God Has Designs On You (and Your Church)Planning faithfully for the future"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 I truly believe God has plans for my future. Don't you? The staff at Disciples Home Missions and Church Extension believe God has that same kind of love for congregations. God has plans to prosper us, plans to give us hope and a future. As Jeremiah tells us, God has specific intentions for every Christian church everywhere. Faithful Planning: A Guide for Congregations Seeking God's Direction for the Future, developed by Disciples Home Missions (DHM) and Church Extension (CE), is being used by Disciples congregations in North America, and could be right for yours. Faithful Planning is a whole-congregation spiritual development resource. It's a prayer and scripture-based process that asks, "God, what is your purpose for our congregation?" Through Faithful Planning, a small team of committed congregational leaders guides the local congregation in a time of prayerful listening. Long periods of prayer may be challenging. We run out of things to say. We're hesitant, uncomfortable, for many reasons. Prayer also includes silence which is even harder! Distractions, busyness, stress, restlessness and mental pollution can make total silence almost unbearable. Real prayer is just plain hard. Soul searching prayer means listening to God, resting in God's presence, knowing and feeling that all we are comes from our LORD. Face-to-face with God, we can release the grip on our lives, let go of our wills, and let God's will for our lives take shape. The same goes for churches. Your congregation is a part of the body of Christ, with a diverse collection of souls, with different needs, desires, hopes and dreams. Yet in the act of prayer they are made one. Joining the community of faith in prayer means setting aside one's own agenda, and putting God's intentions first. Spiritual discernment is an act of loving selflessness, the kind the world simply cannot understand. Prayer is surrender, in a world that values victory. See? Real prayer is hard! Faithful Planning is a simple tool based on the discipline of prayer to help churches clear away all the distractions as God's still, small voice issues a call. If a church listens as a community to its unique call to ministry, it will find new life. For more information or to order materials, call DHM at (888) 346-2631 and ask for Bruce Fowlkes or Connie Metts. The Rev. Bruce Fowlkes, director of Young Adult Ministries and director of Faithful Planning, is a native of Little Rock, Ark., and a member of Allisonville Christian Church, Indianapolis, Ind. |
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