We are starting a huge congregation-wide project! It is a new endeavor, and it doesn’t involve donations or service hours. It involves prayer!

As Pastor Scott mentioned in worship this week, we are kicking off 100 Days of Prayer on May 19, which is the Day of Pentecost!

Prayer is one of the most important things that we do. In the Gospels, we see how important it was for Jesus. In his three-year ministry, while he was constantly on the move teaching, preaching, and performing miracles, he spent a great deal of time in prayer. It was his time away with the Father to rest in his care, and to be restored and guided in going forward. His disciples asked him how to pray because they saw the power in it. That is how we got the Lord’s Prayer.

Prayer is essential to the Christian life. In fact, it has been called its very lifeblood. It has the power to change our circumstances and it has the power to change us. It is a spiritual discipline we engage in to communicate and connect to God. In prayer, we talk, and we listen. I remember praying once, and all of the sudden I realized that if this had been a conversation with another human, I would have seemed really rude for just going on and on without listening to the other person at all! My prayer was all monologue! It’s good to share all that we need to share, and it is good to provide space to listen.

Jesus gave us the model for prayer and the gift of his Holy Spirit to help us pray about our human experience and to pray beyond our human imagination. In the prayer he gave us, we pray for ourselves, others, and the kingdom. This is important! We are called to pray for the kingdom of God! Luther says the kingdom will come anyway, but prayer helps us to cooperate and even invite it. Prayer helps us align ourselves with the awesome work that God is doing so that we want to make it happen too!

These 100 days of prayer is an opportunity to grow in faith, prayer, and power. It includes time, space, and fellowship to pray together about important things that we need to be praying about. As a congregation, we must engage in prayer about where Christ is calling us to go: in mission, in evangelism, in ministry. It is time we invite the fire of the Holy Spirit to guide us forward in this new day!

We hope 1,000 of us will engage in this project. Can you imagine the power of 1,000 people praying?

Should you decide to sign up, you will be assigned to a micro group of three to four people. Each group will receive a ministry team to pray for throughout the one hundred days. You may get the Worship and Music Team, Evangelism, Family Ministry, Staff, Council, etc. You may be given a topical prayer request like “Vision For the Future” or “Mission Field”. There are lots of teams! Your group leader will be in touch with your ministry team about their prayer requests.

Your micro group will be invited to meet once a week for prayer. Your group may include personal prayer requests, as well as intercessions for your ministry team and the congregation. More specific guidance and instruction will be provided to help get you started.

In the meantime, as we approach May 19, consider how the Holy Spirit might be calling you to pray. And better yet, pray about it!