Dear Friends,
Thank you for the cards and gifts recognizing the Week of the Ministry! Dani and I are grateful for the opportunity to do ministry alongside you here in Duncanville and for the relationships shared doing so!
This past Saturday, the Epiphany Leadership team met to review what we had worked on pre-pandemic and to look forward to gearing it up again. One of the components of the process was to engage in a season of prayer before finishing the narrative of the Church’s future story. The group decided to spend the remainder of October, November and December praying together in prayer triplets with focused prayer time. The format for the prayer triplets will be to meet weekly for approximately forty-five minutes. During that time each will try and follow a similar format:
- Gather – check in with each other (briefly - what has happened this week – will it impact this prayer time) 3- 5 minutes
- Centering silence – a minute or so of silence to breathe slowly and deeply. Reflect upon the prayer focus. 1 minute
- Choose someone to open with prayer asking for the Spirit’s presence, open hearts and minds, the guidance of the Spirit for our Church. Less than a minute
- Take turns asking for various aspects of the prayer focus (i.e. – our church health, spiritual depth, attentiveness to the community needs, the health of other churches in our community, where the spirit is drawing us for mission and ministry. 15 minutes +/-
- Take another minute of silence to reflect on what has come to us. 1 minute
- Take 3 to 5 minutes to journal what has come to you in this time of prayer and silence.
- Share briefly what came to you in this prayer experience (not read your journal entry). 10 – 15 minutes
- Closing prayer of thanksgiving - short prayer
The focus for each week will change so that we collectively can cover as many aspects of our community and ministry as possible. For the first seven weeks our focuses will be:
- First Christian Church in Duncanville and what is God doing with us?
- The Cities of Duncanville, DeSoto, Cedar Hill and what is God doing here?
- Our sister churches in our communities and what God is doing with them?
- Our community support services (Duncanville Outreach, Meals on Wheels, Senior Center, etc.) what is God doing there?
- Our Schools, Children, Teachers and Support Staff and what God is doing with them?
- Our city governments and what God is doing with them?
- Our support and protective services and what God is doing with them?
We would love to have you praying along with us each week, either with the prayer focus or simply praying for us as we pray! We are hoping the journaling each week will by January provide fruitful insight for us to work on when we gather again.
I mentioned the “future story” earlier and wanted to give a brief explanation. The future story is the shared vision of those who participated in the first phase of the Epiphany process. It is a dream of what God is preparing the church to become in the next five to ten years. It is not set in stone but acts as a flexible guide for orienting our ministry focus. John Wentz and Sheryl Poyer drafted the future story from what was discussed and considered from our meeting with Ruth Fletcher back in 2020. As we revisit it in 2021, we are hopeful that our prayer time will both sharpen and enhance the future story so we can share it with our full church for your consideration. We are hopeful that by doing this initial work and preparation our church will not only be blessed for future ministry and growth, but will be a greater blessing to our community and world in the name of Christ Jesus.
In the risen Christ’s service together wherever He leads,
David
