Sep 25, 2019
By Carl Greene
Executive Director
Thank you. Thank you for praying for individual churches and their communities, for pastors and their families, for SDB Directors and staff of the General Conference along with their families, and for the work of the General Conference as a whole. Every time you pray, you participate in advancing God’s kingdom—what a blessing. Indeed, one of the principle ways that we partner together in gospel work as a General Conference is through prayer, as I am directly reminded by Paul’s example in Philippians 1:3-5:
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every
prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of
your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
Paul’s gospel work hinges on the partnership of prayer that he has with churches. How true that is for us collectively as Seventh Day Baptists. Our passion for sharing the gospel with communities of existing and future churches relies on our partnership, this koinonia, of prayer. I continue to overflow with joy as people not only send me notes letting me know that they are praying, but also as people directly pray with my family and me, pray with churches, and pause to pray together about the mission that God is calling us to.
As we continue to pray together, I would encourage us to continue to emphasize some specific areas that I sense God calling us to lean into:
Church Revitalization: Pray that our churches know renewed life through the work of the Spirit raising our expectations, deepening our discipleship processes, leading us into outreach in local communities, while bringing health to our pastors and church leaders. Pray specifically for the application of the SDB Pulse process in local churches.
Gospel Saturation: Pray that our collective evangelism temperature is raised: that whatever our passion for gospel sharing is at the moment, that God will be at work in our lives encouraging us to take the next step, to increase our boldness in sharing our faith with others. Pray specifically for the work of the SDB Conference in equipping us for evangelism in our local context.
Church Planting: Pray that God will break through barriers and open up doors for new expressions of Seventh Day Baptist fellowships and groups in areas where we have not previously had a presence. Pray for God to raise up passionate church planters and that we wisely apply resources to leverage the work of church planting. Pray that new churches will be established in new cities and towns throughout the United States and Canada. Specifically pray along with the SDB Advance 21 Prayer Initiative.
Leadership Development: Pray that SDBs will continue to cultivate leaders and facilitate healthy pathways for our emerging leaders to grow and embrace the kingdom work set before them. Pray specifically for leadership initiatives of local churches, the upcoming Multiply Conference, SDB Pastors Conference, SCSC, the participants and teachers in SDBU, as well as the transitions taking place at the Conference level as I become integrated into the SDB team that is already in place.
Finally, partnership in prayer also calls for us knowing about and praying for the specific work of churches. Please continue to let us know how to pray for you and tell us when we can celebrate answered prayer together. I am thankful for the privilege to be praying forward alongside you!