Some of you may remember a staff journal I wrote in 2020. My car radio was randomly not working and eventually quit altogether. I believed that God was prompting me to pray more.
Well, I’m stubborn and eventually my radio started working again. I started praying less and listening to music and Bott Radio again.
Apparently, God still wanted me to pray more, and I simply didn’t get the hint the first time.
While my car radio started working again, it started randomly turning on and off, even without the key in the ignition. This was causing my battery to drain overnight and I had to jump start my car several times. Eventually, I decided to remove the fuse for my radio.
Now I don’t have any radio or clock, but my battery doesn’t drain overnight… and I’m back to praying more in my car!
To add to that, in my current seminary class—Spiritual Formation—I recently read a chapter on prayer. In that chapter, there was a very specific challenge to turn off the radio in your car and pray more.
Okay God, I get it!
So, if you pull up next to me at a stop light and I’m the only one in the car, but I’m talking… no, I don’t have a fancy car where I can use my phone through the radio, I’m simply praying out loud.
God is deepening my habit of prayer, and I’m excited about many prayer movements that God is stirring in our church body. In fact, I’d love to invite you to join us in some of these prayer movements.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve added a couple people to our Sunday morning prayer teams. We have a wonderful prayer room in our church facility and I’d love to have more and more people praying during either our 9am or 1045am service on Sunday mornings!
I’m part of a group of guys that gets together most Saturday mornings for about an hour to drive around Newton and pray over our city. We would love to eventually have 5 or 6 vehicles headed out on Saturday mornings to battle for our community in prayer!
On Thursday mornings the Elders have been praying in the fireside room at 6:45, and while we’d like to keep that just an Elder thing, I’ve been showing up at 6am to pray with a friend until about 6:40 or so. I would love to have others join me at 6am in the fireside room on Thursday mornings!
Becky Wheeler is heading up the “Keep Watch” Prayer movement for our schools. She leads a team of prayer warriors in prayer walks around Chisholm, Santa Fe, and the high school once a week. Eventually, they hope to be in these schools before or after school hours to pray. We would love to have more people join this prayer movement!
I’d personally love to connect you with any one of these prayer movements! Just let me know that you are interested and we’ll get you connected!
I believe God is stirring and preparing our church, our city, and other churches in our city for something incredible! Let’s continue developing this habit of prayer in our lives!
For His Glory,
Pastor Kyle
In Case You Missed It
Here’s a quick recap of our The Heart of Grace “state of the church” conversation with the elders from last Sunday:
Extend is now Reach. Our missions council has been restructured toward a goal of more focused support with higher church engagement with the missionaries and ministries we support. The Reach Local team focuses on ministries and initiatives in Newton and the immediately surrounding community. The Reach Global team focuses on missionaries, ministries, and initiatives anywhere outside our immediate community.
Touchpoint Initiative. The elders and staff are launching an effort to personally reach out and make contact with the members of our church family.
New Young Marrieds class. We are creating a space for young married couples to connect with one another and plug into the life and ministry of our church.
Pastor of Connection & Care. We have a couple exciting candidates to fill this role of connecting people with God, one another, and the church.
Student Ministry Pastor. It has been a challenge to find experienced candidates, but we are hopeful that God will provide the right candidate in his good timing.
Financial Update. By God’s grace—and your generosity!—we are beginning 2021 in a strong financial position.
Question & Response. Do we have any plans for a singles and young adult ministry? What is our plan for discipling high school-aged youth? Could we update our church sign to a digital one? Will the Pastor of Connection & Care help with funeral arrangements? Are there any plans to update the church directory?
We encourage you to take some time to watch the video below for all the details.
Thank you for owning the mission and joining us as we love God, love people, and lead others to do the same!