Bev Sterk

For the record, the Holy Spirit is a Person, not an it...God in 3 Persons... Blessed Trinity...

I know we all know that, but I just wanted to recognize God for Who He is...Having stated that...I'm very grateful to see that we in the CRC are starting to realize, that One Person of the Trinity has been sadly neglected in our reformed history (and other denominations as well) for various reasons, and that it is time to change that...PTL!!   I have read Gordon Fee, Francis Chan and John Algera's books, as well as the synodical reports from 1973 and 2009 on the 2nd and 3rd wave of pentecostalism.  I also pray and worship with a lot of pentecostals, and learn a lot from these fellow brothers and sisters in the LORD, who have been much more open to the Spirit for a long time, and I think we can learn a lot from them, if we are willing to go beyond our denominational walls.  God says we are a body, that isn't just in our local church, but ALL of His churches, and He designed that we work together.  We are not complete if we are closed to the gifts the Holy Spirit has blessed other denominations with.

You mentioned seeing how the Holy Spirit fits into our CRC culture - have you ever discussed praying in tongues in a CRC crowd?-  Interesting responses, both verbal and non-verbal!  and that's just one "unusual" gift He gives us.  Discussing the gift of prophecy (the prophetic) can also cause quite a stir - especially if you go beyond the definition that it is basically the same as preaching.   The Holy Spirit is not an option/program, in case He doesn't "fit", and we do not want to quench Him/limit Him anymore than we already have...

God is more concerned with how we, the CRC, fit into His Kingdom, then how He fits into our crc "kingdom"...

LORD, forgive us for when we have quenched Your Holy Spirit in the past ...transform our denomination through the power of Your Holy Spirit...

I'm so glad Marlin shared...as a member of the same church, I will confirm that the council did a good job...i would even say great job, of leading the congregation through some tough issues...the prayer was key, and I think a beautiful testimony of how God honors when we seek to do it His way, not our way...then the "conversations" were great for bringing communication to a more comprehensive level for anyone interested.  There was good "sharpening", but also a good sense of community, as we wrestled with these concerns together.  Marlin didn't share this, so I will...he helped facilitate most of them, and I definitely sensed that he was being led by the Spirit through it.  Also, last night we had a "fun" conversation that focused on the various ministries going on in the church (instead of something controversial), and supporting and encouraging each other.

I am in total agreement with Marlin, prayer and open communication were key in our congregation.  It really seemed the Holy Spirit helped us with an attitude of love and honor, even when in disagreement.  I am also truly amazed at how God has worked in our church over the last year, and my prayer is that every Kingdom church will experience Him anew.

I will second Jack's #1 - prayer, prayer and more prayer  (that's 3 principles, right? =)...   especially time listening together in prayer.. you want the vision to come from the Holy Spirit.  So bring a focus before the LORD, spend time listening for His direction.    Crazy stuff happens when you start "hearing" Him.

If you aren't familiar with listening prayer, you will want to be, so that you can test and discern the thoughts that are shared through this time.  there are some great books on it, I would say Brad Jersak's "can you hear Me? - tuning in to the God that speaks is a very practical one that helps teach concepts on "listening" to the Holy Spirit. 

It seems, we often don't intentionally seek the Holy Spirit's guidance, we just hope and pray that He gives it to us, but it is not intentional, quiet time, listening for what He wants to share.     Lots of reasons for this.

So, I pray that you and your team will be led into His vision that He has prepared in advance for you and your congregation, but I also pray that you will have amazing experiences encountering God through listening to the Holy Spirit.

I would encourage you to contact Pastor Scott Roberts at Hope in Christ (CRC) in Bellingham, Washington.  They have recently partnered with a house of prayer type ministry, Light of the World Prayer Center (LOWPC).   I am on the board of this ministry with several other CRC (Dr. Alvin Vander Griend, author of Love to Pray, the Joy of Prayer, and Praying the Father's Heart, is another CRC member on this board) and non-CRC members.   I cannot tell you how encouraged and blessed I was/we were when God orchestrated moving this inter-denominational prayer ministry onto a CRC campus, not through any effort, other than prayer, of the CRC board members - that's a whole testimony in itself.   This ministry goes beyond our CRC denomination with a beautiful blend of the diverse body of Christ from all different streams - mixing of all things ;) ...reformed and pentecostal!!     PRAISE GOD!!   and I think is evidence of God honoring the CRC when we reach out beyond the traditional Reformed walls to His greater Kingdom (and embracing His Holy Spirit more fully).  It's about so much more than our denomination...It's about His Body, His Bride, the Church!  and as much as I love the CRC, been a part of it all my life, we have much to learn from other streams, and, they hopefully can learn from us!

The church I attend - 2nd CRC in Lynden, participates in 24/7 prayer, taking one day a month to cover that day with relay type prayer, along with 30-40 other churches in the county that all take a day each month, so that there is continual prayer.   One particular scripture where this is mentioned is Luke 18:7; the story of the reluctant judge and the persistent widow...Jesus states..."....and will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night?  Will He keep putting them off?  I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly."   There are more scriptural references to 24/7 prayer, but that's one powerful example.  (Also research the Moravians, who prayed continually for over 100 years)!

The prayer center is working on 24/7 worship and prayer on-site, and has 7-10 prayer missionaries - several in their 20's -  that are supported similar to "traditional" missionaries that go out and serve in the "field"  but the prayer missionaries spend 20-40 plus hours each week in worship, prayer and service!   This is based on the concept of the tabernacle of David being restored (Acts 15:16-17), where David assigned and financed 4000 Levites as musicians to worship before the Ark of the LORD, night and day!  (1 Chron 23:5; 1 Chron 9:33)  Can you imagine, if this level of worship and prayer is going on all over our nation?  Think "Days of Elijah"...and these are the days of Your servant, David, rebuilding the temple of praise...   I go crazy just thinking about it because it is SO exciting!  

I could write on this a long time, in fact I have pages and many Biblical references if interested in more on the tabernacle of David...and other prayer related concepts from scripture, like the 24/7 prayer.   These are just some concepts that we believe are a bit of what is on God's heart, we don't claim they are the best or the only way, but several of many ways to get in step with King Jesus, the Great Intercessor.   We still have a long ways to go, before I would say we are a house of prayer...but that is our prayer

Oh, LORD, pour out Your Spirit of prayer and supplication upon us, stir our hearts to spend time with You!  May we hunger for Your Presence as David did, as Moses did!    Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, for what You are doing among Your people!   May we be faithful, may we be obedient...May we glorify You in all we do...because it is all about You! 

May we exalt King Jesus, 24/7!

haha... you can always challenge the congregation to double their giving!!  really!  on 1.1.11 we were so challenged at a non crc worship gathering, and after the first gasp for air, like "Really LORD? cash flow already sucks!".  But we had been praying into God's economy and know that giving is a significant key to His economy, and so my husband and I prayed about it, and the LORD gave us a strategic plan of increasing our giving 1% per month, so it wasn't quite such a shock all at once.  Just a week ago, I was making some year end up adjustments for his business and happened to look at our net income for the year, and it was up SIGNIFICANTLY!  and he's in construction, so we know the economy hasn't changed that much.  and that's just one of the blessings we've experienced!!

What a beautiful family  =) and testimony..  (and name!!) .  Praise God...thank you so much for sharing...   isn't it crazy how the Word becomes much more living and active when you're listening to Him? 

So who do you get to "listen" and pray with that have so much experience?    That is awesome... would love to hear more about your journey.  We are in training...  Really excited about the appointment of Moses Chung as director of Home missions...a Spirit led man of prayer...he just spent 3 years in S Korea in "the" praying church...  if you have a few minutes (about 18- I know how that can be with little ones=) and haven't already done so... watch his "welcome" speech from synod, he so resonated with my heart for prayer, especially about 12-13 minutes in... 

the CRC staff separated his speech out so you can watch it, but you might want to watch the intro as well, which you will have to go to Tues pm1 for...

http://www.crcna.org/pages/synod_webcast_archive.cfm 

bless your heart sister... with (spiritual) ears and eyes wide open

definitely thought you guys looked young enough that they were yours  =)

I re-read my post on the link and realized the "about 12-13 minutes in" could be read 2 different ways.... so when you watch the link, Moses really starts talking about his prayer journey in Korea, that starts at about 12 or 13 minutes in, and this goes through about 17 minutes or so, just in case you are listening for it only between 12-13 minutes...  sorry if I caused confusion

That is so interesting and excitiing how God is connecting us in the area of listening prayer...  I too, have prayed with others involved in healing prayer ministries (but not CRC or even reformed backgrounds), and went through some training for this.    At this point in my life - with little ones (11, 7 and 5), I don't get to go in and pray with them very often, so most of my prayer time is at home...   we do pray together as a family every night before bed, and,  especially if we need direction with something, take time for listening prayer...  my son, who's 11 has several testimonies of scriptures the LORD put on his heart that were beautiful answers to what we were asking. 

One testimony is last Christmas, I asked him to sing with me in a combined church Christmas cantata that brought  singers from the local CRC's together, since they were organizing a youth choir to participate as well.   So I mentioned it to him, and his response was "do I have to?"  My response, was, "no, you get to sing, but you have to have a good attitude."  So, that night when we had our prayer time together, I said, let's ask God, whether He wants you to sing in this cantata.    We were quiet about  5 minutes,  I rec'd a scripture, but didn't share it right away, and then I asked him if he had any thoughts or any scriptures came to him... He said "Isaiah 5"...  I asked him, "do you know what Is. 5 says?"  He responded "no", so we looked it up, and Is. 5 is the "Song of the Vineyard" and starts with... now let me sing to my Well-beloved...  So I asked my son, what he thought God was telling him, and he said "Sing!" (can't get any clearer than that!)  and for the next half hour, he continued to receive more scripture references about singing...

The scripture that "popped" into my head was "make a joyful noise!"   We both sang in the Christmas cantata last year =)  !

Now, there's a whole lot more to this story...because when we showed up at the first practice, by the time we started practicing the first song, it was my attitude that was not good (and that's putting it mildly)...  and I just realized as I was writing this, that God was going to hold me to the words I said to my son and wanted me to sing it with the right attitude as well... and boy, did He ever "undo" my bad attiude...   the first verse, I didn't even know what I was singing I was so mad, in the second verse He melted the hardness in my heart and by the 3rd verse I was a basket case about ready to walk out because I did not know what I was going to do with all the "fluids" flowing from various places of my face...  I had NOT "listened" to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as I walked in to practice that "you might want to get some kleenex"...My intellect immediately responsed to that with a snarky thought..."why would I need kleenex for practice?"  and dismissed the thought...  it was what I call a "terrible, beautiful" experience of being "undone", taking out the ugliness that was in my heart, and replacing it with a beautiful piece of His heart...

I don't mind being more specific about what was going on and why I was mad and how He got my attention, but it gets kind of long for this post...  I will work on writing that out, and maybe if the network gets a testimony tab  (hint hint moderators;-), I can post it under that some time  =)...

I can't wait to hear about your trip...that is way cool... I sensed the Spirit when I read about it, and now again, when I'm thinking about it (I just read it again, and I felt another wave of the Spirit)...  If you are blogging on it, let me know where I can find that... would love to hear everything... It's going to be amazing...

In Him..

Well, I have been to a number of prayer retreats.  several were pastor/prayer leader summits.  Some were 3 days, some are 1/2 day, about 4 hours, and some are 1-2 days, some included some teaching.  Some  were facilitated by Dennis Fuqua, who uses a wonderful, fresh approach to prayer, and focuses a lot on worship based prayer.   I think having someone like Dennis come for a weekend to teach, preach and pray with a church or several churches would be very helpful in expanding/growing  a church's/community's prayer life.  It opens the door to praying differently then we have traditionally prayed in our reformed tradition.    It's not wild and crazy, but beautiful and sweet, with everything directed by the Holy Spirit, and straight out of scripture... something our conservative inclinations can be ok with.  Dennis is a very down to earth man of prayer, and we've appreciated his leading through his sensitivity to the Holy Spirit in growing the level of prayer in our area.  let me find the link to his ministry, International Renewal:

http://irm.livewebsitebuilder.com/

and this is another link for Dennis

http://livingprayerbook.web.officelive.com/aboutus.aspx

I also get together regularly with Dr. Alvin Vander Griend, Author of love to pray, and a founder of the Harvest Prayer Ministries.  I know he has amazing and powerful teachings on prayer, with very practical guides to help the church grow a "culture of prayer."

The board for the prayer center i help serve on, tries to have a quarterly prayer retreat.  So far, these have been 9-4ish on a Friday or Sat.  We will spend time confessing  and praying for each other (James 5:16).  We will pray about different ministries connected to the prayer center, we will pray for prayer events, we will pray for our prayer missionaries, etc. ...let's see how does that translate into a church... confessing is same, praying for ministries would be sunday school, cadet/gem programs, catechism classes, bible studies, nursery, music, youth group, whatever you guys have going on, and then also maybe praying for para church ministries that your members are involved with like feeding homeless and poor, schools, supporting single moms, or whatever it might be.   You can also pray for denominational leaders (ie Board of Trustees, Executive Director, Home Missions Director and their staff) and issues, which we generally don't get to spend very much corporate prayer time on. 

and then just pray for the Holy Spirit to pour out through prayer...

I've had extended times of  prayer together from  2+ plus hours to 3 days, some were held at church, some were at a retreat facility.  I will say, most people, including most pastors, are not ready for 3 days for various reasons, but hopefully that day is coming to the crc =)

Steve, there are lots of options, and I think you get to pray into what God  wants it to look like for your church.    some questions:  What are the funds available for it?  How busy people are might limit it to an evening or an evening and part of the next day, but a prayer retreat is far better than meeting the Pres. of the US.  You would drop everything you have going on for that opportunity =), right?  We get to meet with this amazing God of the universe, our Creator,  the One Who loves us beyond our wildest imagination!   

Hope and pray you have a powerful and profound prayer retreat where you encounter God in fresh and beautiful ways!