Let’s break with protocol.
Our pattern suggests we lift focused prayer together at sunset on the first Sunday of every month. But this year, July has five Sundays, and I’m confident you will have this newsletter in your inbox before sunset on July 31.
As July 4 approaches, won’t it be difficult to hear fireworks and not think about the children who died in Uvalde, or the shoppers shot to death in Buffalo, people gunned down in churches in Southern California or Alabama, people killed in a hospital in Tulsa, the infant killed by gunfire in a van in Pittsburgh?
Let’s pray into summer.
Every season creates unique opportunities for prayer, but doesn’t summer seem to offer a bigger, brighter canvas?
Maybe it’s the “school’s out” mentality that frames summer as a time of accelerated freedom. Maybe it’s the warmer weather and longer days that seem to extend possibility.
Doesn’t summer, with its increased opportunity for porch sitting, or time in the garden, or time on the sidewalk with a stroller or a pup, offer a pace that invites prayer?
Let’s pray into summer.
Lord, let us see you more clearly this summer.
On June 5, as the sun sets at around 8:47 pm, from wherever you are, with whomever wants to join you, let’s pray together for all that summer offers.
Let’s begin with prayers for our church. June 5 is Pentecost Sunday, the celebration of the day the Holy Spirit visited believers and allowed them to connect with community in new ways. Lord, show us how we, as a church family, can create new relationships and share your Love and your Light in new ways.
Let’s pray for children and youth as the school year ends. Let’s lift a prayer of thanks for all they’ve seen and shared and learned in the past school year, and let’s ask Jesus to nourish them in new ways through the summer. Let’s pray for parents and others—grandparents, camp counselors, lifeguards, day care workers—facing new challenges and opportunities as the school year ends.
Let’s pray for teachers and all involved in education, thanking God for all they provided and poured out through the school year. Let’s ask him to restore and refresh them through the summer.
Let’s pray for youth in summer jobs and internships.
Let’s pray for graduates facing new opportunities.
Let’s pray for vacations, camps, and VBS opportunities in a summer a little less restricted by concern over the pandemic.
Let’s pray for Pride events. Let’s pray for community events. Let’s pray for block parties and church picnics. Let’s pray for weddings, graduation parties, baby showers, firework nights, and family reunions.
Let’s ask God to reveal him at swimming pools, ballfields, golf courses, amusement parks, playgrounds, dog parks, yards and gardens, and at bike trails.
Lord, show us how we can serve and share and know you this summer.
As Mother’s Day approaches, and Father’s Day follows, let’s pray for parents.
We filled March with prayer for Ukraine and all of those in Europe and around the world impacted by Russia’s aggression. We prayed for those living with the realities of war; death and injury and destruction and fear and hunger and separation.
Our Lenten season, which begins March 2, can be a shared experience, a community experience, a shoulder-to-shoulder experience. We will be neighbors walking together with Jesus as He again approaches the cross.
“Father, Open our eyes to see… we all bleed the same… we’re more beautiful when we come together.”
“Mr. Bill! We need another job!”
As I reviewed Biblical passages recounting the Christmas story recently, I was struck by the word “overjoyed.” The angels in Luke’s Gospel promise “great joy,” but no one is described as “overjoyed” until the Magi begin moving across the second chapter of Matthew.
Weren’t we all encouraged when our 2021 Confirmation Class planted the LGBTQA+ Progress Flag in our sanctuary in October?
A friend sent me a discouraging column written recently by a pastor in Illinois. He felt that many people wouldn’t return to church after time spent away through the pandemic, and that those who did return would be less likely to volunteer their time and energy and imagination.
Let’s pray for our children, youth, young people, and educators as they return to school. Many of them return to classrooms this week.
Last month, Felicity spoke about what a privilege it has been to work with the confirmands. I agree! They have enlightened me of the simplicity of life and also reminded me of the beauty of faith in Jesus.
I am currently helping teach the confirmation class, and as I am writing this, we have just finished our first meeting. We started the class off by talking about who Jesus is, and there were no wrong answers.
It reminded me of the story of the paralyzed man carried by four men to Jesus.
I am a very organized kid, and I like planning for things in advance. Naturally, deviating from my usual patterns makes me a little anxious. So, what scares me? Change. And uncertainty. Change and uncertainty for the future. My future, the future of our church, the future of our country… the list is truly endless.
Bill Utterback, who writes the posts you read here, is currently in the hospital. Pastor Hannah was able to visit Bill today and is in touch with his family. He is in the ICU and the next 24 to 48 hours will be critical. We should all know by now that Bill is a prayer warrior, and he needs our prayer to help him through his battle with COVID.
I ached in the absence of fellowship, and when I ache, I pray.
Who gets to hear the voice of God? Why?
“I’m struggling to find my own path to more dangerous prayers.”
