April
2002
The sound of singing has come ‘See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come…’ Song of Songs
2 verse 12
One of the most encouraging things about being part of the
prayer team at HTB is the number of visits we are able to
make to churches around the country, at their invitation,
and sometimes around the world taking with us the one-day
Dynamic Prayer in the Local Church conference. This conference
is designed to promote and motivate effective prayer at the
local church level.
On Saturday March l6, we spent one such day at Earlsdon Methodist
Church just outside Coventry and we had a wonderful time.
Our hosts were Clive and Barbara Marshall, and we had more
than 220 delegates who packed the church. Our team was led
by Jeremy Jennings who inspired the delegates in the morning
with the talks 'Vision for Effective Prayer' and 'The Practicalities
of Dynamic Prayer' meetings.
We began the afternoon with seminars on Personal Prayer;
How to Lead a Prayer Meeting; Worship in Prayer Meetings and
Prophecy in Prayer Meetings. Then, after a Question and Answer
Session, we came to the highlight of the day, an hour-long
worship and prayer meeting demonstrating much of what we had
learnt during the day. The worship leader was Pam Kennedy
and Jeremy led the prayer.
We prayed, among other things, for local church leaders,
for growth in prayer and evangelism in all our churches and
for the Lord to bring transformation to the area and to our
nation. During the ministry that followed, those who were
already involved with leading a prayer meeting and those who
now intended to be involved were invited to stand to be prayed
for, for the anointing and power of God to be on them. It
was wonderful to see over half the delegates responding. There
is already much prayer going on in this area and it looks
now as if there will be a lot more!
It was this response, together with all the activities going
on at HTB and around the rest of our nation, that made me
think of the scripture written above. The Lord is encouraging
us to see that the winter of gloom and of cold rains over
the country is gone. On the contrary, flowers appear on the
earth and the sound of singing has come. Activity and life
in the shape of effective prayer meetings and life-changing
Alpha courses are springing up everywhere and will bring change.
Individuals are getting converted and filled with the Spirit.
God is on the move.
Further Dynamic Prayer in the Local Church Conferences will
be taking place in Stirling, Scotland, on Saturday, 27 April,
in Sweden (Stockholm and Gothenburg) on 15 and 16 May, and
there will be one at HTB on 23 May. Please contact Julie Mitchell
(julie.mitchell@htb.org) for Stirling and Sweden, and Laura
Hardin (laura.hardin@htb.org) for London.
The Regular Prayer and Worship meetings recommence on Thursday,
25 April 7-8pm; the Tuesday mornings 7-8am restart on 30 April.
The Tuesday and Thursday meetings run until Thursday, 18 July.
Deirdre Hurst
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