Launch of St Christopher’s Intercessory Prayer Handbook
On the 6th August, St Christopher’s Anglican Church in Redwoodtown, Blenheim launched its Intercessory Prayer Handbook for its church family. It was the result of several months collaboration by a team of four people, committed to extending and enlivening the prayer life of our congregations. The most important element in church growth initiative is prayer. Vital to the success of any effort to grow a church is a whole-hearted commitment to prayer by the church leadership and by the members of the congregation. As the vision for this church is ‘a growing church for Blenheim, making disciples of Jesus,’ we wanted to ignite the fire of prayer in our church, and this ‘vehicle’ unexpectedly created a fourfold church ministry of prayer based on a range of Biblical principles.
Initially, our Vicar Deo, who suggested we write an Intercessory Handbook, challenged the other three of us. Writing a book of this nature encompasses many elements – from Biblical justification to the nuts and bolts of its production – but we quickly formulated a plan covering all the elements and each took responsibility for different aspects we wanted to feature. We wanted a practical, encouraging document for people as a tangible reference, and set out to produce it with much enthusiasm for the project.
The book is divided into four main sections: the biblical foundation for intercessory prayer, principles for effective intercession, suggestions for prayer for individual needs, and what to pray about for our church ministries, of which we have 26. We included our vision and mission statement, an outline of our fourfold church prayer ministries, and a recommended reading list.
We began this project because we had an established group of intercessors who met regularly. We wanted to encourage and supplement their knowledge. From this it evolved into refining an effective parish prayer chain system, introduced Corporate Prayer to the congregation on a monthly basis and the setting up of a revitalised prayer alcove ministry during and after worship services on a Sunday. We held one-off meetings to draw people into the different prayer ministries in order to provide support and encouragement for participants.
As a result of much prayer this year our services have grown, culminating in a wonderful combined celebration of many cultural groups within our church family of over 150 people on the 30th of July.
If you are interested to obtain a copy of St Christopher’s Intercessory Prayer Handbook, please inquire at office@stchristophers.co.nz or phone 03 578 0139.
Jackie Hall