CONFERENCE EVENTS

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PRAYER FOR YOUR CHURCH

Single parents

 

Lord, I lift up the single parents in our church. May they know You as father to the fatherless and defender of widows! Let us be a real family to them when they are lonely. Show us ways to include them and minister grace to them. Stir up practical ideas in us that show Your love and care. Help them relax in Your grace and provision which is more than enough for every weakness and need. (Ps. 68:5, 6; 25:16; Matt. 25:35-40; 2 Cor. 12:9; Phil. 4:19)

 
Home arrow May 2006 arrow Extreme Makeover: Church Edition
Extreme Makeover: Church Edition PDF Print E-mail
By Sandra Higley

Regal Books has just released a 2005 updated edition of Setting Your Church Free under the new title of Extreme Church Makeover: A Biblical Plan to Help Your Church Achieve Unity and Freedom in Christ. Authors Neil Anderson and Charles Mylander show how to apply principles of repentance, faith in God, and corporate conflict resolution to bring healing and renewal to churches and their members.
Anderson and Mylander explain that when new Christians or members join a church, they likely bring with them “baggage” left over from unresolved conflicts and lack of repentance. Pastors with hurts and disappointments from previous bad ministry experiences bring that to their next church as well. Compiling these elements along with ongoing sin issues can result in corporate bondage that inhibits a church from liberated fellowship and outreach.

The authors use Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in Revelation 1-3 as the basis for taking a church through a “Setting Your Church Free Event.” The goal of this event is to assist church leadership to discern the church’s strengths, weaknesses, memories that bless or bind, corporate sins and attacks from the evil one. A Prayer Action Plan is then developed to give direction to resolve these issues.

The Prayer Action Plan is treated as if it were a letter from Jesus to the church—not new revelation, but conviction and guidance from the Holy Spirit—with sections entitled “We renounce,” “We announce,” “We affirm” and “We Will.” Each identified weakness is then addressed. As an example, for an identified weakness of disunity the group would corporately and verbally:
  • Renounce it, “We renounce division among us.”
  • Then announce the positive biblical opposite of what was renounced, “We announce that in Christ we have the unity of the Spirit.”
  • Follow up with a scriptural promise or truth that affirms along the same line, “We affirm that in the depth of our hearts we are all one in Christ Jesus.”
  • Finally make a “we will” commitment to an appropriate action, “We will talk to the right person in the right spirit when conflicts arise.”
Strategies for implementing the Prayer Action Plan are given to make it part of the lives and thinking of the leaders and pastors to bring life to the church.

Extreme Church Makeover offers plenty of encouragement and motivation through anecdotes and testimonies of churches that have gone through this type of corporate cleansing.  This book is available at your local Christian bookstore or online at www.regalbooks.com.

--Sandra Higley is the author of a new Pray! bookmark prayer guide, “Prayers of Repentance,” available online at www.praymag.com.
 
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