Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Your prayer support will be all-important to the planning of this event which is intended to be a “new paradigm” for an international congress—carried out Acts 13-style—incorporating listening to God, united prayer, and strategic implementation of world-impacting action that proceeds out of that encounter with the Lord and one another.
Prayer Concerns:
1. Please pray for the eight planning task forces: Program, Logistics, Mobilization (including the Media Strategy Group), Finance, Registration/Website, Youth, Children, and Prayer Support. We need to be led of the Lord, given His creative, anointed ideas, and to all do our work diligently, joyfully, and unitedly.
2. This will not be just another prayer conference. The word “world” adds a great deal of complexity and challenge to the planning process since we hope to have 5000-7000 ministry leaders from all 220 nations. Please pray for excellent organization on the part of the Indonesians and Koreans who are co-hosting the event, for the International Coordination Team, and for the right people from every nation to hear about the WPA and be able to come to Jakarta for it.
3. The WPA Concert of Prayer in Indonesia this year on May 17, 2011. This will also serve as preparation for the WPA that is one year to follow. Please pray for further guidance, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and unity.
4. Some organizers that are key to the WPA process are: the Indonesian and Korean national committees who will co-host the event and the WPA International Coordination Team (14) that provides overall oversight. Please pray for His guidance, protection, and provision for each of us. The spiritual battle, as you can imagine, is intense.
Here are the two Scripture passages that have particularly inspired us in arranging the WPA:
• The Church Becoming United—that all followers of Christ may be one so that the world may believe. (John 17:20-26)
• Our World Being Transformed—that “the earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”. (Hab.2:14)
Thanks so much for your gracious help through prayer that will mean so much, not just to those of us doing the planning and organizing, but also to our world that will be affected by the World Prayer Assembly.
Please also help us get word of the WPA out to “ministry leaders of influence” who will represent the “seven mountains” of society (Arts/Media, Business/Marketplace, Church, Development of the Poor, Education, Family, and Government) who should be part of the WPA. Again, for more information, please have them see www.worldprayerassembly.com where they can also register their interest in participating.
More than 80 significant leaders within Indonesia and the international prayer movement met together in the hilltop town of Puncak on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, to pray together and make plans for the upcoming World Prayer Assembly that will occur in this nation, May 14-18, 2012. (Please see www.worldprayerassembly.com for more information.)
Tweeting bishops encourage prayer and action this Lent
Christian Aid has teamed up with tweeting bishops to encourage Christians to pray, act and give this Lent. The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines and the Bishop of Huntingdon the Rt Rev David Thomson will launch Count Your Blessings in Twitter on March 9. For the 45 days of Lent they will use the social networking site to share daily reflections and actions. Bishop Baines said: ‘The great thing about Twitter is that it allows immediate interaction. Anyone across the world can join in and tweet what they are doing in Lent, so I am encouraging people to follow us, get tweeting and learn through Lent.’ The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, encouraging people to get involved in Count Your Blessings said: ‘We should all count our blessings for what God has given us and I hope that everyone will consider taking action to help those in need this Easter.’
Pray: that this idea will reach and encourage a very wide audience. (Ac.9:31)
Christian GP appointed to Govt drugs panel
A Christian doctor who takes a firm line against drug use has been appointed to sit on the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). Dr Hans-Christian Raabe has said that children should simply be taught to say 'no' to drugs. The move is seen as a change in direction for the panel, which has focussed on a ‘harm reduction’ approach until now. Dr Raabe has preferred to focus on prevention and made his views clear in a briefing to MPs. ‘Harm reduction has its place’, the GP said, ‘but I’m concerned that it’s the only policy being advocated. In schools, for example, where the majority of children don’t take drugs, we still need a prevention approach.’ Dr Raabe has advocated that strong family life is key to addressing all these matters: ‘Marriage is associated with greater happiness, less depression, less alcohol abuse and less smoking’.
Pray: that objections to this appointment will be quietened and that Dr Raabe will be able to bring quality argument to the work of the ACMD. (Ex.23:21)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/christian-gp-appointed-to-govt-drugs-panel/
Anti-Christian bias is OK at the BBC
Peter Sissons has revealed that the BBC has no qualms about insulting Christians. Mr Sissons, whose memoirs are being serialised in the Daily Mail, slammed the BBC for its bias. He said: ‘Islam must not be offended at any price, although Christians are fair game because they do nothing about it if they are offended.’ His comments are unlikely to surprise many Christians who have become increasingly concerned about a perceived anti-Christian bias at the public broadcaster. The veteran presenter, who fronted news and current affairs programmes at the BBC, also said that staff damage their careers if they don’t follow the BBC’s mindset. In 2010 Radio 2 host Simon Mayo warned that religion was ‘increasingly driven to the margin’ on the BBC. And in 2009 Jeremy Vine, another of the Corporation’s radio presenters, said he believed it had become ‘almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God’.
Pray: that the anti-Christian bias in the BBC be halted and the agenda of secular religion be silenced. (Ps.31:18)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/anti-christian-bias-is-ok-at-the-bbc-says-former-presenter/
Poll: Christian marginalisation on the rise
The majority of church-goers in the UK feel that Christians are being increasingly marginalised in public life, a new survey has revealed. Conducted by ComRes on behalf of Premier Christian Media, 81 per cent of church-goers think the marginalisation of Christians is happening more and more in the media and press. While 77 per cent thought it was growing in the public realm, two thirds said they believed it was increasing in the workplace and more than half said it was on the rise in Government. Peter Kerridge, Chief Executive of Premier Christian Media, said: ‘2011 presents a great opportunity for Christians to speak out and tackle the creeping marginalisation occurring in British society’. He added, ‘When three out of four Christians have reported an increased risk of discrimination in the UK over the last five years, the message is clear. As a country we need to do more to support Christians living out their faith’.
Pray: that as Christians we would speak out boldly about our faith led by the Holy Spirit. (Ac.4:29)
Whole-life discipleship may come at great cost
Being a whole-life disciple in Britain today may come at great cost to Christians', says Nigel Hopper of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity. The lecturer in contemporary culture said the recent ruling against Christian B&B owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull raised the question of how Christians are to live out their faith in the context of a society where that faith is not shared by everyone. ‘It is a reminder, if one is needed, that it’s all too easy to talk up the ‘adventure,’ or the ‘journey’ of discipleship, and make no mention of the cost of discipleship,’ said Hopper. However, he added that the ruling alluded to the possibility of a greater cost for Christians of giving up their jobs if they cannot reconcile its legal obligations with the obligations they feel to their faith. He encouraged the church to look to the example of the first Christians and their obedience to God rather than people.
Pray: for a greater awareness by the Church of the need to support as well as disciple its members. (Job.4:4)
'Gay lessons' in maths, geography and science
Children are to be taught about homosexuality in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a Government-backed drive to ‘celebrate the gay community’. Lesson plans have been drawn up for pupils as young as four, in a scheme funded with a £35,000 grant from an education quango, the Training and Development Agency for Schools. The initiative will be officially launched next month at the start of ‘LGBT History Month’, an initiative to encourage teaching about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues. The lesson plans, spread across the curriculum, will be offered to all schools, which can choose whether or not to make use of them. Craig Whittaker, Conservative MP for Calder Valley and a member of the Education Select Committee, criticised the scheme as a distraction from teaching 'core' subjects and a poor use of public money.
Pray: for schools to consider carefully how the minority nature of such material is out of proportion to the LGB community. (Jas.4:7)
Proposal for an English Baccalaureate and RE
Senior religious-education (RE) professionals are warning that their subject could disappear from the curriculum in community schools if the subject is not included among the humanities that qualify for the planned English Baccalaureate. The new qualification, which is to be introduced to ensure that pupils receive a more rounded education requires good passes in English, maths, science, a foreign language, and either history or geography. Religious studies (RS), currently a popular examination choice, is not included as a humanities option. Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, which represents secondaryschool heads, says that his members believe that the proposed Baccalaureate is too narrow: ‘Religious studies, in particular, is glaringly absent. In the light of the global political situation, surely the objective study of religious issues should be encouraged,’ he said. A recent poll among 18 to 25-year-olds revealed that RE lessons were remembered as valuable for several years after leaving school.
Pray: that Christian teaching remains as a required element of schools’ curricula. (Ro.16:17)
Russia: Airport bombing
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed growing ethnic tensions in Russia after a suicide bomber killed 35 people and injured over 150 at Moscow’s busiest Airport. He denounced the attack as ‘the horrifying scowl of sin’ adding ‘actions once condemned even in war are today becoming a form of protest.’ No one has claimed responsibility but previous terrorist attacks in Russia originated from separatist movements in the troubled Northern Caucasus region. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, backed by the Kremlin, has been accused of human rights abuses and crushing Islamic militants, while supporting his own form of Islamic fundamentalism. Ethnic tensions have grown in Moscow recently, including anger over plans to build a new mosque in a south-eastern district of the city. Muslim migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia have emigrated to the Russian capital, fleeing wars in their home regions since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Pray: for the turmoil in Russia to usher in a timely Christian revival. (Is.14:26-27)
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/russian-patriarch-denounc_n_814025.html