The StAnd - Praying for Scotland on St Andrew’s Day
For 4 years from 2010 – 2013 churches throughout Scotland and from many different backgrounds took part in The StAnd – praying for the nation in a whole variety of ways on 30 November - St Andrew’s Day – on whichever day in the week that fell. This included large multi-church gatherings initially in Edinburgh and then in Glasgow.
This didn’t happen in 2014, mainly because of the prayer focus on the Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow that summer and the Independence Referendum that September and its aftermath. In 2015 and 2016 the focus was on the UK and Scottish Parliament elections and then the ‘Brexit’ Referendum – we seemed to be in a constant season of elections and referendums!
In 2018, as we enter the final phase of the Brexit negotiations with all the challenges and uncertainties swirling around this crucial time, there is a growing sense that once God’s people need to come together in prayer for the nation on St Andrew’s Day – Friday 30th November.
The publicity is spreading, church leaders are giving their support, and churches are starting to respond and decide how they will take part. There is no set programme for the day – we are simply asking churches in every community to be involved in some way, in the same way they took part in the ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ day of prayer just before the 2014 Referendum:
Individuals and groups of friends praying in homes.
Churches opening for parts of the day for anyone to come in and pray – at the start of the day before work, for the morning, over lunch and for the afternoon.
Churches in a community sharing the day with at least one open each hour in a ‘rota’ so that there is somewhere folk can join others in prayer at any time.
Evening praise and prayer events – ideally with several churches in a community coming together.
2018 is a year when the Church in Scotland, to an extent not experienced for many years, has started to respond to the prayer of Jesus in John 17….’that they would be one as we are one’… Over 200 churches supported the Central Scotland Celebration of Hope in the Falkirk Stadium in June. Between 15 and 25 churches in each city worked together to take the Gospel onto the streets of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh as The Turning – Scotland was launched in August missions. In both cases God’s favour and blessing was experienced (Ps 133) – and there was a harvest!
The Church is at its most powerful and effective when we unite in common purpose, whether that be through serving our communities through Foodbanks or Street Pastors, or in intercession for the nation. The Church – the family of God in the town, in the city - can bring change. We can’t do this on our own – we need each other!
At Pray for Scotland, our prayer is that God’s people will gather in every community on 30 November, united ‘As One!’ in prayer for every aspect of our nation – but especially for a fresh outpouring of God’s glory and power, pouring His light into the darkness and transforming our communities.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” [2 Chron 7:14]
To build up a picture of what’s happening during the day – please do email us with your church’s plans at admin@prayforscotland or add the details to our Facebook page.
Alistair Barton
Director, Pray for Scotland
World Prayer Centre Annual conference 2019
REBUILD. RESTORE. RENEW.
“They will rebuild the ancient ruins, and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” Is.61:4
On March 11-13th 2019, World Prayer Centre will be hosting our National Prayer Conference at The Hayes conference centre, Swanwick.
We are moving to a new chapter in our nation’s history and feel this will not be like other conferences. It will be two weeks before we leave the EU - a time of great uncertainty.
Paul writes “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Col.4:2. Paul’s words sum this conference up well. It is a time to devote ourselves, give our hearts to prayer for the nation and the nations, and it is a time to be watchful and celebrate the promise and purposes of God.
God continues to challenge and encourage us to turn from the things that hold us back and turn to a closer intimacy with Jesus. The Time to Turn theme from our 2018 conference is the cry of the Father to the prodigal son, city, and nation, “Come home, turn from sin and despair, turn from hopelessness, turn from your separation – and return to me.”
We are urging people to come and devote these three days to seeking God’s purpose, focused on the great promises in Isaiah 61. He calls us to proclaim the good news to the poor, and the year of the Lord’s favour, to comfort all who mourn and put on a garment of praise.
We are in times of great change and in the midst of them, there is a biblical cry to Rebuild, Restore and Renew that takes us back to the ancient ways. It turns us fully to Jesus – His way, His purpose, His glory. It is a call to action.
Our starting point is God’s presence, drawing close in worship and love. We will have national and global updates and prayer with the WPC team and input from Dave Landrum the Director of Advocacy at the Evangelical Alliance who leads their work impacting political, cultural and economic life. We will also have Malcolm Duncan, Senior Pastor at Dundonald Elim as our guest speaker.
BOOK NOW TO GET OUR EARLY BIRD OFFER:
You can receive a reduced rate of £160 for standard rooms or £190 for en-suite rooms if you book online before 1st December.
Residential rates for 3 days include accommodation, all meals, and refreshments plus conference brochure and our high-quality speakers.
The World is Turning
Of course, it is. If it stopped I presume we would all fall off! The earth goes around the sun every day of the year. It rotates every 23 hours 56 minutes, the sun turns at 43,000 miles per hour, the Milky Way turns at around 1.3 million miles per hour. Incredible to think that some believe it is all by chance. Everything is turning in accordance with the will of the One who created it. To all astrologers out there please forgive me if my facts are not absolutely correct. When I heard that the Americans were sending a probe to the sun I thought they must be going up at night!!
As with all journeys, decisions taken regarding turning can have good and bad consequences. Every day we see and read of the consequences for individuals, communities and nations who have decided to turn from God and His ways.
At the same time (not reported by mainstream media) we are hearing of communities and nations who are turning to Jesus and finding in Him truth and life. More people from every tribe and language have turned to Christ in recent years than in all the time since He walked on the earth. Still today despite man’s efforts to stop it through legislation, violence, and persecution, boys and girls, women and men all around the world are turning their backs on false religions, false idols, false ideologies and turning to the one who is the Saviour and Creator of the world.
We are hearing of national political leaders dedicating their nation to God and declaring their faith in Jesus. We are increasingly seeing national Christian leaders turning from their denominational inclusivity to a heart unity through which they are seeing God's abundant blessing. We are hearing of communities being transformed as people turn from greed, selfishness, and hatred and allow the Kingdom of God to break out in all its love, kindness, generosity and goodness.
Every day the world turns from darkness to light. Every day around the world many thousands are turning from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light. We say Hallelujah! Let’s keep praying!
Ian Cole
Praying for the media
Love it or hate it, the media plays a vital role in our lives. At its best, media gives a voice to the voiceless, holds the powerful to account, and highlights unjust practices while entertaining us and keeping us informed.
As Christians, we affirm and support the media’s vital role in our society. We promote the highest standards in the media and give our backing to the vast majority of people working in media as they strive for integrity and truth.
From national newspapers to local radio, from websites to specialist publications, from TV networks to blogs, all have a valuable role to play. A thriving global, and national, media matters to all of us. We want to know about our world, its celebrations, its problems, and its joys, and we need a thriving media to help us engage with it.
First established in 1967 as the Churches Advisory Council for Local Broadcasting (CACLB), the MediaNet helped to coordinate, and develop, the churches response to shape, and create, religion programming for local BBC radio stations across the UK. Today, the MediaNet’s primary mission purpose is to support, encourage and inspire Christians who work in, and with, media. This is expressed through an extensive programme of online and offline activities including an annual Church and Media conference, regional gatherings, blogs, stories, a regular newsletter, a monthly podcast, and a prayer service.
- Please pray for honest, reliable, and accurate journalism and programming. In a world where there are claims, counter-claims, and disagreements, we need people of integrity in the media committed to being truthful and fair in all they do, and in the output, they write, produce and create.
- Pray for people in traditional and non-traditional media, who care deeply about what is going wrong in society; who have Jesus's heart for the poor and the dispossessed; that want to see change and are able to make content that shines a light on what's going on.
- Pray for leadership in newsrooms, production companies and on location, who can change the work culture within the media, and for Christians in all positions to help influence that change; to stop the exploitation of younger, and in particular, female staff.
- Pray for Christians working in media to shine for God and become increasingly more influential; for effective discipleship of young Christians who are looking to build a career in, or will be working with, media; for young people looking into a career in media to receive the right support and advice.
On the 4th November, later this year, we invite church leaders and church communities to set aside time in their meetings to pray for their local and national media, and for those who serve our Lord in the media workplace.
Our hope, our prayer is to see Christians working in, and with, UK media, flourish and become key influencers: to see the life-affirming Gospel message of faith, hope and love increasingly reflected in the UK media content; to see more and more stories of transformation.
Steve Cox
Chair, Church & Media Network
Scotland - It's Time to Turn
On Thursday evening, 23rd August, hundreds of Christians from a wide variety of churches gathered in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow for the first of the ‘Encounter’ meetings to launch The Turning – Scotland.
Many of you reading this will be aware of the impact of The Turning in England and beyond since June 2016. Around a year ago several Scottish leaders began to discuss and pray about bringing The Turning to Scotland. In February and April, Pastor Yinka from Reading led Pastors’ Envisioning and Pastors’ Training gatherings in 4 cities, 3 of which decided to plan for August missions this year. Details can be found at: www.theturning.eu/Scotland
Over 10 days in Edinburgh & Glasgow (7 days in Aberdeen) teams working together in unity (As One!) have spread out in each city centre to share the Gospel in one-to-one conversations. Over 250 signed up to take part in Edinburgh, over 100 in Glasgow and around 65 in Aberdeen.
There was a great sense of anticipation at the launch gatherings and, if the experience of the towns and cities that have hosted The Turning in England, Wales and France over the past 2 years is anything to go by, we can expect many hundreds to come to faith in Jesus, together with healings and other miracles as the teams step out in faith and pray with those they meet.
The vision of The Turning is nothing less than the re-evangelising and the discipling of the nation with the Church working together ‘As One!’. While the state of parts of the Church is a cause for concern, there is another side to the story. For those hearing the call of the Spirit, in whom Jesus’ prayer in John 17 resonates, there is an increasing desire and willingness to come together, to work together ‘as one’ for the sake of the Gospel, the sake of the Kingdom.
The Church in Scotland has been called the ‘sleeping giant’. That giant is now stirring! In many areas new churches are being planted out from existing ones, missional communities are being established in new estates, there are more regular joint churches prayer events as well as many other joint initiatives.
There is a shift occurring and it is time for the church – the ‘ekklesia’ – the ‘gathered ones with authority’– to rise up and take back the ground that has been stolen – to recapture that ground and hold it for the Kingdom of God. Scotland – it’s Time to Turn back to God!
Please pray for all involved in these missions, thanking God for the excellent response and for the teams from Reading, England that have given of their time to work with and encourage us (for many this will be stepping out of their comfort zones!). Pray also for a rich harvest and that the follow-up and ongoing discipleship will be thorough and excellent. Pray that from this start, a momentum will gather, equipping the church to share the Gospel throughout Scotland!
Alistair Barton
Director, Pray for Scotland
How to pray for your place
God doesn’t just love the world; he loves every person and every place! The Lord is really interested in the town you live in, the place he has put you. He is concerned about the specific problems; He grieves over the local sins and injustices; He wants to draw out the godly destiny and spiritual potential of each conurbation that exists today. When we pray, it is important for us to be earthed and grounded in prayer for the place we live. Prayer groups may all have specific burdens but, as a rule, it is good to press in for spiritual breakthrough where we live as well as across the world.
So how do you pray for your local place?
You may have just moved to the place you are in, or you may have lived there all your life. Yet surprisingly many Christian are not confident in knowing how to pray for their city or locality. We can ask God for three gifts: we can ask for His heart; we can ask for His perspective, and we can ask for the gift of faith.
When my wife and I moved to the city of Stoke on Trent, we were strangers there. Yet it was remarkable how quickly the Lord gave us His heart and love for the place, how quickly He started giving us insight into the needs of the place, how soon we began to have faith for revival there!
Here are five things we have learned at the Beacon house of prayer about how to pray for our city. You might want to try some of these:
- Prayer walking. You can pray for the streets of your place as a kind of spiritual mapping exercise, to see what God is showing you - areas of darkness, or places where He is strongly at work. You can also walk in prayer to bless your community. A team from the Beacon HOP prayer walked every street in our city a few years ago, connecting with local churches and declaring God’s glory and goodness. When you prayer walk, you definitely connect more strongly with the land. Whether claiming ground (Joshua 1:3) or carrying the gospel of peace (Matt 10:11-13), prayer walking is a great way of getting out of the church into the community!
- Praying the headlines. Many cities still have a local newspaper or local news websites. We cut out headlines every week of good and bad news stories from our newspaper. We use them to pray over the gates of local life - politics, health, business, law & order, education, arts & media, and community. It is amazing the number of answers to prayer we have seen as we watch the headlines. Psalm 24 says, ’Lift up your heads, you gates, that the king of glory may come in’. You have the spiritual authority to turn back the battle in the gate (Is 28:6), in the spiritual atmosphere where you live.
- Re-digging the wells. As you consider the life of your town or city, it is helpful to look at the spiritual heritage of your area. Where and when did the church start? What revival history is there? When we moved to our city, God impacted my wife in the first month, about the call to re-dig the wells of revival - long before we had a vision for a house of prayer here. In Genesis 26:18, Isaac re-opened the wells from his father’s day. How often God moves more than once in power in a place. You can contend for your revival wells to be opened again to bless your churches and community.
- Praying for your street. One of the easiest focuses for prayer is the street or estate you are living in. Most neighbourhoods in our nation have at least one Christian living in them. I wonder who on your street knows that you are praying for them and the felt needs of people who live nearby? As lights on a hill, Jesus says we can shine for him so people can see him (Matthew 5:14). Often that starts with prayer. The group Neighbourhood Prayer Network is encouraging every street in our towns to be a prayed for street.
- Standing together for a breakthrough. Sometimes church or ministries have specific pushes in mission or outreach. It is good to get behind those things in prayer together. Like in Nehemiah’s day, we can come to the aid of someone else working on the walls of our city (Nehemiah 4:19-20). A few times in recent years, a team from the Beacon HOP has gone for a day or evening, to stand in prophetic prayer with a church or Christian ministry. We have prayed for a breakthrough, for acceleration, and for a new anointing in ministry. That has been so appreciated by those receiving it. We are in this together; a breakthrough for one part of the church is a blessing to the whole body of Christ.
In the prayer journey of our city since 2001, our corporate church gatherings have held on to two ‘If’s: 2 Chronicles 7v14 - ‘If my people…will humble themselves and pray…I will forgive their sin and heal their land’; and John 11v40 - ‘If you believe, you will see the glory of God’. The twinning of these, the continued humbling and praying, and the continued faith and believing, help us to have God’s heart, see with His insight, and pray with more faith. May your community be blessed because you are praying for it.
Rev Dr. William Porter is the team leader at Beacon house of prayer, Stoke on Trent.