Mission America City/Community Ministries
Monthly Conference Call
December 20, 2007
11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
Hosts: Rev. Jarvis Ward & Rev. Glenn Barth
Guest: Steve Hawthorne, Author of Seek God for the City
Jarvis and Glenn greeted early callers, who identified themselves by name and city.
Barbara Byerly was asked to open the time with prayer.
Announcements:
► Next Conference Call: January 17, 2008 Guest Michael Lienau of Global Net Productions will share what he has learned about reconciliation and film work that can help us all. God calls together a diverse people in His body, and we are still working it out, whether racial, conflicting personalities, generations or denominations. The call will deal with what it means to be a diverse people of God. How do we live in love together?
► The next City Impact Roundtable (CIR) April 14-16. 2008 in Braintree, MA (just south of Boston): Register online NOW - link at www.cityreaching.com Take advantage of the early bird registration, or even better, team rate is $125 for a group.
► Redesign of www.cityreaching.com coming in January 2008. Jarvis invited callers representing city movements to send a picture of their city. We will select one cityscape to be featured on our new website. Send to cityreaching.com We hope to have the site ready by the end of January.
Glenn introduced Steve Hawthorne. Steve helped to design the Perspectives Course, Joshua project, helping teams from local churches to explore unreached peoples in several countries. He has taken groups prayer walking to these regions. Glenn said he often uses Steve’s phrase, “we are praying onsite with insight.” Steve leads the ministry WayMakers, serves on the National Prayer Committee, the Mission America Coalition, and authors the annual prayer guide Seek God for the City, which is a focus of our conversation today.
Glenn: Will you please share a brief history of how God brought about Seek God for the City, and what this tool has meant in general for the Body of Christ in cities and communities?
Steve: As some of you know, in the early 90s, there was a season of prayer. In 1994, I had a bizarre surprise call from God to lead a prayer walk from San Diego to San Francisco, called El Camino Real. I had never had such a clear lead from God to do something. We pulled together a team who walked the entire way. We did it to invite people from churches along the way to prayer walk with us for a few miles, not as a stunt, but to really call and encourage people to pray walk and be praying in an on-going way. Along the way, we published a 40-day prayer guide. I sensed in 1995 we should do this in the 40 days before Palm Sunday. I had no idea that was Lent. But it is, and we found many churches groping for more to pray than personal needs. That small prayer guide was modified in 1996. In the five years following, we continued to revise and republish, and it grew every year. We’ve continued to revise it year by year. The prayers and scriptures are different each time. Now 125,000 copies are generally distributed, most purchased. Churches buy into this. We tend to value what we purchase. We recommend it for every Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday.
Jarvis: There are more Christians praying now than ever before in recorded history, and yet our cities and communities appear to be darker. Obviously something more is needed—how does Seek God for the City equip a Christian to not just pray more but differently?
Steve: I’m glad – that’s a good question. You are lifting out something I’ve said before, that we need to not just pray more but pray different. It’s not the best grammar, I know --- not just think different but pray different. Regarding things getting darker in spite of increased prayer - in previous seasons, it has been noted that things seem darker, but part of the reason is when there is light, dark things appear darker. It’s not right that we have illiteracy, poverty, crime. But if you look at history in the long view, God has done amazing things. The generations in which we are living are perhaps the most ambitious for righteousness and distribution of wealth. Abject poverty offends us, but previously it did not offend people. There was such war and devastation that it was assumed to be normal. Now it is not assumed that massive slavery and poverty is to be tolerated. God is doing what he promised long ago to Abraham. The media doesn’t like to put it that way. Regarding prayer, there are indeed more people praying, but I don’t think we should ever call for prayer because it will work for us. The rationale should never be that we should prayer so we get results. That reduces prayer to procedural ways. The Biblical reason for prayer is because God has promised. Our desire is for the great things – his name being great, his kingdom coming on earth. God has put this in us. The best rationale for prayer is because God has promised, not because we want things. Not just because prayer works. We should drop that. We’ve got to change the rationale for prayer. If we pray because it works, then when it doesn’t work, we stop praying. Basically they give up because they don’t seem to get quick results. It’s the promise of God – pray in pursuit and ambition for God’s kingdom and life to come, beyond the status quo. I believe people’s hearts are ready to hope in what God has promised to do. When people catch that vision, not praying for a quick fix, but for the long haul for the kingdom of God, they realize “Let’s keep praying.” Not just get a fire going, no quick fix, no silver bullet, but God’s purposes being fulfilled, praying toward that.
Glenn: Even in our churches, I think about the need for a change in the culture of our church. Could you talk about the prayer culture, perhaps an example of how this kind of culture change in churches can impact our communities with transformational message of Christ?
Steve: I don’t have a complete answer for that, but I serve with the Lighthouse Council. People may remember we had a big blitz about lighthouses some years ago. It seemed to come and go as a program, not what we intended. We were going to pray and care our way to share the gospel, pray our way into those things. What we’ve realized is that unless we shift the culture of our churches and communities, we revert to standard habits regarding prayer - how we function in prayer. We realize that standard practices and leadership patterns tend to reinforce that prayer is for emergencies. Prayers were to restore the status quo, i.e. when there is an accident, we pray for recovery of health and the car to be repaired or replaced, and the job situation. These are emergency oriented, to restore the status quo. Most of our prayer apparatus focuses on those things. In the long haul, we are ignoring the major focus of prayer. Pray this way – for God’s name to be known and honored, for his kingdom to come, his will to be done. I think learning happens over a period of time. We need to make a lot of changes, with exemplary leaders practicing, not deferring prayer to experts or intercessors. A lot of pastors kind of dissemble and leave their responsibility to lead the prayer; they leave it to the people in the prayer room. Lifestyle begins to say it, but pursue prayer, a culture of prayer, not to be happening in holy rooms with great experts doing it, but everyone praying every day in settings of significant life, in the public square, in work settings. If prayers are answered there, why not pray there? We are asking people to shift from just praying in prayer rooms to praying in high school halls, teachers praying in the break room, accountants praying by the water cooler. How can we get ordinary people praying with Biblical hope in the culture of the city?
Glenn: Can people today integrate prayer, not segregate the sacred and secular, see God working through all of life all the time? Prayer is communicating with God on-site with insight everywhere we go, not just on a prayer walk sometime. While I'm driving, wherever I am, Steve you have a preview of Seek God for the City at www.Waymakers.org/wmpreview
Steve: Go to that website, days 4 and 5, pages 10-11 in the Seek God for the City book for this year. On the outside edge of every page (40 days) there is a different aspect of our city, ideas for praying for the sick of our city, for families, gangs, Native Americans, industrial workers. If you just prayed those topics, you would end up praying for everyone in your city several times. We’re trying to help people look on their city like Jesus did, see it as God’s flock, most of them lost to him at this point. God is not content with the status quo. Pray seeking with God for our city to come back to him.
Jarvis: We’re about to open up the lines for questions. If you have a question for our guest, press *6 and give us your name and question.
Carmen Falcione, Montgomery, AL: In Romans 8:26-27 there is a model. Jow is that application model – is there a refreshing revelation on that, the Spirit interceding for us?
Steve: We do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit helps us. What I want to try in Seek God for the City is the Spirit searches out the depths of our hearts, but one way he has helped us – we need to pray with our spirit and our mind. He has also helped us with words. The spirit helps ordinary people (the weak) pray. He has helped us articulate with words in clear relevant language. I find that I pray my best when I’m praying for someone as if they were listening to me, when I drop the spiritual lingo, praying what God yearns for them. Pray in ways our community would be happy to hear us pray for them. The Spirit lights up the scriptures. We need to pray with our spirits, let the Spirit help us, and pray with our minds also.
John Evans, Modesto, CA: We are called in Matthew 10:44 that if we want to be first, we need to be a slave to all. What role does that request play in our community, if we are just praying and not making our hands and feet available?
Steve: I hope everyone understands this. It seems that in the public square, we are seen as just praying, not seeing that they could be part of what God could be doing. The hearts of God’s people are not that way at all. I think when we have prayed our best, we find out where we need our miracles and where we need to just get to work. If you have prayed clearly, you have a hard time asking God to do something that you could do, like praying for a dilapidated roof - God, heal that roof. That’s ridiculous. I could get a roofing contractor and do something about that roof. It’s not a magical solution, but co-working with God. He will help us recognize what we can do, and we’ll have a greater awe when God does what only he can. We need to recast prayers and co-work with God. You in Modesto have been working carefully to be all you can be. I think you’ve prayed your way into that. We could actually bring some food where it’s needed. Pray your way into what God may be giving you, increasingly expectant that God is going to work through you.
Barbara Byerly: Through the years we have worked together. I just think there are things happening today in churches that we might not even know about, truly reaching out to the poor. Not just giving, but building. I happen to be part of a Methodist Church that is doing it, called Mercy Streets. I’ve been passing on what I’ve gotten from you and from Mission America. It’s happening and it’s exciting. Those early prayers in the 90s - now God is opening our hearts to him, to do what He can do.
Steve: Somehow the churches are keeping focused on some long range change in their communities. I don’t think people can see much farther than they can pray. Spiritual vision changes. That’s why I recommend Seek God for the City. Every year it’s different, but this year, on page 56, we help people see what I call “prayer mission with God” might be, moving beyond prayer meetings. Prayer mission is actually joining with God, seeing what amazing things he wants to do in our communities. Most of it he needs to do, but he’s given us accomplice work that we need to do. We need to pray with persistence for God to do what he wants to do, not rely on just the media to tell what’s happening in our communities.
Barbara: Bringing people from prison to the church. They are being changed before our eyes. It’s all the years of prayer, not just prayer that’s going on right now. I know that from the beginning, we’ve had that concern, that hope.
Steve: You bring up another thing. In earlier times we tried the Lighthouse Program, perhaps for a year. But people didn’t seem to want to come. Instead, we need to see that God is fulfilling prayers that were prayed years before. I think we are now praying some prayers that He may answer 100 years from now. Now we’re seeing God respond to earlier prayers. We need to be praying five, ten, and twenty-year prayers. Prayers that your grandchildren will be glad you prayed. Not quick fix solvable prayers.
Jarvis: I appreciate the example our sister Barbara gave from her church. Maybe you could share how a denomination used the materials internally or externally.
Steve: A small town in Ohio, about 30,000. The Mayor of the town last year declared March Seek God for the City month. They had a dedication ceremony on Ash Wed. that they as a community would repent and turn toward God, pray for his purposes to unfold. We find the small, rural communities are also relevant. That brought forth years of diverse churches praying. That was a Southern Baptist leader who had been looking for ways to pray with other churches, not just a laundry list. In this community he had been meeting with other pastors. Seek God for the City gave them a tool to pray together, a practical way of having their people pray daily without having a prayer meeting. There is another church in a small Pennsylvania community where the pastor had a vision for a 40-day time of prayer. He found the prayer guide and ordered it for his church. The people made it a significant deal to go radical. They shut down most things to really pray, and they struggled, but it really grew. As part of their faith history, that church united in prayer, and people living and working in that community suddenly came to faith during that 40-day period. That church is sold on persistent prayer, and is affecting other churches in their community. There are dozens of micro examples. For example, on a particular day they were praying for educators, and told teachers in their break room that people are praying for you today.
Jan Kennedy, Norcross, GA: Steve, you partly answered my question, but I’d like you to get more specific about metro Atlanta, about what brought pastors to use Seek God for the City, and how to motivate them to do that.
Steve: You’re right. Atlanta is a significant city for our whole country. It was a lynchpin in our civil struggle, and continues to be significant. Perimeter Church an exemplary phenomenon of how our urban centers have struggled. Seek God has been used by a few downtown churches on creative ways. We find some of the larger churches on outskirts using Seek God, but not reaching out as well as they could toward making it a city-wide phenomenon. We try to encourage churches to consciously use this together. We’re praying for some big churches to get it - it’s not just our church. We need to pray with other churches in our community. It seems that churches will buy and use Seek God by the thousands, but promote it as a church program - what we’re going to do these 40 days instead of what God is going to do in our city. Going back to what God said about Modesto, how to use this multi-church. We see that if 2-3 churches can band together as they did in north county San Diego. A leader of churches said, let’s pray together for 40 days. Let’s each take a portion of the map, and use Seek God to pray geographically and cover our community. If that would happen it Atlanta – where churches will work together. We need to be honest about it, but if we would begin with three or four churches and then spread it to others. Never sell it as the silver bullet for Atlanta, but farm this year after year.
Jan: I’ve been hammering away. I appreciate your pushing the long view.
Jarvis: Most of you on the call know how to get Seek God for the City, but Steve, tell us how to get it and how to use it collaboratively, and how soon they need to get it.
Steve: It begins February 6th, so people probably need to get review copies now. Contact www.Waymakers.org or call 800-264-5214 We are happy to send out a few review copies to pastors and prayer leaders. You can’t sell pastors on stuff, but they need to see a copy and sort out whether this would work for their people this year. They are modestly priced. We don’t encourage churches to use it every year. Prayers are different each year. I think we need to have them in churches by Jan. 31st. Usually February 3rd is last distribution day. Hurry. We are happy to send those review copies.
Jarvis: We’re trying to provide resources for Christians to share. Feel free to forward this resource to others. Carolyn will have these minutes posted at www.cityreaching.com soon, and you can refer others to them.
Thomas Bush, Vision San Diego: In making this change that we are talking about, there are pastors and people who have not grown up in a culture of prayer. Can you give me something to encourage pastors in their pursuit of changing the prayer culture in our churches?
Steve: We know the priesthood of all believers. Work on that. How can we encourage believers to pray, authorize, enable, and equip ordinary people - soccer moms, accountants, to carry out their priestly responsibilities? Why should there be prayer experts? Help them pray scripture, pray for people God can use in their community. I am filled with hope because God has called thousands and thousands more praying through the earth, changing from quick-fix praying. Go in and encourage pastors to equip their people to pray prayers God wants to answer. Seek God for the City can be a tool, but there are many others. Let’s see what God may do for us, a prayed for world. That will be an evangelized world, and that will be a transformed world – in that sequence.
Jarvis: A quick reminder of a few things – our next conference call is January 17, 2008, on the importance of reconciliation for city transformation with Michael Lienau as guest. And if you have a neat cityscape of your city, please send it to us at info@cityreaching.com. We might select yours for the redesign of www.cityreaching.com
Glenn: I want to thank Steve Hawthorne of www.WayMakers.org and ask him to close this time with prayer.
Steve: We celebrate advent, which means you have come. You will come in many splendid life-changing ways. You will visit your people like a sunrise from on high. We expect you to come to our cities. You will come in many ways. You will find the people on this call yearning for you. We want you to come and visit the people in our communities who are sitting in darkness. May they see a great light. In Jesus we pray. Amen
Glenn closed with a Christmas greeting.
