I find the whole idea of prayer to be interesting. Followers of Jesus know that they're supposed to be praying. The stories of the early church in the New Testament are filled with examples of God's people gathering together to pray.
However, prayer often seems to be the "add on" in our church family life. I believe I talked about this at our last prayer gathering but Skye Jethani writes about prayer and says "Likewise many of us have been formed into a faith that puts prayer in parentheses. It's an afterthought to a meeting, an addition to a worship service, or a custom before a meal. But in each case we suspect the meeting, service, or meal would have been just fine without it. The peripheral place of prayer in the life of the church may explain why it remains peripheral in the life of so many Christians."
Don't you find it interesting? We SAY that prayer is vitally important to our lives as followers of Jesus... but we don't spend time actually praying together! That's why we, as a church, have committed to regular prayer gatherings. The 4th Sunday of each month is a prayer gathering - where we meet in order to "reimage" our understanding of what prayer is all about.
And the best way to reimage what prayer is all about is to ACTUALLY PRAY. TOGETHER.
I'm challenged by Luke 11:1 "Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Honestly, is that what you would ask Jesus, if you had the opportunity? Or would you ask him to heal you? To heal your family member? To provide you with something? Maybe you'd ask "Lord, teach me to preach!"
No, they wanted to be taught how to pray. They recognized that Jesus' prayer life was different - that He had a different kind of relationship with God the Father. They saw that difference... and they wanted that kind of relationship in their own lives.
I'm hoping that our Prayer Gatherings (including this Sunday's!) will help us to discover more of what it means to pray to "Our Father, in heaven..."
I hope you'll plan to join me as we pray.
Blessings,
Pastor Brad
Zion's board has decided that we will continue to enforce the vaccine requirements. This means that you must be fully vaccinated (2 doses) in order to attend in-person worship gatherings.
Planning to attend in-person? PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE (CLICK HERE or on the button below).
Livestream or Zoom will continue to be offered for those who are planning to connect online.
Those attending in-person must be masked and we also ask that you remember to maintain physical distancing. Anyone who is displaying any symptoms of COVID is kindly asked to refrain from attending in-person.
Join us online as we gather to pray. Online participation will be done via Zoom this Sunday. CLICK HERE or on the image above to connect to the Zoom meeting.
Meeting ID: 833 2750 0330
Passcode: 747355
Next Sunday we'll be back in the book of Malachi! That sounds like the perfect opportunity to re-read it in preparation for how God will speak to us from His word!
Our AGM is happening NEXT THURSDAY on Zoom... be sure to mark it down on your calendar and plan to join us as we pray, think about our place in God's mission and talk about how we will seek to honour Jesus this year.
More information will be sent out soon... in the meantime, please be praying for our ministry nominees (listed above).
God calls us to be faithful in how we use our time, relationships, talents and yes - even our money. The New Testament cares about giving not mainly as a means for meeting financial needs, but as an indicator of what we love and whom we trust.
We are encouraged to generously and regularly. With that in mind and as we plan our 2022 church budget, ZBC's board is asking you to fill out a giving pledge. The pledge is what you will prayerfully commit to give during this calendar year and the information (which will only be seen by our church treasurer) will help us think through our budget plans.
Zion's Board is a group of leaders who are committed to helping us, as a church family, continue to move towards fulfilling our vision. Do you have questions? Want to serve in ministries at Zion? Got a great ministry idea? Please feel free to contact a board member! You can call or text them or click on their name to send an email.
