify them via postcard that we desire to serve with them by upholding them in prayer and finding common ground where we might transform this community together. Pray for us!!! This will definitely take more than 90 Days!!!!

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Last year I sensed that God wanted to do something BIG in our little counties. We have an amphitheater and am pressing on towards a large gathering there in 2009 (or sooner if so deemed possible with local co-operation.)

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Lizabeth Elkins

Event City

Big Sandy

Event State

TX

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

unknown

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

individual and group prayers

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

17

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Our 3rd annual community VBS will be held during the 90 day of blessing. The city-wide event is hosted by 5 churches and endorsed by the Big Sandy Ministerial Alliance. We are also having a prayer walk on Satur! day, June 17.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

The City of Big Sandy, Texas, has an active ministerial alliance that has promoted the Seek God for the City and the 10-days of prayer leading to Pentecost Sunday. We hand-delivered the prayer book to each household in Big Sandy (approximately 600) and delivered packets for 17 different churches. Many churches have members who do not reside in Big Sandy; the prayer booklets were distributed to those individuals via the pastor's packet provided by the Big Sandy Ministerial Alliance. We are looking forward to next year!

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Brenda Hutchins

Event City

Sarasota/Bradenton

Event State

FL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

1,000 or more

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

The International Convention Center/worship/prayer/speakers

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

to seek out the needy and homeless...to spend our time in prayer for and actively seeking to help the poor&needy....is this not to know HIm?Jer.22:15! -16, I am praying for the Lord to reveal the poor and needy to us and provide their need, especially that they receive Him. We have opened a food bank at our church just recently and since the Global Day of Prayer, we have been getting many needy calling and coming with requests. We have many homeless in our area...many people holding hungry, need work or food signs on the side of the road. My prayer this stops, and that we reach out however God leads.

I pray each day"Lead me to the place of greatest need." "He leads me to people like this often. We do all we can to help them. Clothes , food, $,whatever the Lord leads, He equips us.Amen

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

My thoughts are very centered around listening closely to

Him at this point in time, He is saying to spend more time with Him and! worshiping and listening, then His annointing will flow, He! will do all things through us....greater things than when Jesus walked the earth will He do through us and I am listening each day to make sure I am in the very center of His perfect will for me. He plans my day and I walk in places in His timing and am amazed at the things He does and gives.....I am amazed and ready for praying all year starting now for next years moving of the Spirit....He moved mightily, a atrong spirit of worship fell on the crowd.....I believe this is where we stay, in an attitude of worship.....He moves then and we just have to love on Him.

I really am praying for much more awareness of this Global

Day of Prayer in the area churches, I would like to be in the group notifying them of this years event to prepare for next year.....

Sincerely


Reporters Name

Jim Moynihan

Event City

Elizabethtown

Event State

PA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

350

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

adult/youth program (outside, under tent)

Children service (inside, nursery provided)

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

15-20

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

being the first year, we did not tackle this idea yet. Hoepfully next year!

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Go! als and Visions, etc.)

By next year, our group of pastors (8-9 of us) hopes to connect with the local pastors personally and encourage them to join us. This event was an extraordinary success in every sense of the word.

Sincerely


Reporters Name

Bishop Robin May

Event City

Little Rock

Event State

AR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

15

4. What reports or broadc! ast port ions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

3 minute summary, corporate prayer

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Planning a unified prayer meeting June 30, 2006 during the 90 Days of Blessing.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

My vision is to hold several public prayer meetings throughout the year in hopes of accomplishing:

1.Fellowship among intercessors within the city of Little Rock.

2.Communion with community leaders within the city of Little Rock

3.To build greater interest and momentum regarding prayer GDOP for the years ahead.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Pastor Glenn Weber

Event City

El Paso

Event State

TX

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

300

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

church auditorium

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

40 churches from th! e 3 Cities region of El Paso, Texas/Juarez, Mexico/Las Cruces,! New Mex ico

4. What reports or broadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

The l2 minute "Global Day of Prayer" video - summarizing last year's Global Day of Prayer - downloaded from computer link on Global Day of Prayer Web Page

website: w! ww.prayerrenewal.org

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Along with praying the Prayer for the World - Pastor's led prayer and then circles of 3 prayed through the evening over targets of the 7 gates of cities with "Thy Kingdom Come" Prayer Guide Cards given to each intercessors as they entered church - all were challenged to continue praying through these prayer targets daily

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

These "Thy Kingdom Come" Target 7 Gates Prayer Card Guides are a powerful tool our El Paso/Juarez/Las Cruces region are using as part of Mission America's choosing our Tri-City Region as one of 9 model cities to help us "Love Our ! Communities to Christ." Very practical and powerful daily prayer tool and resource for individual Christians and congregations - as well as corporate prayer groups.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Lydia Grubb

Event City

Post Falls

Event State

ID

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

35

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

We opened our small auditorium that holds 250 in circles.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We would like to be involved next year. We only had a few weeks notice.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

sharon miller

Event City

pendleton

Event State

OR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

75

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

church building

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

next year ,ou rplanis to rent a stadium & have a count! y wide event

Sincerely

Reporters Name

sharon miller

Reporters Email Address

smlwcc@ortelco.net

Reporters Phone Number

5419324486

Event City

mt.vernon

Event State

OR

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

80

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

church building

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

2

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

we have accepted the plan to do a county wide meeting next year for this event

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Mark Kiekhaefer

Event City

Jefferson City

Event State

MO

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

50

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

An outdoor chapel at a church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

7

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Support efforts to provide meals lunches for underprivileged kids

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Tim Nutting

Reporters Email Address

timn@gjvineyard.org

Reporters Phone Number

970-242-7970

Event City

Grand Junction

Event State

CO

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

250

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

Met in Church

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

5

4. What reports or b! roadcast portions (3 minute summary, satellite broadcast, internet streaming, etc.) did you incorportate into your program?

We used images & videos from the website as they were being updated during our service.

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

Community Wide event in community center.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

David

Event City

Mechanicsville

Event State

VA

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

26

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

The church

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

Special community-wide, outdoor concerts with food and games etc.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

We have a small church of 50 people but we're in the process of forming a new vision with new ideas and approaches since I've been asked to come in and help make this happen. We had some really great things happen during the past few weeks, one of which was our ten days of continuous prayer coordinated with the global events. It would be great if you also had some things that were directed specifically to the smaller churches. Thanks so much! Lord bless your efforts.

Sincerely

Reporters Name

Peggy Green

Event City

Brevard County

Event State

FL

1. How many people gathered to pray in your community?

Uncounted

2. What kind of venue(s) was/were used?

prayer groups/churches

3. How many different churches (est.) participated in the event(s)?

4

6. Describe one idea or plan you have for the 90 days of Blessings in your community.

We are planning a county-wide gathering next year and will be contacting all the churches in the county to participate. We have already begun the planning, incorporating a meeting that is already scheduled on each! Friday night to begin praying for, working toward next year - hopefully in a venue that will seat 2000 people. We are going to begin asking people who live around our church to come to the dinner on Friday nights.

Other Thoughts (Ideas, Future Goals and Visions, etc.)

This began with me ordering booklets for my two weekly prayer meetings, one in Titusville Fl and one in Cape Canaveral Fl. and to three churches in the area. At the time I could not interest anyone in a county-wide project. But I continued to press on and encourage each church to participate. My pastor, Tony Fadely of Whole Loaf Church, finally got the vision and our church participated at 4 meetings each week during the 10 day focus. We gathered on Pentetcost Sunday to pray. He has the vision for a county wide gathering and we are already contacting churches in the ! area. We are a small church but have wide contacts and willing hand s and feet. I am excited because this is what I have been working for two years. Knocking on doors, ordering books, handing out books, trying to get something started. All in God's time. There were several other churches in the area that I heard about having Pentetcost Sunday prayers using the booklet. I do not have a clue as to the numbers. I would estimate it to be around 200 county-wide. Thank you for all you do for prayer in this country.

Sincerely

Apostles: Paul-like or Peter-ish?

Nurturing a New Generation of “Pauline” and “Petrine” Apostles

Dick Scoggins

Dick Scoggins is a founder of the Fellowship of Church Planters (Rhode Island, USA) and has served as a trainer for Frontiers. He is the author, with George Patterson, of Church Multiplication Guide (William Carey Library. ) (This article appeared in Mission Frontiers and is used with permisison of the author).

My early thinking on apostleship was shaped by Watchman Nee, who made a distinction between the Church and the Work – two distinct entities with distinct spheres. The Church is called to subdue the land, bringing the full weight of the gospel to bear on every segment and aspect of society. The “Work” is the apostolic work – taking the Kingdom of God to where the Church does not yet exist. The work of the apostolic community has always been to establish the Church where it does not exist and in such a way that the Church will reproduce locally and subdue the land.

Perhaps the best recent definition of an apostle I have read is by Jack Deere in his book Surprised by the Power of the Spirit. Deere states that apostleship is a calling, not a gift nor an especially gifted or powerful person. I strongly agree. I do not think that an apostle is such a person, or someone who gives oversight to large churches or groups of churches. (The latter more closely resemble “bishops,” such as those of the 2nd and 3rd centuries.)

The primary meaning of apostle is “an authorised sent one” or “messenger”. Apostles are mobile, dynamic groups of emissaries of the Kingdom. They are called to minister as bands or groups – at the very least in twos, as Jesus taught (cf. Acts 13:3,4; 14:4,14; 15:39-41), and sometimes with helpers (cf. Acts 13:5). Apostles have functioned in communities or networks of communities (for example, Paul’s networks of teams on his second and third journeys as well as during his imprisonment).

The key mark of apostleship is not a big personality, but rather big suffering (cf. 1 Cor. 4:9-13). When Paul is forced to defend his apostleship, he first cites his suffering (2 Cor. 12:7-10) before his signs and wonders (vs. 11,12). He wears his suffering as the badge of his apostleship and only acknowledges his signs and wonders when forced to do so.

Pauline Apostleship


Pauline apostleship is exercised by pioneering, mobile communities who start local communities of the Kingdom where they do not exist. They are dynamic, mobile communities, not solo personalities nor bishops who remain “over” churches. It seems there were many apostles (some true, some false) wandering around in the first century – so many that Paul bumped into a lot of them and took care to go to Spain to ensure that he was building on new ground.

Petrine Apostleship


A second form of apostleship – what I would call Petrine apostleship – is portrayed in the New Testament. Until recently my work and thinking have focused primarily on Pauline apostles who usually cross cultures to proclaim and reveal the Kingdom of God. My work with Frontiers has been exclusively in this realm. But I personally have also been engaged in starting house churches in the West, specifically in Rhode Island (USA) and England, and I have also started a number of church-planting teams which have been effective at starting networks of house churches in the West. If I had been pressed as to whether these Western teams were apostolic, until recently I would have replied in the negative or at least been uncertain.

But recently I was coaching a team in Switzerland who pressed me on whether there exists a Peter-type apostle. I replied that we do not see much of Peter in the New Testament, so I could not comment on whether or not the model exists or not. But I was unhappy with my own reply, and so I went back to search the Scriptures.

What I realized was that the Petrine model is much more prevalent than I had imagined. If we read Galatians 2:8-10 as portraying two types of apostleship, then we see some compelling ramifications. In this passage Paul states that Peter recognised his (and Barnabas’) calling as apostles to the Gentiles, while Paul and Barnabas recognize Peter’s (and James’ and John’s) apostleship to the circumcised (Jews).

So we see that there is an apostolic ministry to the unreached (the Pauline), but there is also an apostolic ministry to the existing people of God (the Petrine). For me the clincher was that Jesus is, of course, the forerunner of both (our high priest and apostle, Hebrews 3:1) but the bulk of His apostleship was to Israel. This means that nearly ½ of the New Testament is about the Petrine type apostleship. So what does Petrine apostleship look like, and why is it important today?

Needed Today – New Apostles and New Ways of Doing Church

Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God was to be torn from the nation of Israel and given to another people who would bear its fruit (Mt. 21:43). Within a generation the Temple would be destroyed, and the nation of Israel would cease to exist. But God is patient and compassionate: He desired to retain a remnant from Israel who would glorify His name. So God sent Jesus to call out that remnant who would follow Him in new forms of community that would follow the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Jesus appointed (Pauline) apostles to the Gentiles and (Petrine) apostles to the Jews that a remnant might bring glory to His name. The Kingdom of God would need new forms and traditions within the era that was to come.

I believe we are seeing a similar pattern today. Western Christendom is in a key transition, perhaps undergoing as large a cultural shift as occurred during the Reformation (when I think that last great era of Petrine apostles brought the Church out of medieval forms and into modern forms). The world is changing, and the Western forms of church, birthed very much according to modernity, are not keeping up. I believe that the world has changed so much that simply adapting existing church structures will not enable appropriate expressions of the Kingdom to come forth for new generations.

What is needed is a whole new way of doing “church” (and I think we actually need to drop the word, but that is for a different article). New types of communities of the Kingdom need to be envisioned and created to be Good News in a new era. I believe that apostles are the creative agents sent by God to bring about radical, creative forms of the Kingdom. Pauline apostles will seek forms appropriate and indigenous to the new cultures they are bringing the Kingdom to, not merely exporting Western church culture, as has often been the case.

But apostolic ministry is now needed in the West as well. If the Western church is not going to die out, then we will require new expressions of Kingdom communities. I think this will require a recovery of Petrine apostles – creative pioneers who will explore Kingdom communities appropriate to our post-modern world. These apostolic families will blaze the trail to new kinds of communities and structures suitable to high-powered, mobile, and technological society, as well as communities for the poor and disenfranchised who will largely miss out on the very things that power the new world.

These pioneers are not called to make further adaptations to faltering models, but rather, like Jesus, Peter, James and John, call God’s people to move on from old formulations in a journey to the new. Such a journey will be every bit as radical and terrifying as it must have been for those early Jewish believers who watched the destruction of their nation and traditions. Today’s Petrine apostles will bear the same primary mark of apostleship – persecution – for their ministry is bound to be misunderstood (at best) by existing churches.

What is needed today is an explosion of apostolic ministry. God is calling Pauline apostles to bring the Kingdom to nations without an indigenous, cultural expression of the Kingdom of God in local communities. God is calling a new generation of Petrine apostles to forge new communities in the West (and where Western churches have become the normative expression of the Kingdom in other cultures). It is my hope that these Petrine apostles can bring the Western church into a new era of fruitfulness where Kingdom communities reflect the glory of the Living God and impart faith, hope and love to those in darkness.

Visit http:www.nppnblog.blogspot.com

Monday, July 03, 2006

How God's People Can Transform Society




Chapter 3 - Let’s Take Dominion Now!


Social transformation, as I have been saying, is one of the strongest words that the Holy Spirit is clearly speaking to the churches today. But before many of us would be prepared to accept that statement at face value, we would need to be assured that what we think we might be hearing from the Holy Spirit is truly biblical. We are sure, for example, that saving souls is biblical, but how about transforming society?

I know this is a crucial question, because for years I would have said that working toward social change should not be considered a part of our Christian duty. I was taught that the world was supposed to get worse and worse, and the more it did, the closer Christ’s second coming would be. I believed that at some low point in history, all true believers would be snatched out of the earth and that those left behind would go through seven of the worst years of all, just prior to the Lord’s glorious appearing. Meanwhile, our job was to spread the gospel and get as many souls saved as possible so that they would be taken up with us in the rapture whenever it might come, and the sooner the better. However, I am now certain that there is a more accurate and a more biblical way of understanding God’s mission for us, which I’ll try to explain as convincingly as I can in this chapter.

Having said that, my hope is that not too many readers who happen to love the famous Left Behind series of books will decide to shut the book at this point and go no further. I will go on record as saying that I personally have read every one of the Left Behind series, and if more books come out, I plan on reading them as well. I have enjoyed each of them greatly, keeping in mind that they are fiction, pure and simple.

Back to the Beginning
An excellent starting point to explain the mission God gave us is to go to the story of creation itself. We are told in Genesis 1 that God created the earth and everything in it in five days, and then on the sixth day He created Adam and Eve. He created them, male and female, in His image. When He did, He blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

You may notice that I included that word “dominion” in the title of this chapter: “Let’s Take Dominion Now!” Why? Because the first words God spoke to humans, as recorded in the Bible, includes the mandate to “have dominion.” It wasn’t just Adam and Eve who were to have dominion; it was the whole human race that would “fill the earth” after Adam and Eve began being fruitful and multiplying. Apparently, having dominion over the rest of creation is something built into God’s original design for us humans; it is not an afterthought. To the extent that humans fail to have dominion, they also fail to live up to the fullness of their divine destiny.

”Your Kingdom Come”
Moving from the Old Testament to the New Testament, let’s look at the Lord’s Prayer, an excellent starting point for understanding our mission in the world. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He replied, “In this manner, therefore pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10).

God’s ideal for human society is obviously the society that He directly oversees in heaven. It would follow, therefore, that this should also be the way that we live here on Earth, and that is what we should be praying for. Heaven is a place of peace and prosperity and health and happiness and morality and selflessness and well-being and harmony and understanding and kindness and high worship. To the extent that the society in which we live is not characterized by such qualities of life, it falls short of what God wants it to be. Since we are God’s people, we are responsible to do whatever we can to help our communities meet God’s expectations. I like the way that Bill Hamon expresses this idea: “The Lord has called us to be cultural architects—not just cultural critics.”1

As you can see, all of this can be summarized in the expression that we are using more than ever these days, namely, “social transformation.”

A Long Road
I’m sad to say that it took us evangelical Christians a considerable amount of time to get to where we are today. It was too long a road. But the good news is that we are finally arriving.

To trace this back, the beginning centuries of Christianity were a time of severe persecution. For the most part, believers did not have the power to transform the society of the Roman Empire, where most of them found themselves. Things changed for them in the fourth century, when the Roman emperor Constantine professed conversion to Christianity, stopped the persecution and declared his Roman Empire “Christian.” However, this new unholy fusion of church and state soon became corrupt, and both the church and society went downhill during the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, God’s will was not being done on Earth as it was in heaven!

Then the Protestant Reformation came along in the sixteenth century, led by Martin Luther and John Calvin. Luther’s views of Scripture and of justification by faith produced one of the most positive changes in church history. However, he had a dualistic view of the church against the world, and therefore he was never much inclined to push the church toward the mission of transforming society. Calvin, on the other hand, taught that believers are responsible for social transformation, and his followers began to believe that we have a cultural mandate (the mandate to transform society) as well as an evangelistic one (the mandate to save souls). One famous Calvinist, pastor and theologian Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), lived this out, entered politics, became prime minister of the Netherlands and caused tremendous positive changes in society as a result.

Meanwhile, the modern missionary movement began around 1800, after William Carey went to India. While humanitarianism, such as starting schools and hospitals and orphanages, was a standard part of missionary ministry, overt efforts to transform the structures of society itself were few and far between. The evangelical missionary movement featured the evangelistic mandate, but not so much the cultural mandate.

Toward the end of the 1800s, a liberal element of the church began promoting what was called the social gospel. They ended up going to the extreme of advocating that transforming society was all that was necessary and that saving souls was an idea of the past. Naturally, Bible-believing evangelicals reacted strongly against this, and they went to the opposite extreme of rejecting social ministry altogether. Taking dominion? That was, to them, something for liberals who didn’t believe the Bible!

That history brings us up to the times that some of us living today can remember personally. I am among them. As an evangelical missionary in Bolivia during the 1950s and 1960s, I was of the persuasion that our task was to save souls, make disciples and multiply churches. Period.

The Congress in Lausanne
A significant change came in 1974 when the evangelical movement, led by Billy Graham, held the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. At that point, evangelicals began reconsidering the place of the cultural mandate alongside the evangelistic mandate within the total mission of the church. This was a very important shift for those of us who now advocate social transformation. It turned out to be only a partial shift, however, in that the Lausanne Covenant insisted on subordinating the cultural mandate to the evangelistic mandate. Still, we evangelicals then began to have social responsibility on our radar screens, even though it wasn’t front and center.

One event that did help to move social issues to the front and center of our agenda, particularly among evangelicals who were tuned in to the charismatic movement, was the publication in 1990 of John Dawson’s best-selling book Taking Our Cities for God. The concept of taking a city was a tremendous innovation.

After Dawson wrote his book, the literature expanded rapidly. He was joined by authors such as Ed Silvoso, George Otis, Jr., Ted Haggard, Jack Hayford, Frank Damazio, Alistair Petrie and others. The movement is concisely summarized in Jack Dennison’s City Reaching. Those who were involved experimented with a variety of terms such as “taking cities,” “reaching cities,” “prayer evangelism,” “reaching a nation,” “reformation,” “community transformation,” “revival” and “reconstruction.” By 2000, however, the most generally accepted term became “social transformation.” In 2005, Luis Bush gave form to the movement by helping to organize a series of events called Transform World, with the first international meeting held in Indonesia.

Time for Action!
Now that we have social transformation on our evangelical agendas, it is time for action. I regard “social transformation” as the concept term. However, the action term that will best set us on the road toward that goal is “taking dominion.”

Regrettably, a number of church leaders today have developed a negative reaction to the term “Dominion Theology.” The root of this goes back to that period of time following World War II that I discussed in the last chapter, when several pioneering movements attempted to resurrect the offices of apostle and prophet. Some leaders of those movements began to advocate “Dominion Theology,” using that very term. A related movement taught what they called Kingdom Now Theology. Some strong critics of these movements did their best to discredit their innovative leaders, and part of their procedure became an attack on Dominion Theology and Kingdom Now Theology. The critics were certainly right in pointing out a number of the errors of these pioneers both in theory and in practice, but in my opinion some of the critics opened doors for their own set of damaging extremes. Rejecting Dominion Theology and Kingdom Now Theology was one of them.

Let me illustrate this with a recent experience of my own. One Sunday I was teaching a congregation the basics of what I have been advocating in this book. As I spoke that day, I did not mention the word “dominion.” When I finished, I spent time interacting with members of the congregation who wished to talk to me. One of them, after greeting me, said words to this effect: “Peter, isn’t there a danger that what you were talking about could be interpreted as Dominion Theology?” The unspoken implication was a warning that I might be in danger of crossing the boundary line into what had become to many a standard heresy. I could see the look of surprise on his face when I replied straightforwardly, “What I’m teaching is, in fact, Dominion Theology.” He respected me enough to respond that he would have to look into Dominion Theology a bit more carefully from then on.

While we are on the subject, allow me to be more specific about what I brought up at the beginning of this chapter concerning the Left Behind series. For most of the twentieth century, the prevailing eschatology (doctrine of the end times) of evangelicals was premillenialism. We expected the kingdom of God to come after Jesus returned to the earth. Therefore, we were not called to attempt to usher in God’s kingdom. God would do that in His own time. Whole denominations have elevated premillenialism to an absolute doctrinal principle alongside doctrines such as the deity of Christ and justification by faith. This explains why some would reject Dominion Theology and Kingdom Now Theology. A paradigm shift toward social transformation would force them to leave their eschatological comfort zone.

The Danger of Transformation Fatigue
The question now arises, How effective have our efforts been since the cultural mandate joined the evangelistic mandate on our agendas?

We have wonderful results to report concerning the implementation of the evangelistic mandate. For example, we began the decade of the 1990s with 1,735 significant unreached people groups, and by 2000 all except fewer than 500 had initial church planting movements in them. Unprecedented evangelistic harvests are being reaped in global hot spots such as China, Nigeria, Indonesia, India and Brazil. Some nations, like Uganda and Guatemala, are now over 50 percent born-again evangelical believers.

But how about the cultural mandate? Since 1990, as I have explained, city transformation has been high on our priority lists. That, as I write this, was 15 years ago. Our best top-level Christian leadership has been involved with this in city after city across America. God has been providing incredible new tools for getting the job done—tools such as identificational repentance; spiritual mapping; strategic prophetic prayer; massive all-night, stadium prayer events; strategic-level spiritual warfare; prayer journeys; pastoral unity; and the concept of the church of the city. In addition, Bill Bright, Elmer Towns and others made fasting popular, and I would guess that somewhere around half of American evangelical pastors have now experienced 40-day fasts.

However, we cannot point to a single city in America that has been transformed in all of those 15 years!

I foresee a danger—the danger of transformation fatigue! We must not become weary of well-doing. Satan would love to quench this move of the Holy Spirit by bringing a cloud of despair and hopelessness. Let’s bind that wicked spirit of fatigue and move forward with faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6).

Faith-Building Examples
To know that it can be done is a powerful faith builder. A city can be transformed. Let’s look at two examples of this, one from history and one from today.

Florence, Italy
Let’s look back to Florence, Italy, before the Protestant Reformation. Girolamo Savanarola was a reformer before his time. He was a precursor of things to come. He prayed. He prophesied. He preached. He had an apostolic anointing to influence large numbers of people.

Here is one account of what happened to his city:
The wicked city government [of Florence] was overthrown, and Savanarola taught the people to set up a democratic form of government. The revival brought tremendous moral change. The people stopped reading vile and worldly books. Merchants made restitution to the people for the excessive profits they had been making. Hoodlums and street urchins stopped singing sinful songs and began to sing hymns in the streets. Carnivals were forbidden and forsaken.
Huge bonfires were made of worldly books and obscene pictures, masks, and wigs. A great octagonal pyramid of worldly objects was erected in the public square in Florence. It towered in seven stages sixty feet high and 240 feet in circumference. While bells tolled, the people sang hymns and the fire burned.2
In Florence, God’s will was being done on Earth as it is in heaven!

Almolonga, Guatemala
Twice I have visited Almolonga, Guatemala, a city of about 20,000 indigenous people, located deep in the Guatemalan highlands. What I saw was a true faith builder for city transformation.

The process began in the mid-1970s when Mariano Riscajche, a struggling pastor, began casting out demons, especially the demon of alcoholism. Since then, transformation has come in several areas:
  • Spiritual awakening. The percentage of born-again Christians in Almolonga has risen dramatically from less than 5 percent to 90 percent at the present time. Previously the city was under a dark cloud of Satanic oppression, orchestrated by the ruling territorial spirit, Maximón. But now that the forces of evil have been pushed back, Almolonga enjoys open heavens, allowing the blessings of God to be poured out. Large, attractive churches are among the most prominent architectural features of the city’s hilly landscape.
  • Social harmony. Almolonga was filled with dysfunctional families that were devastated by drunkenness, adultery, wife abuse and child neglect; but now the city is filled with happy marriages, clean homes, wholesome schools and friendly people.
  • Material prosperity. Almolonga no longer suffers poverty caused by chronic drought and famine; now it enjoys agricultural plenty, producing vegetables that are record breaking in size. Carrots, for example, are the size of a man’s forearm. Crops are now sustained by a natural water supply that comes up from the ground rather than being dependent on rainfall. Farmers deliver their produce throughout Central America in Mercedes trucks that they purchase for cash, christening each one with a Christian name.
  • Law and order. Until Almolonga was transformed, it had no fewer than six crowded jails to deal with robbery, lawlessness and violence in the streets. Several years ago, however, the last jail was closed because of the absence of crime, and it was turned into a Hall of Honor, which is used for weddings and other celebrations.
  • Physical and ecological transformation. Almolonga was constantly victimized by plagues, diseases and violent storms. These have now disappeared, while the neighboring city of Zunil, only 3 kilometers away, which still honors the idol of Maximón, remains victimized by those very things.
Almolonga is known for enjoying one of the highest qualities of life in all of Central America. Many people travel internationally to Almolonga just to see firsthand what God’s hand on city transformation really looks like.

What Is Our Goal?
With Christian leaders on all continents now tuning in to what the Spirit is saying to the churches about social transformation, it is important that, as much as possible, we all get on the same page concerning essential parts of the social-transformation equation. One of these essential parts, obviously, is the goal.

Eddie Long, pastor of the 25,000-strong New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, has a passion for social transformation. His goal is clear. It is reflected in the title of his powerful book on the subject: Taking Over. Long writes, “Jesus took away Satan’s keys and power at Calvary, and it is up to us to come along behind and subdue and have dominion over every evil work and every servant of evil.”3

The Measure for Success
If we agree that we need to move with God for taking over a certain city, how will we know if and when we have succeeded? I think that a biblically rooted measure for success would be the birth of a new creation: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). If this is what the Bible expects of individuals who are transformed, why should we expect less of a city? If individuals can be born again, why can’t cities, made up of many individuals, be born again?

Watered-Down Transformation
I keep a file of transformation reports, anecdotes that truly are exciting, faith-building and glorifying to God. Here are some examples from different American cities:
  • The crime rate has gone down.
  • Adult bookstores began to close after prayerwalking.
  • Affordable housing is being built in the slums.
  • Two psychics moved out of town.
  • The rate of unemployment is much lower.
  • Employees of banks pray with their customers regularly and play praise music during the day.
  • A gay bar went out of business.
  • The mayor and the chief of police have been born again.
  • The biggest drug bust in the city’s history just occurred.
  • A Christian Chamber of Commerce was organized.
  • The newspapers are giving more favorable coverage to the churches and their activities.
  • Abortion clinics have shut down.
  • The school system has taken a turn for the better.
Certainly we would applaud every one of these wonderful reports. But none of them alone, nor any combination of all of them, would verify that a city has been transformed, past tense. I believe that these reports are predicated on a watered-down version of transformation.

In the global leadership circles in which I move, the focus of some of my friends is the process of transformation. My thought is that we should not be satisfied with reporting stages of the process as if they were the final goal. No, we should focus on complete transformation. I am not questioning the importance of reporting the process, but I want to emphasize that the process is only a means toward the end, not the end in itself.

True Transformation
What, then, should our goal be? I think it should be sociologically verifiable transformation. In other words, an independent professional sociologist, using standard social scientific measuring instruments, would draw the conclusion that the city has been transformed. One reason that I use Almolonga, Guatemala, as an example is that such a thing was done there. The Guatemalan equivalent of Time magazine, Crónica Semanal, sent its researchers to Almolonga and ran a cover story on the amazing transformation of the city. The title of the cover story was “The Defeat of Maximón”!

Among other things, the article says, “The cult of Maximón and its followers has been reduced to a mere handful of individuals; and due to his downfall, the men of the city no longer drink liquor because of their evangelical faith. Therefore the annual festival to the idol . . . is now financed only by money collected from sightseeing tours of Japanese, Germans and Americans.”4

By using the term “sociologically verifiable transformation,” I am not trying to insist that professional academia be brought into the picture, although it wouldn’t be a bad idea. No, the Crónica Semanal cover story was done by a competent investigative journalist.

Another convincing example of a grass-roots change agent reporting on substantial progress toward transformation is Eddie Long of Atlanta, whom I quoted previously. Here is Long’s report:
Today I can honestly say that metropolitan Atlanta would miss [New Birth Missionary Baptist Church] very much if something caused us to move away or shut down. The New Birth congregation finances and operates vital support programs in the city and pumps large sums of money and thousands of volunteer hours into key areas such as youth offender intervention programs, public school programs, and support and outreach programs for homeless women and children. We are involved in every aspect of life, and we are making a major impact in the Atlanta metropolitan areas.

This, in turn, is causing us to gain major footholds in the city infrastructure, . . . the criminal court system, public high schools, the Georgia State Senate, the United States Senate, and even into the White House itself. . . . When you are a politician in a major metropolitan area, it isn’t wise to dismiss or ignore a highly unified, committed, and motivated group of voters exceeding twenty-two thousand people representing almost every voting precinct in your city.5

Whether Atlanta will be transformed as completely as Almolonga remains to be seen. However, it would be fair to say that it has made considerable progress toward complying with our strict definition, that of sociologically verifiable transformation. If we can agree to use this definition, we then reaffirm our belief that our city can become a new creation in Christ Jesus, and we can collectively move forward toward that goal.

Our Biblical Mandate
At the beginning of this chapter, I quoted Genesis 1:28, where God explicitly indicates that His original design was for human beings to take dominion over all of creation. However, Adam and Eve, tempted by Satan, proceeded to turn history upside down. By disobeying God and breaking his relationship with the Creator, Adam lost his integrity, his rulership and his personal destiny. He became a sinner and was no longer in the pure image of God. And worse yet, he passed his fallen nature down genetically through every human generation since.

Meanwhile, Satan was accomplishing his own purpose in the Garden of Eden. To understand this in depth, think of the difference between power and authority. If, for example, I own a .338 Winchester Magnum rifle, I have power. However, I cannot discharge that rifle in the city of Colorado Springs because I do not have the authority to do so. On the other hand, if I happened to be a Colorado Springs police officer with the same rifle, I would then have not only the power but also the authority to use that power.

When Lucifer was in heaven, he had both power and authority. However, when Satan was cast from heaven, he retained his power, but he lost his authority. Adam was given authority to take dominion over creation, but he fell and created a vacuum of authority over God’s creation. Satan then stepped in, usurped Adam’s authority and became “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) and “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2) and “the ruler of this world” (John 14:30). John went so far as to affirm that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).

How much authority, or dominion, did Satan actually acquire? Let’s go to Jesus’ third temptation to find out. Presuming that the temptations were real and not just someone’s dream or a figment of someone’s imagination, we see Satan literally taking Jesus up on a high mountain. Satan then shows Jesus all (not just a few!) of the kingdoms of the world. Then Satan says, “All these [kingdoms] I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:9). My point is that this temptation could only have been real if Satan actually had the power and the authority to deliver the kingdoms to Jesus. Significantly enough, Jesus never once questioned the validity of Satan’s claim over the kingdoms of the world.

Jesus, the Second Adam
While Jesus never questioned Satan’s dominion, He came to earth expressly to take it away from him. Jesus came as the second, or last, Adam (see 1 Cor. 15:45-47). The first Adam lost dominion; the second Adam will regain it. This was a new beginning of history. It is part of the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant. Jesus brought a new kingdom, namely, the kingdom of God.

The first to announce the Kingdom was John the Baptist. He preached in the wilderness and said, “Repent, for the kingdom of [God] is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). This was the D-day of the invasion of the kingdom of Satan. During World War II, when the Allies established a beachhead in France on D-day, everyone knew that the war in the European theater was over. However, many more battles still needed to be fought until Hitler was finally defeated. Similarly, Jesus’ coming as the second Adam marked the beginning of the end of Satan’s defeat. It is now up to us, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to fight the battles needed to finish it.
Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom; the apostles preached the gospel of the Kingdom; and He expects us to preach the gospel of the Kingdom (see Matt. 24:14). What is the gospel of the Kingdom?

After the temptation, Jesus went to the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth and announced His agenda. We can surmise that this would be the basic content of the gospel of the Kingdom. It included preaching good news to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, bringing deliverance to the captives, giving sight to the blind, freeing the oppressed and preaching the acceptable year of the Lord (see Luke 4:18-19).

A Fresh View of Scripture
Following this pattern, our new paradigm for taking dominion includes a dual task: the evangelistic mandate (saving souls) and the cultural mandate (transforming society). Once we have this in mind, we will have mental tools to take a fresh look at two biblical passages that have been favorites of us evangelicals.

The first is Luke 19:10, which reads, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Our old paradigm interpretation would make it read, “to save those who were lost.” But it does not say this. It says “that which was lost.” What is “that”? It is dominion over creation, which was lost in the Garden of Eden by the first Adam. Jesus, as the second Adam, wants to mobilize us to take back what the enemy has stolen.

The second passage is the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” It does not tell us to make disciples of individuals in all the nations, which has been our standard, old-paradigm interpretation. Instead, we are supposed to make disciples of panta ta ethne, which in Greek means all ethnic units or social units or people groups. This is a term that denotes sociological groupings of individuals. The whole unit, or nation (including, of course, the individuals who belong to it), is supposed to be Jesus’ collective disciple and to observe in that society what Jesus commanded. We now see that the Great Commission’s biblical goal is nothing short of social transformation.

Love L.A.
I have used the bulk of this chapter to explain the ins and outs of the new paradigm that we have for social transformation, namely, taking dominion. Now I want to show how the church in the workplace is absolutely essential for the practical outworking of this process.

As I have mentioned, since 1990, we Christian leaders in America have been working on taking dominion, specifically city transformation. I lamented the fact that even with involving the best of our church leadership and employing the incredible new spiritual tools that God revealed to us, we have ended up with meager results.

For example, I lived in the Los Angeles area for most of the 1990s, when I also
happened to be one of the leaders of the global prayer movement. Cities all over America were enthusiastically organizing united prayer movements on a scale never before seen in our nation. One of the most notable movements of united prayer during that decade emerged in Los Angeles. Called “Love L.A.,” it was headed up by two of our highest-profile national Christian leaders, Lloyd Ogilvie and Jack Hayford. Ogilvie, pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, attracted leaders of traditional denominations. Hayford, pastor of the Foursquare Church On
The Way, attracted Pentecostals, charismatics and evangelicals.

The meetings were held once a month in Hollywood Presbyterian Church, hosted by Ogilvie. Only those recognized as leaders could come. Hayford served as the MC. Never before in history had the leaders from churches and ministries in the Los Angeles Basin gathered together on a regular basis in both quantity and quality as they did in Love L.A. The meetings were characterized by exalting worship, powerful prayer, identificational repentance, ethnic reconciliation, humility and brokenness, a burden for the poor and oppressed, cries to God for mercy, pleas for a new Pentecost, openness to fresh revelation, confession of sin, healing, genuine sorrow for injustices in the city, prayer for those in authority, and passion for the lost.

We met, not just once, but month after month, year after year. Few cities in the United States surpassed Love L.A. in fervency, intensity, breadth and spiritual power. Love L.A. had a beneficial effect on the city. It was reported that both the crime rate and gang warfare were greatly reduced. A number of porn stores went out of business. Leaders noted a more pervasive sense of morality in the Los Angeles area than previously. The mayor of Los Angeles personally commended Hayford and others for the positive role that the church was playing in the city.

However, let’s fast-forward to 2004, several years after Love L.A. ended. Had Los Angeles been transformed by Love L.A.? To answer this, let’s look at what Jack Hayford himself wrote in 2004 concerning Los Angeles:

The simple facts alone, my city’s being torn on the inside by gang violence and murder, polluted by homosexuality and pornography on the dark side, and suffocated with pride, self-centered snobbishness and sensuality on the “show” side, is enough to self-destruct us.6

Was Love L.A. effective in bringing transformation to Los Angeles? It was a noble effort, characterized by hard work, personal growth, new connections between leaders, a higher level of Christian unity in the city, favorable press coverage, but with all that, not much ongoing social transformation!

What Is Missing?
How do we explain the fact that with the best leadership, with state-of-the-art spiritual methodologies, with commitment of time, money and energy toward city transformation, the results still are not there? I have described Los Angeles because that is the prayer effort in which I was most personally involved, but I have heard similar reports from numerous other cities.

There are at least four ways that this could be explained:
1. We have the wrong goal. We have no Christian mandate for city transformation, and therefore we are out of the will of God. It goes without saying that I cannot accept this explanation.
2. We have the right goal, but we are using the wrong methods. If this is the case, we have been victims of massive deception, because Christian leadership across the board has regarded our methodology as originating with the Holy Spirit and it has been developed by some of the most gifted and godly servants of the Lord.
3. We have the right goal and the right methods, but we need to do it more. In other words, if we have been working toward social transformation in America for 15 years, we need to do the same things for another 15 years and hope for the best. This explanation does not appeal to me because in 15 years, I will be 90 years old!
4. Our goal and methods are good, but there is something missing. I like this explanation the best. Let’s look into it more. We can still use the same methods that surfaced in the 1990s and that we have since fine-tuned, but we need to add something to the equation.

What, then, is missing?

I believe it will help matters a great deal if we can avoid trivial answers to this question. For example, I recently received a rather lengthy report related to winning the war for social transformation. In it, the author suggested that three things were needed in order for us to turn the corner and see results: intimacy with God, unity in the regional church, and holiness and righteousness. I read that with dismay, because for 15 years we have been preaching those three things fervently and have been doing our best to attain them. All were present in Love L.A. I agree that we cannot do without these things, but analytically speaking, I cannot see how any of these would provide a tipping point.

Apostolic Leadership
During the 1990s, we knew very little about apostolic leadership. Neither did we know much about the church in the workplace. But now we do. In chapter 1, I tried to make a case for the church in the workplace, and in chapter 2, I argued that there are apostles in the workplace. We need to move beyond the 1990s and integrate these concepts into our social-transformation efforts.

One of the two major columns that support social transformation is the church in the workplace, and workplace apostles help to tie the whole structure together.

A very important role in social transformation is that of territorial apostles. These are apostles to whom God has assigned key apostolic authority over a certain geographical region. I have no doubt that some nuclear-church apostles are also God-ordained territorial apostles. However, this new paradigm of the church in the workplace has brought me to the strong conclusion that the majority of territorial apostles will probably turn out to be extended-church apostles rather than nuclear-church apostles.

This means that we need to get on with the task of identifying workplace apostles, writing their job descriptions, commissioning them and supporting and encouraging them in every way. Until we do, stories contributing to transformation fatigue are likely to increase. We will continue to wonder why it is so difficult to implement the commission that Jesus, the second Adam, has given us—the commission to take dominion.

Let’s decide to move forward. Let’s take dominion now!

From The Church in the Workplace © 2006 by C. Peter Wagner. Published by Regal Books, www.regalbooks.com. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
If Christians are in the workplace, then so is the church. In The Church in the Workplace, C. Peter Wagner explores how the role of the church in the work life of believers is just as much a ministry, a service to God and even worship, as what believers do on Sunday in their local churches.

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Saturday, July 01, 2006

Hindrances to Effective Prayer

Hindrances to Effective Prayer

“This effort to discover the reasons for our leanness in prayer is intended not to discourage praying, but to find the causes underlying our ineffectual prayers and remove them. There is no virtue in continuing grimly to pray on when there are factors present that make our prayers of no effect. We should pray on, but we must pray aright, or our prayers will continue to be fruitless.” A. W. Tozer

Have you ever felt a hindrance in your prayer life? Have you ever felt like your prayers were merely hitting the ceiling and not getting through to God? Because prayer and intercession are so important, each of us must be alert to possible hindrances in our personal prayer lives. We need to be aware of the numerous ways our prayers can be diminished because of personal sin in our lives. We must war for our prayer lives, as a mighty warrior going to battle. You and I are in the greatest of wars against the powers of evil. We must lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us so that we might be the glorious warriors who conquer in the mighty strength of the Lord with great spiritual power released for His glory. We need to ask God to search our hearts and show us personally anything that can hinder our intercession. We read in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”

“One of the clearest truths in Scripture regarding prayer - yet a truth that is all but forgotten by believers - is that when we have sin in our lives, the lines of communication between us and God are cut. So many of our prayers are never heard because we have not dealt with our sin first. Psalm 66:18 tells us that ‘if I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.’” Jonathan Graf

Possible Hindrances to Prayer

“When we pray for God to cleanse our hearts and our motives, it is important to yield the search-and-destroy mission to Him. He is perfectly able to bring wrong motives or any other sinful pattern to our attention and to lead us into repentance.” Janet Leighton

What are some of the things that can block our prayer lives? It is wise for us to carefully consider the following hindrances and meditate on the corresponding Scriptures. Evaluate your own prayer life, answer these questions, and ask God to make you a cleansed vessel so that His life can flow through you unhindered.

* An unforgiving spirit - Is there anyone I haven’t forgiven? “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25).

* Mistreatment of family members - Have I mistreated my wife, children, brothers or sisters or have I been unloving? “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (I Peter 3:7).

* Neglecting the poor - Am I neglecting the poor in any way? “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered” (Proverbs 21:13).

* Idols in the heart - Is there anything in my life that is taking the place of God? “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.
Should I let them inquire of me at all?” (Ezekiel 14:3)

* A wrong motive and selfishness - Are there any wrong motives in my prayers? “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3).

* Disobedience - Have I disobeyed God in any way? “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable” (Proverbs 28:9).

* Sin in the heart - Is there sin in any area of my life? “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer” (Psalm 66:18-19).

* Unbelief - Am I believing God to answer my prayers? “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like the wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6-8).

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:10).

Lord, I pray that you would search my heart and see if there is any offensive way in me. Show me any possible hindrances to powerful and effective prayer. I want to be your channel of blessing. Reveal to me any sin in my heart and life. Show me any area of disobedience or unbelief. I choose to believe in the mighty power of prayer every day. Help me to forgive every person that has hurt me. Show me any way that I may have hurt any family members, and give me the grace to make it right and ask for forgiveness. Reveal to me any idol in my heart and anything that I may be putting ahead of my relationship with you. I choose not to neglect prayer but to grow in my prayer life. Make my prayers effective. Teach me to pray with power. Help me to pray with great faith even in the difficult areas of my lives. I thank you that you are making me an open channel of blessings to others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Evelyn Christenson, the founder of United Prayer Ministries and author of numerous books on prayer, tells the story of how she and two other intercessors began to pray together on a weekly basis for their church. They discovered that their own spiritual condition would determine whether God would answer their prayer. They based their prayer meeting on Psalm 66:18 that says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” God began to do a deep work in their personal lives first. “In prayer, we asked God to search our lives for everything that was sin in His sight. For six miserable weeks - to our continuing astonishment - He dug deeper and deeper while we confessed and repented. Finally, at the end of that time, He released us to pray for our church.” The results were astounding. For the next six months they had revival in their church because they had been praying for God to cleanse their own lives first and then they had prayed for their church. I don’t think we can fully grasp how powerful prayer is when we remove the hindrances in our own lives. There is a potency and effectiveness in prayer that is available to each one of us. God is able to answer prayer most powerfully when there is an open channel of His blessings. He wants you and me to be those unhindered channels of blessing!

“The Scriptures are clear about the potency of prayer. ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man,’ wrote the inspired James, ‘availeth much’ (James 5:16). With this the whole Bible and Christian experience agree: prayer is effective. When it is not answered, something is wrong. The same apostle who affirmed the effective power of prayer admitted also that prayer is sometimes ineffective: ‘Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts’ (James 4:3). In spite of the difficulties surrounding prayer, it is still the highest activity in which a human being can engage.” A. W. Tozer

Together in the Harvest,

Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise
deb@intercessorsarise.org
www.intercessorsarise.org

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