Day of Prayer - 30th November 2022
Day of Prayer
Wednesday 30th November 2022
Prayer
• Call upon God to make us a people who are faithful, consistent, and persistent in prayer.
• Pray for unity among our denomination – between presbyteries, local congregations, and individuals. Pray for peace, love, and harmony in the vision of sharing the Gospel.
• Pray for the vision, pray for the denomination, pray for individual churches, pray for the people and financial resources in the years ahead.
Revitalising churches
• Pray for the 28 churches which have been engaged with the Church Development Track. Give thanks for good ideas generated and for friendships formed.
• Give thanks for recent building projects in Greenock and Fort William.
• Give thanks that the Free Church has congregations throughout Scotland, pray for those in remote areas.
• ‘Lay preachers’ have kept congregations going for years, give thanks for this.
• Ministry in struggling congregations can be tough, pray that ministers and congregations will have resilience.
Planting new churches
• Give thanks to the Lord for the church plants that are taking place in communities across Scotland. Pray for the vision for 30 new churches by 2030 and the vision for “A healthy gospel church for every community” in that God will make the paths straight and preparations will run smoothly.
• Pray that God would keep raising up gifted young leaders to plant new churches right across the nation.
• Pray for church plants to grow, both in numbers and in spiritual health.
• Pray for our church planters, that they would be kept fresh and renewed by God’s grace.
• Pray for steadiness as they walk through the highs and lows of ministry. Pray for their families to know God’s peace and faith through practical uncertainties they may face. Pray for enough money to keep them from worrying. Pray for enough encouragements to keep them going.
Supporting church leaders
• Pray that the courses offered by Edinburgh Theological Seminary (ETS) would be helpful to lay leaders and church members.
• Pray for all ministers in the denomination. That they will always have a passion to know Christ more intimately and minister humbly and in God’s spirit. Pray for the protection of their families.
• Pray for those who lead and teach at Edinburgh Theological Seminary would inspire and train students for ministry.
Recruiting
• Pray for God to call more men into pastoral ministry. As far as we are able to judge our expected needs, we will need 70 new ministers to be called by God in the next 10 years.
• Pray for Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, and the Board of Ministry as they carry the responsibility of assessing applications with appropriate rigour and care.
• Give thanks for those ministers who have recently joined the Free Church from other denominations. Please pray that they would integrate well, and their ministries would be greatly blessed.
• Pray that local congregations would be helped by God to be effective in identifying an external call to ministry in people in their congregations.
• Pray that God would take away fears, doubts and hurdles that may prevent some people from following a call into ministry.
Training
• Pray for all current ministry candidates and for their families.
• Pray for Edinburgh Theological Seminary (ETS) and the Board of Ministry as they partner together in the provision of training. Please pray for all the teaching and administrative staff who provide essential work for the training of ministers
• Pray for the congregations where our candidates are serving as Ministers in Training. Pray for local supervisors, Kirk Sessions, and other local leaders as they seek to train, equip, and encourage our candidates.
• Give thanks for external partners, such as the Bonar Trust, who have given a huge support to our training.
• Pray for enough funding for training.
Evangelism
• Pray that each one of us becomes more intentional in sharing the Gospel. We pray for boldness, an assurance of our beliefs and opportunities to share the good news with our loved ones, colleagues, neighbours and in our communities.
• Give thanks that every verse in the Bible points to Jesus and his salvation and that Jesus is at the centre of every gospel church.
• Pray for lives to be transformed by the truth of the Gospel.
Making disciples
• We pray that we will be purposeful about discipleship to help develop a healthy church.
• Pray for helping and loving relationships between older and younger Christians.
• Give thanks for God’s blessing and provision for the camps that took place over the summer, the Big Free Rally in October and all the young folks that attended.
• Pray that God would continue to work in the hearts and lives of the young folks; that home congregations would nurture them and help them to grow in their faith and pray especially for the young folks that weren’t connected to a church.
Communication
• Pray that the church can tell the story of what God is doing among us for encouragement and to see a bigger picture of God’s love and grace, and the hope we have in Him.
• Pray for wisdom for the church in the public sphere. Pray that the church would engage with current affairs graciously and lovingly.
• Pray for good communication within local congregations and leadership teams.
Partnering with others
• Give thanks to God that we are partnering with other organisations and churches that share the commitment of proclaiming the true Christian message, for the advancement of God’s work.
• Pray that we can work together to see God’s Church become increasingly healthy right across Scotland, and beyond. Jesus Christ is at the very centre of a gospel church.
• Give thanks for the work of our Presbyteries as they support and care for our churches.
• Pray for partnerships with local churches that share the commitment of proclaiming the true Christian message to work well together to do good and be a blessing to the communities God has placed them in.
Finance
• Pray that we as a denomination raise funds to help bring the vision for the revitalisations of congregations, new outreach initiatives and training for ministers into fruition.
• Give thanks to God for those giving so generously from out with our denomination.
• Pray for the financial situation more generally, for those who are worried and struggling about finance.
Global Mission
• Give thanks for lively mission groups/committees in local congregations, pray that these will multiply.
• Give thanks for national churches in South Africa, Peru and India who have all become independent of the Scottish founding church.
• Pray for evangelism among the Jewish people and plead with the Lord to bring about that promised return of Israel.
• Immigration and diaspora have given opportunities to work with internationals in this country.
• Be thankful for many of our young people who have done short term mission in cross-cultural contexts.
For more details about the Healthy Gospel Church vision, go to:
freechurch.org/healthy-gospel-church
