About the Prayer Summit:

What’s the Prayer Summit?
On February 23 - 25, many of our people will be in retreat at White Oak Conference Center, for three days of focused worship and prayer. In past years, our church has hosted a church-wide Prayer Conference, but this year we’re making things more personal and will have the opportunity to be in a retreat setting where we can focus on really listening to God. Dr. Daniel Henderson, a gifted and experienced prayer retreat leader, will lead us. Our purpose in the Prayer Summit is to seek God’s will for our own lives and the life our church.

What are we expecting the Prayer Summit to accomplish?
First, we’re looking for God to move our people more deeply into His heart through prayer. Prayer isn’t so much a laundry list of concerns that we bring to the Father as it is personal participation in the Father’s love. Prayer isn’t what we say so much as how we love God. At the Prayer Summit, many of our people will experience an intimacy with God they’ve never had before.

Second, we’re looking for the people touched by the Lord at the Prayer Summit to be the pacesetters for our congregation as a whole when they return. What we discover at the Summit will be the template for what the Lord has for our church as whole. In short, what we’re looking for is spiritual renewal of our congregation.

Click here to learn more about the 2012 Prayer Summit.

Why are you asking us to fast as a preparation for the Prayer Summit?
Dr. Bill Bright, former President of Campus Crusade for Christ, said:
Fasting is the most powerful spiritual discipline of all the Christian disciplines. Through fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit can transform your life. Fasting and prayer can also work on a much grander scale. According to Scripture, personal experience and observation, I am convinced that when God's people fast with a proper Biblical motive-seeking God's face not His hand-with a broken, repentant, and contrite spirit, God will hear from heaven and heal our lives, our churches, our communities, our nation and world. Fasting and prayer can bring about revival - a change in the direction of our nation, the nations of earth and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. The awesome power can be released through you as you fast through the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

As our congregation comes together in this fast, we’ll all be connecting with what the Lord is doing at the Prayer Summit. We’ll all be preparing ourselves for God’s further movement in our church.

What does “fasting” mean?
Fasting means self-denial by going without food for a period of time. Fasting may be total or partial, avoiding certain foods, or eating smaller than normal quantities. Fasting is a means of concentrating our spiritual insight and tapping into God’s Kingdom power through prayer.

What does the Bible say about fasting?
Many people throughout the Bible fasted. Moses fasted forty days before receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28). Daniel fasted three weeks before receiving his vision (Daniel 10:2). Elijah fasted forty days before hearing from God (1 Kings 19:8). Jesus fasted forty days before beginning His earthly ministry (Luke 14:1-2). The early church fasted prior to sending out missionaries (Acts 13:1-3). There are many other examples. God’s Word is filled with people who fast in a variety of ways as a means of drawing closer to God.

How can we be a part of the Prayer Summit fast?

1. Commit to the fast.
For the forty day period—six weeks—leading up to the Summit, we are inviting you to abstain from one meal for each of those weeks and spend the time instead in prayer, six specific occasions when you deliberately sacrifice food for the sake of prayer. Even if you’re not able to actually attend the Summit, this special preparation for it will allow you to spiritually connect with what God wants to do.

Pray for the people at the Summit, that all of us there will be open and receptive to God’s Spirit.
Pray for our church, that as we return from the Summit, our congregation might receive a fresh anointing from the Spirit.
Pray for individual needs within our congregation that you’re aware of.
There will also be times in prayer, when instead of asking something specific from the Lord, you’ll just be still in your spirit and listen for His voice.

2. Select a day and meal.
Pick a day and a meal that works for you. No two people will be the same. Don’t worry about how much time you spend in prayer, either. It’s much more important that you’re authentic in how you pray than that you fill a certain number of minutes on a clock. Follow the same routine each of the six times you pray.

3. Follow a plan
You may want to follow this Scripture guideline as a help in your praying:

First Week (January 14 - 20)
READ: Acts 2:1-4
PRAY:
For the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to those attending the Summit as well as to our church as a whole

Second Week (January 21- 27)
READ: Acts 4:32-35
PRAY:
For our people to experience the healing presence of the Lord, in our hearts, spirits, minds, bodies, relationships, and finances

Third Week (January 28 - February 3)
READ: Acts 8:26-40
PRAY:
That our church would have an increased concern for the lost

Fourth Week (February 4 - 10)
READ: John 4:21-24
PRAY:
That a new spirit of worship would fill our church

Fifth Week (February 11 - 17)
READ: Hebrews 13:7
PRAY:
For our church’s leadership; for the pastoral staff, the lay leaders, the Children and Student workers, the Sunday School teachers and the many other people who provide leadership for our church

Sixth Week (February 18 - 22)
READ: Ephesians 6:18
PRAY:
That a deeper sense of prayerfulness would grip the heart of our congregation