Quarterly Prayer Concert

Where: The More Hope House (Corner of Chestnut and Columbia Streets, Greenville)

When: Tuesday, July 7, 2009 , 7:00 PM

Why: Pray for community unity

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer ." Matt 21:22

For more information: Call Certain Hope Ministries at 252.292.2384 or email hope@certainhope.org

The Boiler Room and the Local Church

"For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."

-1 Corinthians 3:9 (ESV, emphasis mine)

A mechanical room or a boiler room is a room or space in a building dedicated to the mechanical equipment and its associated electrical equipment.

(Wikipedia, emphasis mine)

The Greenville Boiler Room is a thing to get excited about. Very excited about. The resurgence of the Gospel in the city of Greenville cannot take place without people praying consistently before the throne of grace. And here's the thing: we can see the light of the Gospel penetrating the clouds. And the wind that comes from prayer to Jesus will speed the clouds over this city away. The Boiler Room is a very exciting prospect indeed. But I want to make three points about it.

1) The Boiler Room is only a facilitator for prayer.

That is, you should be praying consistently already! If our salvation is grounded upon our loving and living affectionately for the person and work of Jesus, shouldn't we be constantly communciating with Him? The Boiler Room is for prayer what the Homeless Shelter is for mission: it provides an atmosphere that makes it easier for prayer, but prayer can (and should) exist without the Boiler Room.

I hope you read my post that Matthew posted earlier. I'm guilty just as everyone else about not praying like I walk. If I were to pray to Jesus half as hard as I try to live for Jesus, this city would be changed by now. That statement doesn't brag about how hard I live for Him, but rather it brags about the power of prayer. That being said, the Boiler Room will provide a great atmosphere for communal prayer and repentance...but those are things that should be happening outside the Boiler Room...not just inside.

2) The Local Church is the Building that the Boiler Room is Powering

If you read the definition of a boiler room as given by Wikipedia, you'll see that boiler rooms are not ends to themselves. They are simply assistants to the true work. John Piper said it best at a recent conference that Matthew Lilley and myself attended: prayer is the force behind the spear of the Gospel being preached. The Gospel being preached occurs through the Local Church; community prayer (whether in the Boiler Room or elsewhere) fuels that end. Here's another interesting quote from the Wikipedia article:

Unless a building is served by a centralized heating plant, the size of the boiler room is usually proportional to the size of the building.

That is, the power generated in the Boiler Room should be proportional to the amount of work that needs to be done. The larger the building, the larger the space that needs to be air conditioned. The more lighting that has to be powered. Et cetera. The same is true with relation to prayer and the local church!

In order for the Gospel to move mightily in this city, prayer before the throne of the Sovereign Savior should increase mightily.

Which leads to the 3rd point:

3) Wake Prayer Gatherings

In conjunction with out "Funeral for a City" series through the Book of Lamentations, my local church (Harmony Church) will be hosting 'Wake' Prayer Gatherings. The first Wake is schedule for Saturday night, 7pm, June 27th. The focus will be repentance. Not asking God to move on our behalf. Not asking God to provide us with things/favor/finances/etc. We will be repenting of our rebellion, and the city's. It's the first step in approaching the Throne of the Crucified One.

I know the "Grand Opening" 'event' is a concert and people will show up to that to hear 2 bands...but I think it would be awesome to have a people as passionate about praying awkwardly together as they are about electric guitars and reverb.

Feel free to join us. Bring a friend or 4. And wear some old jeans. :)

Faith Through Prayer

"It is through prayer that faith reaches out to Christ and His abundance of grace. In this communication with our heavenly Father, our hearts are softened and attuned to the missionary nature of God. Through prayer God brings the severity of the law and the dreadful fate of the lost home to our understanding. He gives us a fresh awareness of the wonder of His gift to the world in Christ. And it is through prayer that the New Testament picture of a vital, witnessing church comes alive. We receive the mind, the heart, and the power of Jesus Christ."

From Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless by C. John Miller (pg. 145)

Walk Hard. Pray Hard. (via Derek Brown)

The following blog was copied (with permission) from Derek Brown's blog. Derek is a pastor of Harmony Church in Uptown Greenville. Harmony will be hosting some Saturday night prayer gatherings at 6:22's Boiler Room over the summer.

Last night at Home Group, we talked about serving the city. With our Lamentations series coming up, we are hosting prayer nights every other week: open to the city, to pray for the city. Put two and two together, and last night we were talking about serving the city through prayer. And we brought up the fact that numerous people have this story: “I see what you guys are doing, and I love it. ” But they won’t come to experience why we do it. They won’t involve themselves with our community. They love our destination…but they don’t want to walk with us yet. And at Home Group, we figured out the missing link: we aren’t praying as hard as we are walking. We love, live, and echo like Jesus. It’s been ingrained in our culture from the very beginning, which I take responsibility for. It’s my passion. But I also take responsibility for our weaknesses, including our communal intimacy with God. We don’t pray enough. And it’s a reflection of my heart. But that will be changing. As a church, we going to start putting more emphasis on prayer. And it starts now. I’m not sure about how to facilitate this thing, or even to encourage/spur us on to prayer. Maybe you reading this do have an idea. Step up, email me (derek -at- harmonydc.com), something. Here are some tools that you can use to become more intimate with Christ through prayer:

• EXAMEN.me: It’s a great online tool for typing out prayers and dissecting Scripture via an online journal. I love it like this. I’m too intellectual for my own good, and I need structure sometimes when I’m talking to Jesus. This provides me with an avenue for that structure.
• Moleskine: The way I journal is two verses at a time, followed by a prayer reflecting my thoughts on those verses. I keep my thoughts in a Moleskine.
• The 2:9 Booklet: This is a resource that we produced last summer during the Jonah series to lead us in guided prayer during the week. Worked out pretty good. It’s basically a collection of Psalms centered around 5 themes. There is an introduction within the book.
• A Floor: Eric Butler said it best last night: for intimate, gut-wrenching prayer, all you need is a floor. The resources above are great, but prayer doesn’t require them. It just requires time…and obedience. God already knows what we ask, but He desires a conversation. An outpouring of the heart. Time after time in Scripture, His people cry out to Him in their weakness…and He responds.

Harmony, what were to happen if we started praying our hearts out on a regular basis? Combine that with living out the Gospel on mission in this city, and God may move mightily on our behalf.

After God's Own Heart - A Summer Bible Study

After God’s Own Heart
How David’s passion for God leads us to worship Jesus
A 12-week Bible study on the Tent of David and 6:22’s Core Values

Monday nights beginning May 18th through August 3rd

@ The Boiler Room at 220 E. 5th Street, Greenville, NC
(Corner of 5th and Reade above Backdoor Skate Shop.)

6:00-8:30ish
6:00 – Love Feast (free dinner)
7:00 – Worship and prayer (tentative)
7:30 – Teaching and discussion

This is a free event.
Anyone is welcome to attend – churchgoer or not.
You do not have to attend every week.

Who should attend?

• Worship leaders and worshipers of Jesus
• Musicians, singers, artists, dancers, designers and creative types
• Those who love to pray or want to love to pray
• Anyone curious about the idea of “day & night” or “24/7” prayer
• Those who want to be involved in 6:22’s boiler room in Uptown Greenville

Every week Matthew will be teaching from one of the following topics based on II Samuel 6 and I Chronicles 13-16:

• The Presence of God
• The Will of God
• The Word of God
• The Unity of God's People
• The Priesthood of Believers
• The Freedom of God
• The Local Church
• Equipping Believers
• Artistic Excellence and Creativity
• Fasting and Prayer
• Prophetic Ministry
• Reaching Students

Virgil and Francis Clark - Spirit of Elijah in Greenville, NC

Shepard and I had the privilege last night to visit the home of Francis and Virgil Clark, a couple of 80-something year-olds who were hosting a Covenant UMC "supper club." They wanted us to come share our (God's) vision of day and night worship and prayer in Greenville.

This couple has grown up in Greenville their whole lives and has been praying for our city for decades! They are truly "Annas" (Luke 2) in our city. In 1996 they wanted Franklin Graham to come to our area, but he needed request letters from hundreds of pastors before he would consider visiting an area. Well this couple started hosting Tuesday morning prayer meetings to pray for pastors to unite in this mission. Without any groundwork, other than prayer, Franklin Graham was here by 1998 (as many will remember), and hundreds, if not thousands, were saved at his crusade. This was in large part to a a handful of people praying every week. The Tuesday morning prayer meeting that started in '96 has continued and still happens every Tuesday morning in their home. Sometimes it is just the two of them, and sometimes it is 10-12. They pray for revival in Greenville. Francis said that she can count on one hand the number of weeks that have been canceled in the past 13 years! This is certainly the persistent widow prayers found in Luke 18.

I had about 20 minutes to lay some biblical foundations and share the practicals of what is happening both in Greenville and around the world with night & day prayer and worship. They were excited! Virgil and Francis believe that the current movement towards night and day prayer in Greenville is an answer to their prayers! It is honor to stand on the shoulders of such faithful saints (and certainly Shepard and I are not the only ones).

This is what God promised would happen before Jesus' return:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. [Malachi 4:5-6]

To the ambitious younger generation (let's say 30 or younger)... It is vital that you know that you can not fulfill your own dreams without fathers and mothers in the faith. There are those in this city who believe in us and are willing to pray for us and support us. Sometimes they can be hard to find, but they can be found. Honor the fathers and mothers in the faith. Receive their wisdom (but do be careful from whom you receive) even if you think you know better. You probably don't know better! Let's repent of our pride and arrogance. We are not as cool or groundbreaking as we think. Anything good that we have stumbled across is as ancient as God himself. There is nothing new under the sun. Let's get over ourselves and have a submissive hearts. Find Elijah and chase him down until his mantle falls on you!

To the faithful older generation... THANK YOU. Your prayers are being answered. Like David, you may not get to see the fulfillment of God's promises in your lifetime, and you may not get to see your prayers answered in fullness. But rest assured, there is a generation that will take your promises, your prophetic words, your dreams, and your prayers. We will stand on them until we see them fulfilled in our generation or our children's generation. God will not forget what He has spoken - and everything He says IS true. We as a younger generation are desperate for wisdom, fathering in the faith, and encouragement to be who God made us to be. Thank you to those who are flexible enough to see when God is using a new wine skin and discerning enough to see that it is the same wine!

An Update from ECU 24/7

"Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." Habakkuk 1:5

East Carolina University has been lifted into the presence of God countless times over the past few decades. Now in this past academic year, we have been blessed beyond measure to see the outpouring of His Spirit begin to trickle. As you yourselves know, prayer meetings have been popping up all over the city and the campus, led by various ministries, churches, faculty, and followers all groaning inwardly for the presence of God to come down.

All these have begun to culminate into unbroken weeks of prayer on campus. God has been preparing His faithful to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spririt, and teaching them to obey al that I have commanded you." Matthew 28:19-20

I believe that God has used 24/7 Prayer at East Carolina thus far to recapture our hearts. To set within us, His burning passion for those who do not know His name, to make His name famous on our campus.

With that begun, I believe God is now directing us to go beyond lifting up prayers in a prayer room or meeting, and take the Gospel to the streets. To begin sharing our passion for Jesus with others. To see out people in need of prayer. No strike that, everyone is in need of prayer. To give living water to those who thirst, by taking them to the fountain itself through prayer. Doesn't matter whether they be in the grocery store at 3pm or downtown at 2am. God has prepared the laborers, now the harvest awaits us! (Matthew 9:37-38)

Even while many of us students may be away this summer, may we not be idle and pass the time away. Let us continue to pray for East Carolina, to see out the whispers of God's plan for this campus, and to let God equip us with gifts, confidence, and humbleness to return to East Carolina in the fall, and continue to let His Spirit carry us where He will.

I can't tell you how excited I am that we have a prayer room opening up in the downtown area right over top of the skate shop in front of Sup Dogs on the corner of Reade and 5th!! Get pumped because on one side sits the campus, and on the other, the party scene here in Greenville. God has planted us right in the heart of of Greenville where He is hearbroken the most!!

Grace and Peace
Joshua Pake