PurposeA Call to Prayer for Revitalization. We encourage all churches to pray, even if you're not actively involved in the initiative. ArchivesCategories |
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Outward Incarnational Focus11/16/2020 For 7 weeks in November and December, we invite all members of the presbytery to pray for the revitalization of our churches and presbytery. Our weekly prayers are based upon the 7 marks of a vital congregation. The focus of this week’s prayer is Outward Incarnational Focus. What is our focus as a congregation? What drives us? For some, the focus is on inward institutional survival. We will do almost anything to keep our church open. But in our inward survival focus, we can lose track of what is happening in the world around us, and how our world needs a dose of good news from the church. Vital congregations have an outward focus. They are aware of their neighbors and surrounding neighborhoods – the needs and the hopes – and they seek to address those needs in tangible ways. Our outward focus is incarnational in that it is modeled after Christ. In Christ, God became human in order to teach us about God and to transform us and heal our world. Having an incarnational focus means that we get our hands dirty in service to the community. It also means that we look for Christ in places and people we don’t expect. For the incarnate Christ dwells among the lowly and least, the stranger and the suffering, the marginalized and the majority. Having an outward incarnational focus is attending to where Christ is already living and present and calling us to dwell. For an example of a church with an outward incarnational focus, please visit https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/pennsylvanias-nottingham-presbyterian-church-hosts-11th-annual-back-to-school-fair/. Surprisingly, when we begin focusing outward, we find that our communities broaden and expand in ways that benefit not only the community but the congregation. Being outward & incarnational is key to our life together as a church. Let us pray: Living God, we give you thanks and praise for the new things you are doing among us. Especially we thank you for the gift of your Word made flesh. Living God, by the gifts of your Spirit, help us to bear witness to the risen Lord by offering your grace to others. Living God, in the great mystery of our faith receive us each night and revive us each day, that we may be dead to sin and alive to you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
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