Rhythm of Prayer and Mission
Rhythms are important to us. Intentional rhythms – rhythms that set the soundtrack to our discipleship of Jesus and therefore our whole life. They include our worship, our growth and our reaching out. They operate at various levels – as individuals, in groups or teams with others, and on a whole church scale.
Prayer
Individuals are encouraged to establish their own daily habits of personal prayer, and to take seriously the notion of scheduling their own form of prayer retreat into a calendar year. We also encourage members to Share the Walk – buddying up into a prayer partnership or triplet meeting together at a frequency that suits them.
As a church we also call the whole church to take 2 weeks out of each year for a church ‘week of prayer‘. These tend to fall in May and November. The November week angles towards praying for us a body of people, the May week directs more to the mission and outreach initiatives of the church.
In addition our Mission Activity Teams are encouraged also to schedule two team mini-retreats in a year. These tend to be evenings in the autumn and spring terms. Bringing the team together, they focus not on planning but being before God in which the celebrations, challenges and concerns can be aired and prayed into. We also encourage our small groups to own or adopt a mission activity and support it with prayer and help.
Opportunities to Invite
Across the year several opportunities to invite present themselves for the whole church. Four of these are Imagine! events, where we deliberately do Sunday mornings differently. These tend to be in March, May, September and November. Of course Christmas and Easter also give us great opportunities to invite friends, with the Christmas Eve Crib Service being a favourite.
Ongoing Mission
These rhythms also underpin our various ongoing mission activities and initiatives – we have a whole Menu of Mission going on through the year. Without these underlying rhythms and intentional discipleship, we simply could not sustain these activities.