Prayer conference calls United Methodists to prayer

Participants learn ways to improve their personal prayer lives and local church prayer ministries at the "Becoming a People of Prayer" conference at Brentwood (Tenn.) United Methodist Church. The event was sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship and Aldersgate Renewal Ministries as a prelude to the 2008 General Conference. A UMNS photo by Jeanette Pinkston.

By Jeanette Pinkston*

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (UMNS) - Praying together in a variety of cultural traditions, nearly 200 people heard a message that "God needs the church to work with him" as they called The United Methodist Church to prayer.

"God does not need people telling him what to do," said the Rev. Suzette Caldwell, opening speaker for the "Becoming a People of Prayer" conference.

"Prayer was created for God's purposes to get us from the natural to the supernatural where God's plans are," said Caldwell, associate pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston.

The Sept. 21-22 event was held as a prelude to the 2008 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative meeting, which convenes once every four years and meets next spring in Fort Worth, Texas. The conference was held at Brentwood United Methodist Church and was sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship and Aldersgate Renewal Ministries.

Caldwell urged believers to praise God and accept their identity in Christ. "God needs the church to work with him," she said.

"Prayer was created for God’s purposes to get us from the natural to the supernatural where God’s plans are," says the Rev. Suzette Caldwell.

In addition to calling the church to prayer, organizers aimed to equip participants to improve or develop their personal prayer lives, the prayer life in their churches and prayer ministries, both within and beyond the local church.

"The goal was to strengthen and empower our ability to pray: as individuals, as families and as congregations," said Sandy Zeigler Jackson, the chief organizer. "With the coming General Conference … and other critical events happening in our world, it is crucial that there are intentional prayers of the people to undergird and influence these happenings."

Participants heard from numerous speakers and prayed together in Native American, Euro-American, African-American, Hispanic and Asian traditions.

An agency of The United Methodist Church, the Board of Discipleship works with annual conference and local church leaders in its mission to develop world-changing disciples.

Aldersgate Renewal Ministries is part of a nonprofit organization started by a network of United Methodists committed to praying for the spiritual renewal of The United Methodist Church.

*Pinkston is director of media relations for the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

Preaching Conference for Clergy and Laity in Memphis and Tennessee Annual Conferences, October 28 - November 1, 2007

The Turner Center for Church Leadership and Congregational Development is offering its inaugural conference on preaching. “Preaching the Gospel For These Times” will be held Sunday, October 28 – Thursday, November 1 at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, TN.

This conference serves two main purposes: 1. Offer new perspectives on preaching the gospel to a world and a church in crises of leadership, and 2. explore the challenges of ministry and the needs of clergy and lay leaders in the Memphis and Tennessee Annual Conferences in order to learn how the Turner Center for Church Leadership can respond to those needs. Clergy and laity are invited to attend.

The conference will be led by four distinguished scholars and preachers: Prof. Brad Braxton, Prof. Mary Lin Hudson, Prof. John McClure, and Prof. Ted Smith. Each guest will offer a lecture along the theme of the conference, preach the sermon at our daily corporate worship, and then lead a discussion on the way they put their sermon together.

Small group sessions will be held each afternoon centered on four key questions:

+ What is the Gospel for these times and what are the counter-gospels in our society?
+ How is the pastoral office changing? Is the church and are pastors themselves expecting more of the pastoral office than any single human being could accomplish? How should it be reshaped?
+ How is the denomination changing? What is a Wesleyan meaning of "connection" for our time? If there have been at least five distinct phases of denomination in America, what should the next phase look like?
+ What are the main trends of our culture in which congregational and connectional ministry must take place? How can the lives of Christians be formed in this culture? Will our children have faith in this culture? How would our understanding of leadership in the church change if we took seriously the fragile lives of children in this culture?

The mission of the Turner Center is to encourage faithful and effective leadership, foster spiritual formation, enable new visions of ministry and mission, and renew our common commitment to being the church of Jesus Christ.

For more information about the Turner Center and to register for the “Preaching the Gospel For These Times”, please contact Danny Redding-Rhodes at (615) 343-4073 or danny.redding.rhodes@vanderbilt.edu. A downloadable brochure detailing the conference can be found at this link: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/divinity/programs/Turner%20Preaching%20Brochure.pdf

Life Journal for September 24, 2007—“One Very Rich Day”

by Bishop Richard J. Wills, Jr.

S: Psalm 84: 10Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

O: Worship fills this yearning in my soul

A: Yesterday, I visited a small congregation who worshiped God will all their hearts. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit when I walked into the church. As I sang with the congregation I knew, once again, I was made to worship God. There was no place on earth I would rather have been, than in that small congregation. For me, it is true. I would rather spend one day in the courts of the Lord than a thousand days any place else. There in worship in that small congregation, I knew I was filling a deep need in my life. Later, I found out this small congregation is breaking up into small groups to do street evangelism. So powerful is the change that has come into their lives, they cannot wait to go and share what joy they have found with others. On that Sunday I would have gladly joined them in street evangelism, although I know very little about such evangelism. I just know this verse in Psalm 84 is true. I would rather spend one day in the courts of the Lord than a thousand days any place else in the world.

P: Father, thank you for allowing me to worship you yesterday. I felt my spirit filled as I encountered your people worshipping you. I felt welcome to become one of them as they spent time in your presence to worship you.
Love,
Dick

Y: I will seek to worship the Lord in God’s places each week.

Bishop Wills Journal Entry for September 17, 2007 -- Don’t Forget The Ending

S: Revelation 22:17
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” and let those who hear say, “Come!” Let those who are thirsty come; and let all who wish take the free gift of the water of life.

O: In the present, it is helpful to remember the ending.

A: As I live these days of my life, I am always dealing with a lot of what is going on now. If I am not careful, I find myself living so much in the present that I forget in the end everything is in God’s gracious hands.

Sometimes, the daily things that enter my life become so large that I lose the perspective of the end of things and forget that I do believe God is control and that God only asks for my obedience every day.

I am not the sheriff of the earth and God has not given me the responsibility of trying to be God in these days. God only asks for me to be faithful and to do my best to encourage people to spread the good news of the Gospel and to join the journey of faithfulness which means surrendering my will to God’s Will.

Scripture is my guide. I am to be God’s instrument to make the world a better place by trying to love others as God has loved me and to share the good news that God did send us a savior and our lives can be different and fuller if we will choose to walk in obedience to God’s Will.

P: Father, thank you for this day. May I just remain faithful to encourage the discouraged; to be present with those suffering grief; to heal where healing is needed; to be a faithful witness that only you offer those of us, who are thirsty, the free gift of the water of life. Love, Dick

Y: I will yield to God my solutions and seek only to be a faithful servant.

Pittsburgh church offers dramatically different worship

Drama is an integral part of worship at Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community in Pittsburgh. The unconventional congregation is co-led by a United Methodist pastor and meets in a rented cafeteria. UMNS photos by Michael Henninger.

By James Melchiorre*

PITTSBURGH (UMNS) - Jim Walker is wearing two T-shirts, two jackets and a trench coat - even as the temperature approaches 90 degrees outside of the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community.

It's all part of the co-pastor's costume for the congregation's weekly drama, which has become a defining element of Sunday worship at the unconventional United Methodist church in Pittsburgh's eclectic South Side neighborhood.

Walker is playing himself in today's scripturally based drama, while co-pastor Jeff Eddings takes the role of a contemporary Jesus. The theme: answering the call of God to serve.

"Are you ready to follow me?" Eddings asks.

"Can we talk about the weather, the Steelers?" Walker answers. "I'm busy."

"Yes, busy. All that Internet time; you got the iPhone last week," Eddings says.

"Why don't we just take a layer or two off? I'm trying to get to the real you."

As dialogue continues, Walker gradually removes his unnecessary clothing and, finally, Eddings repeats his original question: "Are you ready?"

"I'm not ready," Walker responds, "but I'm willing."

Looking on are about 300 people sitting inside the cafeteria of a Pittsburgh building owned by Goodwill Industries and rented each Sunday for worship.

Building bridges
While the weekly drama does not always totally replace a traditional sermon at Hot Metal Bridge, it does offer another way to present scriptural messages with a contemporary spin.

"If you're just hearing a story read, you can just zone out and stare at the walls," said Jennifer Lawrence. "But if it's unfolding in front of you, you get pulled in."

A student at the University of Pittsburgh, Lawrence herself was "pulled in" to Hot Metal Bridge when a classmate invited her to Sunday worship. Now she's a regular, arriving at 9 a.m. each week to join a team of workers who transform the cafeteria into an in-the-round worship space - moving chairs, hanging lights and setting up a sound system for whichever visiting band or soloist is providing music.

"The room starts as a cafeteria, ends as a cafeteria, and is a church in between," Lawrence says.
Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community began after Walker and Eddings, both youth ministers and longtime friends, began working with a Christian outreach program at a local tattoo shop.

Walker had shared with Eddings his "waking dream" in which both were running across the Monongahela River on a span called the Hot Metal Bridge. The bridge took its name in the heyday of steel production in Pittsburgh when molten steel was transported across it to be poured into molds.

Although Walker is a United Methodist and Eddings is Presbyterian, the two friends decided to begin a new congregation in the community of South Side and serve as co-pastors.

"We thought it was a good place to reach young adults, reach the counter-culture, reach poor people," Walker said. "We started meeting people on the street who were different from us. They had orange hair, purple hair, blue hair and we just loved them as Jesus would love them."

Attendance at Sunday worship in the cafeteria has tripled in the past two years. Eddings and Walker look out over a congregation that includes, among others, senior citizens holding their grandbabies, young adult devotees of body piercing, and families from some of Pittsburgh's wealthier suburbs. Each week, at least four or five worshippers come from the South Side's homeless community.

No walls
"Let's do what the Scripture says," Eddings shouts during the worship service. "I want us to lift up what we're feeling thankful for."

A cacophony of voices responds, often speaking at once, naming specific people or circumstances. Later in the service, Eddings and Walker baptize three people including a father and his pre-teen son. The pastors issue an open invitation, and two more young adults come forward spontaneously to profess their faith and kneel at the baptismal fountain.

"You see a room full of people, but we didn't just put up a sign and people came," Walker said.

"We didn't do a commercial. We didn't put out a flyer. The only way people really knew this existed was through personal relationships."

Doug Stadnic manages the congregation's outreach to the homeless. He credits the congregation's unconditional welcome for its appeal to so many different people.

"I was talking to a woman today who came to church for the first time," Stadnik said. "She lives an alternative lifestyle; she's been uncomfortable in other churches. I told her, if other churches reject you, come here. We don't put any walls around anybody. It's just as Jesus taught: Love first, and let good things happen."

Nobody seems to be in much of a hurry at Hot Metal Bridge. Worship begins with 15 minutes of meeting, greeting and hugging.

Chuck Martin, a recently released prison inmate, gives his faith testimony and reads Psalm 100, followed by 20 minutes of singing, including contemporary rock versions of Methodist hymns such as "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

Announcements include the time and location of the weekly ultimate Frisbee game. And when worship is over, everybody sits down to lunch.

Walker doesn't try too hard to analyze the growth of his congregation, but he does keep coming back to what he considers a key idea: koinonia, the anglicized version of a Greek word translated as fellowship.

"Creating a bridge that people can get to God, that's our job," Walker says. "To bear witness to Jesus, to point out where the Kingdom of God is. So when we see all those different faces, hopefully, for a moment, we get a glimpse of what heaven might be like."

*Melchiorre is a freelance producer based in New York City.

UMNS Commentary by the Rev. Dwight Sullivan*: Church calls for sweeping prayer revival

Whittier (Calif.) Evangelical United Methodist Church is inviting United Methodists to unite in prayer on Sept. 23, the 150th anniversary of the Fulton Street Prayer Revival that sparked a revival in churches across the United States.A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry.

Sept. 23 marks the 150th anniversary of the Fulton Street Prayer Revival, an amazing religious event in U.S. history.

This massive wave of prayer swept across the nation - changing lives for Jesus Christ and reviving entire denominations.

Almost 150 years later, might this be the time for another mighty movement erupting from prayer?

Humble beginnings
Jeremiah C. Lamphier, a layman, started the revolution because he was helping his declining church near Wall Street in New York City. Posting flyers announcing a noon prayer meeting, he prayed alone in an empty room for the first half hour.

Finally someone joined him. Before the hour was over, six had attended. It was an ordinary prayer meeting, fervent but unspectacular. Meeting the next week, 20 attended. When 40 appeared the following week, they decided to go daily.

On Oct. 14, 1857, Wall Street experienced the Panic of 1857, one of the worst financial crises in American history. By the month's end, another 100 people were participating in the daily prayer meeting.

Newspaper accounts of a November spiritual revival in Ontario, Canada, spurred prayer meetings throughout America. In New York City, the prayer movement spread so that by March 1858, newspapers reported that 10,000 businessmen were meeting regularly to pray.
Every available room in churches was packed at noon for prayer and at evening for services. The happening gained front-page headlines in New York newspapers.

The fervency for prayer swept into Philadelphia and up into Boston and the Northeast. Like a wave, the movement splashed into Chicago and the Midwest. Though it started in the North, the spirit of prayer rippled into the South. Thousands came to Christ. Churches gained attendance.

Amazingly, it began by a layperson leading a small, obscure prayer group. It swelled into a tidal wave of prayer washing the nation, changing lives and reviving declining churches. It sounds like a plot in some cheesy Christian film, but it really happened!

Power of prayer
Many citizens believe the United States is going in the wrong direction. We are pelted with stories of business corruption, overcrowded prisons, sexual wrongdoings, broken families, drug use and declining churches.

The power of the 1857 revival came from prayer. Its spark was ignited by fervent laity. Its strength came from people from many churches and backgrounds praying with one another.

Isn't this something that "ordinary" people can do today? It doesn't take much money to pray. You can convene prayer in your church. Anyone can invite others. You don't have to be a bishop or have a Ph.D. to pray sincerely.

Rev. Dwight Sullivan

In late May 2007, pastors in Whittier, Calif., issued a call to convene for "A Holy Hour of Community Prayer." A dozen pastors and laity from different denominations gathered at 9 a.m. to pray for God to move churches to work together for Jesus' work locally.

Held at the Whittier Evangelical United Methodist Church, the meeting was permeated with music, sharing and prayer. A high point occurred when one pastor read Psalm 22 with tears and conviction because he could identify with its pain and hope.

After the spirited, moving and bonding time together, we decided to have another community prayer on Sept. 25, around the 150th anniversary of the Fulton Street Prayer Revival. In a non-sectarian spirit, a local Baptist Church will host this time of prayer for God's revival of the United States, beginning with us.

Will you pray with us?
What if churches all over this land were to convene with other churches to pray for God's conviction and grace through Jesus Christ in our land?

We of Whittier Evangelical United Methodist Church challenge United Methodist churches across the United States to call prayer meetings around Sept. 23. With more than 35,000 churches in The United Methodist Church, if only 10 percent respond, there would be more than 3,500 churches praying in concert for "God's Revival!"

Unfortunately, too many communities have weak or nonexistent ministerial fellowship organizations. Too often our churches are isolated, acting like an island unto themselves.

What would happen if churches laid aside denominational differences to unite in prayer for each other and our nation? The Fulton Street Prayer Revival gives us a glimpse!

From our church to your church, will you pray with us? From our community to yours, will you take the challenge to pray for your community and our nation this Sept. 23, the 150th anniversary of the Fulton Street Prayer Revival?

*Sullivan is pastor of Whittier (Ca.) Evangelical United Methodist Church.