|  Pastor
Sam Tillery
This is the 5th year that City Reach Prayer has been
active!
Our desire is to grow in representation (so that the
life giving churches in this county are represented
at City Reach Prayer. There is then representation that
goes back into and carries the message, the heart and
the passion of what God is doing and bring the Church
together to pray.) A challenge was put out to those
present that even though they may not be an official
delegate of their church, they still are representing
their church and could go back and tell their pastor
that they attended and tell them what it is all about
and such.
City Reach Prayer began with prayer for God to direct
our prayer time together. Time was given to all present
to fill in the blank, ” Father would you tonight...”,
out-loud.
Some of the responses given were; help us to seek your
Will, to listen, give us your heart, pray your hearts
desire, be obedient, show up in power and mercy, VALIDATE
OUR UNITY, break through in our county, reveal your
vision, destroy apathy, breakdown strongholds, increase
our faith, show us where we have other god’s before
you Lord.
Help us to look to the cross instead of ourselves,
give us ears to hear,... Father we come tonight to pray,
but we are in need of you to lead us. What is your heart,
what are the words that are upon your lips? What would
you have us to speak to release in Santa Rosa, Sonoma
County your Will?
So, Father, as we come before you tonight, remove us
from the way we normally pray and deepen us together
in hearing from you that we may speak what you want
us to speak to unleash and unfold your plan and purpose
in this place. May we learn to be precise and focused
on that which would please you. We thank you Lord that
we are one in Christ! Tonight, we represent may congregations
and we thank you for the miracle in Sonoma County that
we gather from different congregations as one voice,
one heart seeking after you. So, be with us tonight
we pray, Amen.
All present were given the task of finding 3 people
that they did not know, from 3 different churches and
get their names.
Pastor Sam Tillery then introduced Harry Skandera of
Santa Rosa Christian Church and S.R. Christian School.
Harry had those present sign in on the sign up sheet.
Sam Tillery
Stated that we have a lot to cover tonight, especially
with the shift from 2004 to 2005, so we are going to
jump around a little bit and share some things of what
God is doing.
He brought our attention to Luke 21:25. As he was
over at the Jackson’s home, he was discussing
the disasters with the Tsunami and this passage (Luke
21:25), came up and shared it last Sunday, it's speaking
of the end of the age.
(King James Version)
25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the
moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of
nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26 men’s heart failing them from fear and the
expectation of those things which are coming on the
earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.“
(New American Bible)
25 "There will be signs in the sun, the moon,
and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
26 People will die of fright in anticipation of what
is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens
will be shaken.
27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory."
There are things happening that are different than
in the past. Scripture speaks of these things that in
the latter days there will be increase of earthquakes
and all kinds of things of this nature. Really, if you
track what we have been experiencing the past 5-10 years
with the increase of earthquakes, it has been pretty
great.
As you think about the earthquake that just happened,
a 9.0-9.1, different than most earthquakes in that the
plates rammed together thrusting upward, displacing
a large mass of water (hundreds of miles), causing a
great devastation to those in it’s path. I think
that it would be appropriate that we take a few moments
from our local thinking, which is very important for
us to pray locally, because if we don’t then who
is, but we realize that there is a responsibility that
we have and it goes beyond just that people get water
and medical care, but the greatest need that everyone
has, because sooner or later we are all going to die.
Whether from a car crash, some disease or whatever avenue
God chooses to use, whatever vehicle God allows to carry
me into His presence, I need to be ready. We don’t
know when Jesus Christ is going to come, so in the midst
of this as we pray for all the needs, the greater need
, we pray that these meeting these needs would be an
avenue of putting perspective and bringing true life,
which may not change their lifestyle, but will ready
them for their maker.
So let’s break up with those around us and pray
for these victims and those who are going to minister,
help those millions of people that have been affected
by this. There has been talk of how these areas that
are so in need of the help have stated that they will
not tolerate Christians sharing the Gospel, but that
they can help with food etc.., so let’s remember
that the enemy likes to intimidate with, ”you
can’t do that”, but we need to be wise,
so this is very complex, so let’s pray into this
and then I’ll bring us back here in just a few
moments.
Sam Tillery brought us back together with an e-mail
that he had received from Carol Skandera that George
Barna sent out, a report for 2004. A couple high-lights
that I think relate to us, that we need to pray into,
cause I think that it is no different for us in our
county. It says that only about 7% of born again Christians
tithe. Can you imagine what could happen if the body
of Christ was obedient and what could be done, so, somebody
pray out loud that this would change.
Would you all agree that we have a Biblical responsibility
to proclaim the Gospel and to be a witness and maybe
somehow we as pastor’s don’t always speak
about that we also have a responsibility to give everything
to the Lord. We’ve been deputized by Him to go
into the world and represent Him as ambassadors as Corinthians
talks about. So God would you release within the body
of Christ, in a measurable way that we can see this
year, in Sonoma County, an understanding, but first
take away the blinders from the body of Christ and bring
forth and heart and a passion to invest in eternity.
So, Lord may the churches in this county not lack for
resources, but be overwhelmed with what do we do with
this amount of resources, a different kind of problem.
So Father, do it in such a way that we can remember
that on this day we prayed that you would release it,
and Father that it would be so overwhelmingly noticeable,
again we would praise you. And then make us wise in
the spending of those resources, and investing of those
resources in the building of your Kingdom, bringing
forth your will in this county and in these local churches.
Do you all agree with that?
Someone spoke up about how Malachi states how when
we fail to bring forth our tithes to the lord, that
we are putting ourselves under a curse. Awaken us to
this Lord.
It is an exciting thing to look at this, because within
giving to God comes greater freedom for those who learn
to give to God first. - Another thing that George brought
out in his e-mail was the fact that there is a continuing
rise in the number of unchurched Americans, especially
in the area of men. He says that the number of unchurched
adults has nearly doubled from 38 million to 75 million
in the past decade. He goes on to say, and I fully agree,
that men who are leaders, typically are not allowed
to lead within the church. They come into an environment
where the senior pastor is a teacher pretending to lead,
thus, men who are called and gifted as leaders, become
a threat to the Pastor.
To those men, church is very frustrating, and church
is a very frustrating place to be. Church is not intellectually
challenging to them. These men look around to see how
poorly run the church is, in ways they could never get
away with in their businesses, and are not willing to
put up with that in their free time, and they don’t
have any meaningful relationships arising from within
their church. One of the ministries of Pastor’s
Prayer Fellowship this last year was to establish a
BUSINESS LEADERS PRAYER FORUM.
We began to meet once a week on Tuesday mornings from
7 to 8, to pray that God would unlock and bring Christ
into the marketplace. The qualifications to be a part
of this group was to be an owner of a business or in
management. And at that level begin to pray into those
deeper things that most churches and pastors aren't
geared toward thinking and praying into.
One of the areas of research that Harry Skandera and
some of the others has done in our own city and this
area is to realize that we believe that breakthrough
is to come and the key is within the business community,
not necessarily within the churches and we won’t
go into the history of all why that may be, but I have
been a part of encouraging and challenging these business
leaders, and we just turned the corner this year and
last week and this coming week we’re planning
this next year of what they’re going to do, and
the challenge is that they’re not boxed in now
to the mind-set of thinking Sunday to Sunday.
Most churches and pastors think that everything revolves
around Sunday morning, and there is nothing wrong with
Sunday morning and that is a good thing to do, but there
is a whole lot more time and places where Christ needs
to be proclaimed than Sunday morning, and Sunday morning
doesn't’t give place for a lot of creative people
who want to reach the city. When the mind-set is on,
”who is going to be our next Sunday school teacher
and take of the children and this and that, and that
is a narrow view when there is so much more, so there
is no expression as he (George) expresses here, there
is a decline, so I’ve seen these business leaders
now begin to have a focus and a direction for their
prayers, “we’re going to reach the market
place, we’re going after big game”. And
so we, they, began to make a list of names and owners
of businesses that they knew were Christians, that were
camouflage Christians in the marketplace and they are
going after them in prayer very specifically by name.
Now it’s moving to that every month like city
reach, they are establishing their own city reach, but
they are going to go on site to businesses connecting
with the Christian business leaders, because the first
belief is not evangelism, but to strengthen and bring
forth the Christian business leaders, men and women,
and what God has called them to be in the marketplace.
A list is being established, dates are being set where
they will be going on prayer walks and the discovery
is that there is so much more that needs to happen that
can happen on a once a month thing, so there is going
to be a schedule for once a month, and now they’re
going to start moving so once a month Tuesday they will
be going to a different location where they will be
prayer walking and supporting those in that particular
area.
Then it is going to expand in that it will happen every
week with smaller teams beginning to multiply and do
this. This is what is happening, and it’s exciting
because it is going to unlock things, because the church
thinks about it’s own fortress and the mind-set
of a fortress. These men and women are thinking way
beyond that and their churches and we all will be blessed
as they are released. And so, as we’ve released
them, they’re starting to run and get excited,
and I just talked to a business man who manages a large
retail store in town and told him to let us know what
day he would like us to come to his place, and he is
so excited and can’t wait to figure out when we
can come and pray.
We’ve already been praying for individuals, so
I just share this, because this is now moving from just
a quiet group that has been praying just the last half
of this year, to now moving into a more aggressive role
of saying that this is something we can do and pray
into, for specific individuals and
I could go into some pretty exciting stories, but I
don’t have time tonight, but the key is for churches
and leaders to see that these individuals within their
ministries are released. So, you may be a business person
or you may know within your church, connect with your
pastor and say, “hey, can you appoint” and
these have all been appointed, I asked pastors to pick
one or two and ask them to represent your church in
the business leaders prayer forum. What happened was
I got very few.
This illustrated for me this truth, speaking as a pastor,”
that is they get involved in this, then he/she is not
going to be my Sunday school teacher”. I am saying
this not to criticize, but to pray for the opposite
in a positive way. If you really get down to it, we
all have a great need, but most of our local churches
cannot provide the diversity and a great enough challenge,
and if we lock it into that, we are going to keep seeing
what we see which is minimal results and churches the
sizes we are, just getting by and not having an impact
and influence in the city. So what we need to do is
to pray that God would open our mind-set, THAT WE WOULD
SEE THE CITY AS HE SEES IT, THAT WE WOULD SEE THAT WE
ARE LABORING TOGETHER FOR A HARVEST that won’t
be measured by how many can fit into Foothills Community
Church, the need is far greater, to how many can fit
into however many multiple services that we may move
to have. So, let’s pray into the top side, the
positive side of this, “God would you release
as it relates to the business leaders in the community”,
so, let’s get into some small groups and begin
to pray into this now.
Lord, I picture you in the boat with the disciples
during the storm, and you having to calm the storm and
address the disciples as ,”ye of little faith”,
Lord , I pray that we would not be of little faith in
releasing these men/women in our church into the community.
That we (the church leaders, pastors, elders), each
body would have faith to know that you are big enough
to hold the body together and big enough to bring in
new teachers, new leaders, to release people within
the body who maybe have never used their gift before,
may be there are men who are born leaders, but have
never stepped out yet because they are waiting to be
called on , have fear, or afraid of being locked in,
Lord I just pray for a spirit of freedom in the people
to go and be and move out where they need to go and
be and move out to make an impact. Awaken their spirits,
make them feel alive, using the gifting's that you have
put in each man and woman. Lord, may you release the
business leaders from the bodies to go and be where
they need to be to make a sound for you, Lord, in the
community.
Sam Tillery shared part of an encouraging testimony
from an e-mail that he had gotten from a Christian businessman
named John Reckon of Total Concepts. He states, “It
is a battlefield, but God is willing, wants to, should
be allowed, since He owns it anyway, to use our business
to further His Kingdom.
Now, this is an e-mail to say these are the prayer
points, could you guys pray for us on Tuesday mornings,
so we took this and this was our prayer agenda for part
of that given morning a few weeks ago. It goes on, but
I can’t share it all now. Just a little more,
it goes on to say,” Give us vision to express
Christ’s witness in our business that will demonstrate
the love of Christ and avoid judgment”, I mean,
each one of these are like dynamite, so I’m going
to close with that, but just the idea that this is a
living person and just one within our community who
needs and is hungry for this kind of support. And as
they begin to get support from other businessmen, it
inspires them to go,”WOW, I can live for Christ
and be successful”.
There are business leaders within your churches that
need to be given the freedom that need to go and be
the salt and light in the business community. Continue
to pray into these things, and we’re not looking
for just anyone to come into the prayer forum, people
who want to pray and who are called to pray. Not everyone
if called to pray in this kind of way, but I want you
to see and look forward to this next year for what God
is going to unfold in the business community, because
we began to be in prayer for these and to release a
blessing that we may never see unless the business leaders
step out.
Harry Skandera
One of the things that is exciting about tonight, is
that, well, I think that you can hear God from reading
His word and praying, but also from as Paul said in
Romans that people will be left without excuse before
God, because He is everywhere in the creation, in other
words, God is where you look for Him. And if you have
ears to hear, eyes to see, you can hear and see Him,
because He is at work everywhere. We have so many things
now that are coming over the Internet of reports from
around our world, country and state that are exciting.
Many of you have prayed for a long time and I’m
sure that before any of us prayed in this county, that
there were those who prayed for God’s will to
be done in this place, but there is a key phrase I think
is worth remembering, P.U.S.H. - Pray Until
Something Happens!
Sometimes you can’t see the forest through the
trees, but something that is striking me about 2005
is that something is happening on virtually every level
in our county and you bear testimony to that. We’ve
been doing this for 5 years and usually in January we’d
fit on a couple of rows, but you’re here and this
is a very diverse group. You’ve come from a number
of cities and churches, and I hear God in that, because
I see that the faith of the body of Christ in Sonoma
County is being stirred in a way that it hasn't’t
been stirred before. I think this pattern, from what
I see and hear, is being repeated all across this country.
This is a critical time not only in our lifetime, but
for our country, and many people think that the state
of California is a real key in all of this and many
of us are being called to stand in the gap for our time.
There is an organization that has been formed over the
last couple of years called Pray California. It is a
group of prayer people that are organized by regions
and up until last April, there were 7 regions.
They had always believed that there were supposed to
be 8 regions in California, but they could never figure
out what the 8th region was. I got invited to go to
a meeting last April in Sacramento, and a good brother
who has since passed away, asked me to come and said.
“You need to a look at the North coast area of
California, you’ve got then lumped in with
the San Francisco Bay area, and they don’t consider
themselves part of the Bay Area, they consider themselves
a totally different entity”. So, Carol and I went
and we shared and people began coming out of their seats
and everything, because they said, ”This is it,
this is it, you’re the lost coast”, and
I believe that is true. A lot of you signed a roll sheet
tonight, and if any of you are interested in Pray California,
before you leave tonight, put a little star by your
name.
They have asked us to begin to call people to pray,
the state, all 58 counties, will be prayed for one week
of the year, obviously it looks like their going to
have to double up on a few weeks. This week will be
for Fresno county. If you go onto the Pray California
website, they’ll have a whole layout of the issues,
history and so forth, but the counties are beginning
to pray for one another. We began to break that down
in that we’ve began to pray for each other by
cities and churches, actually we started by praying
for all the different churches and pastors, and it’s
grown to cities, and so I want to challenge you to be
a part of it. The other part that I want to share with
you tonight is about Praying Until Something Happens.
The Bible says that you shall know the truth and the
truth shall set you free. We see things reported in
the news all the time and we wonder what’s the
story behind the story. I don’t know if many of
us are aware of the recent election in the Ukraine which
amounted to something like a revolution.
The previous guy who had been in office who represented
the old way of thinking, had pretty much sabotaged the
election, everyone knew that it had been very corrupt.
The candidate that everyone was hoping for had apparently
been defeated. What happened was his followers came
and camped out in the middle of the Capital, Kiev square,
in protest, and the interesting thing about the protest,
even as it was coveted in the media, said this is like
no other protest that we’ve seen, it’s like
they’re having a big party out here. There is
something strange going on. They’re not moving,
it’s snowing, people have put up tents, but they
want to see a fair count, but anyway it got pushed into
the Ukrainian Supreme court, they overturned the result,
and had another re-count. The challenger who was a Christian
was swept into office. He was poisoned during the campaign
and he bears the mark of the poison (which should have
killed him) on his face, and if you see the pictures,
he was a handsome man, but his face is now very disfigured.
His face may clear up in years, but this was a serious
spiritual battle.
I am going to ask you just to listen to this for a
moment, before we pray, this is the report behind that:..[.it
is appropriate that the revolution that brought such
radical political change took place at Christmas time.
That is because radical revolution supporters including
the new leaders wife, believes that it is a gift from
God.
They received letters from people around the world
saying that entire churches were praying. I had a small
group of women praying here in Kiev who prayed for us
everyday and I really want to thank them, because I
think that is what saved my husband and that’s
what made Ukraine free.
Sundee, a Nigerian, a charismatic Christian, who pastor’s
Ukraine’s largest church, says that it was the
persistent prayers of the Christians for this country
and it’s election that brought about the revolution.
"The last 5 years we prayed at our church every
day, from 11 o’clock at night until 6 in the morning
praying for revival in this country, so there is no
way something like this would not happen. When revolution
came, Christians of all denominations supported it whole
heartedly", and Sundee told us that Independence
square felt more like a church service than a political
rally. They said this on the T.V., newspapers and on
the radio. They said they didn't’t feel like they
had been to a protest or a revolution, but to a revival
service, and he says that many came to know Christ.
Over 50 men a day were coming to the Lord, while the
protest thing was happening.
So, it was a revival meeting. Sundee, like his 20,000
member church, is a rarity in the Ukraine, as is his
message, that Christians should be involved in the political
process. He went to say that we’re not going to
be politicized, we are going to be involved in deciding
the destiny of our Nation. We are going to be involved
in keeping the awareness, If we don’t bring the
Christian flavor and the Bible standards into this revolution,
then nothing is going to happen. It is amazing what
God has done in this country and it is because the leaders
and others in that movement and process are Christians,
so the Spirit of Christ has prevailed.
Harry Skandera
There is a big change that is upon the world, and it
has been presented to us as a possibility, it is the
change and it is the war that is not between Christians
and Muslims, but is between the selfish and the self-sacrificing.
America is torn, we have so much, and because we have
so much, it is so easy to be selfish with it. Despite
of so many things in the news, I am not aware of a world
power that has been as selfless as we have been and
are. I wanted to take some time for us to spend individually
in silent prayer asking the Lord to help us in our journey
of selflessness, because just as we put out the notice
to be a part of Pray California, or Pray Sonoma county
or Santa Rosa, if you participate for any period of
time, you’ll be challenged to lay down something.
Sam talked about the businessmen getting a vision for
the kingdom of God in their business. Some of us are
businessmen, some of us are pastors, we are many things,
all of us are born selfish. That is one thing that we
have to take up our cross daily on. So, let’s
take the next couple minutes to surrender ourselves
anew to Him, in this year 2005.
Father, we know that we have to begin with ourselves,
so we ask tonight as we stand in this place, Sonoma
Avenue Church of Christ, That you would help us, Lord,
to take up our cross, the one that you have specifically
for the each of us. Help us Lord to begin with ourselves.
Expand and release our faith to become all that you
want us to be, not just individually, but as the body
of Christ. Amen
One thing that really bothers me is I read on the
internet a lot about the war, people have a lot of different
opinions about the war, but one thing that really strikes
me, and I don’t know who is thanking God for it
other than those people whose life is being spared,
it strikes me that it would be good for us to pray and
support for the armies of our nation, I believe to fulfill
our destiny of what is happening in Iraq. We are accused
of a lot of things, but when America subdued Iraq, it
not only resisted seizing it’s oil and oil revenues,
but continued to pay full retail for it’s oil,
gave billions in aid and forgave over 100 billion in
debt.
America continues to make sacrifices of it’s
own soldiers, to help establish the authority of a stable
government, that will not likely even show us much gratitude
when we leave. That’s not something we hear every
day in the papers.
You may or may not be for the war in Iraq, but we do
need to, I believe, give thanks for the courage of our
leaders, and ask God for protection and wisdom for them
in the situations they face. I think that as Christians
we can do that, that we do not have to be discouraged
or whipped up by all the bad news that can come out
of a place. I think that we can release by our prayers
and by our faith in God and by the leaders that he has
brought over us, we can do something that is right and
good. Now I would like for us to break up to pray for
President Bush, Our nation and for what we are doing
in Iraq.
Sam Tillery
Next month city reach will be at Bethel Baptist where
Pastor Dave will be hosting us, and then for the remainder
of the year our prayer is that we will be in churches
that we have never been in before, I will be posting
5 new churches on our website,
Reconciliation and Restoration are part of what we
are purposely wanting to do in our county. God is moving
us to reconcile and to establish a relationship that
was never there with the Native American Indian population.
Just a few weeks ago, a team of about 10 went up to
Round Valley and spent some time beginning with those
aspects of us working in relationship to bring healing,
I won’t go into all of the details, but there
will be more for you to pray into and actually go to
Round Valley with us to minister and really seek God’s
direction as to what that looks like. That is important
for breakthrough in our churches and in our community
to set things right that were broken in the past. The
Bible teaches in Romans and other portions that we overcome
evil with good, so we need to not just pray, but to
walk in what is right, so, that is what we are daring
to do. You'll be hearing more this year about Round
Valley and the ministry there.
We had a one day Pastors Prayer Summit a few months
back, and within that we featured Pastor Ben Mindell
and we prayed into reconciliation and restoration with
Native American Indians, Then we had a representative
from the Jewish community, Miles Weiss, and we prayed
into the issues, a deeper understanding of the Jews
and Israel.
One of the areas that you can pray into is there has
been a trip established for Pastors and ministry leaders
March 29, two days after Easter, and will be gone 10
days.
We will be going into Israel, to not just see the sights,
but to really intermingle with those in the prayer movement,
the pastors, those that are on the grounds, behind the
scenes and government officials, working at a deeper
understanding of the connection, and we want to bring
back as leaders ways and things that we can release
here in our own community, so if you could be praying
for us as that group is being established now. It is
being put together by Miles Weiss and by Rosemary Schindler.
Many of you have heard of the film, Schindler's List,
Rosemary married into the family and is carrying on
the legacy that Oscar Schindler established in bringing
freedom to the Jews. She is very well respected in Israel,
the government, so she will be a part of that. She has
a ministry called Schindler's Ark and in fact will be
with us next Wednesday at Pastors Prayer Fellowship
sharing about this trip, and so this is a very strategic
trip, because it's not for Pastors just to go to go
say that we went to the Holy Land, but to really catch
the heart of God for Israel and the Jews and bring that
back to our county, in releasing, so be in prayer as
God puts together this team of Pastors and ministry
leaders for that trip.
There is need for dollars for many pastors who did
not plan this in their budget and it's a challenge nowadays
to do a lot of these things, so just pray into that.
You may want to ask if your Pastor might be interested,
so this will be happening pretty quickly now, so if
you know if your pastor of other ministry leader is
interested, please see me and we can give you more details
as far as that is concerned. These are two areas that
we are going to be tangibly moving forward in this year,
continuing to establish relationship and reconciliation
and restoration with the Native American Indians and
a deeper understanding of the issues with Israel and
how that relates to us right here in this county. So,
those are two areas that are strategic in our prayer
and the steps that we are taking.
May is going to be a very big month of prayer, On the
5th of May, which is a Thursday, is the National Day
of Prayer and Dave will be leading that on behalf of
the Pastors Prayer Fellowship. There will be a large
gathering of the body of Christ for that, so you will
want to mark your calendar. The National day of prayer
is coupled with a local day of prayer and we have been
invited by the country of Africa to join with them,
this will be the first time in the history of the world
that this amount of people will have united to pray
on the same day, and so on May 15 is the Global day
of prayer, and being led by Africa.
Next month we will show you a video invitation from
Africa to us and the rest of the world. There are now
about 160 some odd countries already signed up for this
Global Day of Prayer, so beginning the 5th, the National
Day of Prayer office is joining in with the Global Day
of Prayer, and when I was in San Diego meeting with
various one's in the prayer movement, it was exciting
to see what God is bringing together. It's very focused,
very organized, so you'll be hearing more about that
and you'll want to be asking your pastors is they've
heard about May 15th and the Global day of prayer, most
of them probably have not, so what you can be doing
is stirring a sense of wow there are some things happening
and you may want to check it out, go onto the web and
just type in Global Day of Prayer and find out information,
so that is coming in May, we'll be having on May 5th,
National day of prayer, and May 6th is the first Friday
of the month, so we don't stop praying just because
everyone came out on Thursday.
Actually, beginning on the 5th, there is a, we're being
asked to move into 24/7 hour prayer until the Global
day of prayer, so we'll be organizing some things as
far as that is concerned. So, May, as your looking at
your church calendars is a big month moving in regards
to prayer and we believe that is going to really release
some significant things as the world gathers the body
of Christ praying the same things over that time, over
the various time zones, praying through the same materials
in agreement for our areas as well as for the world,
so be mindful of that as far as this prayer is concerned.
Now, when I came up here and looked out, I was pleasantly
surprised to see a friend of ours some of you may not
know, a beautiful gal from Russia, Nadia, and we welcome
you Nadiam and I'm going to ask Rob, would you come
for just a quick moment, he's looking at me like,"
I don't know what you want me to do here", but
I think it was about 2 years ago you (Nadia) were at
pastors prayer summit up in Tahoe and we very specifically
prayed for you, and I heard a few things happened thereafter
of God's positioning you, and I want to ask Rob, if
you would come and set the stage on that, because we
were a part of as pastors to pray into and to see what
God is doing, so if you'll share that really briefly.
Pastor Rob
Well I'm not sure if I should set the stage or just
let her explain, because I'm sure that Nadia can do
it far better than I, but we did at that prayer summit
pray for Nadia as God continues to take a very remarkable
young lady and put her in just incredible positions
in terms of where she works, her employment. God continues
to put her in positions of responsibility, so Nadia
we prayed for you as you asked us to, because you were
seeking God's guidance, so why don't you come on up
and just share what's been happening, what's God been
doing in your life since two years ago.
Nadia -
I am happy to be here again and to see faces I have
seen before. Well, during those two years the bank I
am working at, the central bank of Russia sent me to
Moscow, I'm living in Siberia, but they sent me to Moscow
and I am the first one they sent there for special training.
They train people to work with commercial banks. I spent
about 4 months in Moscow and passed many exams there,
and for the last two years, I mostly worked, I didn't
work with the church as much as I used to, because I
was busy at the bank, but I think it is God's doing,
because I got the opportunity to risk and study and
use my new skills and apply myself and everything.
Pastor Rob -
Well, I think that Nadia has been very modest in her
brief description. I can see how God is placing her,
I kind of see her as a female counterpart to Joseph,
if you will. God just continues to put her in higher
and higher positions where very few followers of Christ
are found, and I know that Nadia's prayers have not
been to climb a latter to achieve something where she
can earn money and this and that kind of thing, her
heart has always been, "God, how can you best use
me"?
We've talked sometimes between ourselves of whether
she should just give up the work in the central bank
and just go into some kind of full time ministry interpreting
or whatever, but God continues to hear her prayer of,
"Lord, whatever you want", and just continues
to put her in these kinds of positions, and I don't
think Nadia still completely understands where God is
taking her and all the doors He is opening up to her,
but her heart is willing to go wherever He wants her
to.
A little background: Nadia really is here because of
our church originally having a relationship with a church
in Russia. As that relationship continued, a prayer
fellowship began there, because of our prayer fellowship
here. Nadia is no longer in that city, but she has been
a vital link and a representative of them to us when
she's been here, and in God's economy of things, I don't
think that there is any chance that this could be accidental.
That as our body of Christ here is linked up with the
body of Christ in Russia, and she's been right in the
middle of that is evidence that God is using our prayers
to help Nadia, just as she has helped us in Russia,
so anyway, just continue to pray for her. God has a
unique position in this world for Nadia, like few people
have, ok, so Harry has asked us to pray, so let's go
ahead and pray now for her.
Harry Skandera
We are going to get to ministering to the Host church,
Church of Christ. We've actually been here twice and
are actually going to ask something of Church of Christ.
We have this thing, we call it "earned virtue".
When we believe that someone has been faithful to steward
something, a particular area that they've received results
in someway or have prayed through in a particular area,
I believe that God grants them some authority in that
area.
For example, I can pray for pregnant women and God
will hear my prayer, but I've never been pregnant, I
don't have too much earned virtue in that area, however,
my wife who has had 4 children, can pray for pregnant
women, having delivered 4, and has a little bit more
to say, you know what I'm saying? It carries a little
more weight. So, that's what we mean when we talk about
earned virtue.
When we were here in 2001, I remember that we went
to the four corners of the property and we prayed that
God would extend their borders. I know they have a testimony
about that, but before they share that, I want to share
that the other thing that we prayed for a women who
had cancer for healing. That women is still alive today,
I think that that is significant for a lot of reasons.
At the time it was significant, because here were a
bunch of people from the Church of Christ praying for
a Baptist lady, and that would be even more significant
if you remember what we did the next time we came to
the Sonoma Avenue Church of Christ in 2002, to me that
was a, having been raised in the Church of Christ, was
one of the most moving City Reaches that I have been
a part of, because in that, the elders of this church,
got up and asked forgiveness for the rest of the body
of Christ for having an attitude of "we are the
only ones really going to heaven", kind of a thing.
You know, a lot of us carry that in different kinds
of ways, but at any rate, it was very meaningful. So,
I would like to ask the brothers and sisters of Sonoma
Avenue Church of Christ to come on up and stand along
the side here, cause we are going to need your help
here in just a minute. See, I figure this body has some
earned virtue in the area of expanding borders.
You guys have a new piece of property as I understand.
11 acres, ok, well I'm going to let them give that testimony,
but they also have earned virtue in healing and also,
more importantly, in humility. It was also the first
City Reach Prayer where we were in a church were the
leadership asked forgiveness. That was kind of a precedence
setting thing, very significant spiritually.
I know that you guys don't go around patting yourself
on the back or maybe even thinking about these things
that much, but what I am saying is that you have something
to give to us, something that you can bless us with
and some authority before the throne of God that we
can appreciate, so what I am going to ask you to do
is, if there is anyone here that would like prayer in
any of these areas, if you'd be willing to pray for
them?
I would like anyone here tonight who would like to
receive prayer for healing, for expanded borders or
for humility, would you come up and you could share
it privately with one of the members of Sonoma Avenue
Church of Christ and they will pray for you. In fact,
you can start coming right now. Go ahead and spread
across the front. Prayer for HEALING, EXPANDED BORDERS
(including things maybe like release, including prosperity,
an obstacle your trying to move beyond kind of a thing),
and HUMILITY.
Now what we're seeing here is again, we said that
in 2005 is going to be a year of release in the body
of Christ and we're asking for one part of the body
of Christ to speak release to the rest of the body in
particular areas. For those of you that are not up here,
I just encourage you to pray, give thanks for the body
of Christ ministering to the city.
Pastor Barny
I really want to say thank you for those of you who
are here tonight, this is really wonderful! What a great
way to start the new year out. I am just going to share
a couple of things and there are a few other elders
here too, so if they would like to add anything also,
but uh, just 3 areas, I have to have a 3-point sermon
no matter what, 3 areas that you can pray into specifically,
some of which Harry has already eluded to the fact that
we have already purchased some property that is off
of Snyder lane in Rohnert Park. We've had this wonderful
facility, you can see that it is very old, but the people
that built it, built it in 1953 and it was paid for
after a couple of months of being in it, so they've
had lots and lots of funds available through the years
for missions, local and foreign, so God really has used
that, but this building literally is falling in, so
I would encourage you not to lean up against the walls
(ha,ha,ha).
We have a saying here that if the termites quite holding
hands, then everything is going to fall in, so, and
it's kind of been like a hodgepodge of 3 properties
that we have purchased over the past years and added
to what we have, but our main concern is that we are
now moving into the planning phase of the building.
We've hired an architect from Phoenix, Kevin Callahan,
and he's kind of leading us through the process of designing
the building ourselves, and I can already sense a little,
I really believe that this has the potential to really
unify us around this common goal of building this building,
but also has the potential to really divide us. I can
already sense a little of that," well, I want this",
and,"we've got to have that", and so on, and
I would just ask that you would pray above and beyond
any of this, that the Lord will really guide us as we
plan.
I would guess that it is going to be about 3-5 years
before we are actually in our new building. You know,
the financial aspect of course, but more so spiritually
that this really unites us instead of divides us. That's
really critical and really key, and the only way that
is going to happen I believe is if God really gives
us a heart to be seeking His will and guide and lead
us. So, that would be the first thing I would like to
pray for.
Secondly, as a church this year, we have a theme that
we have selected for what we would like my sermons to
be about and what a lot of our ministries will be focusing
on, and that is going to be, "Knowing our Identity",
that we really know who we are in relation to Christ
which makes a difference in how we relate to all that
we say and do. There is so much in the scriptures that
describe that, we're going to be building towards that
blessing in Christ and understanding, you know eventually
we will lead towards the implications of that identity,
A royal priesthood, a Holy Nation,... really there are
implications about that, and so, my prayer would be
that we would really get that individually and as a
church body and this year have a real clear sense of
who God has called us to be and who He wants us to be.
Not just as the Sonoma Avenue Church of Christ, but
as His family and part of His body.
And then the 3rd thing that follows into that, is that
we really would have a real passion for the lost, a
real ache to see lost souls come to Christ. I guess
you could pray for God to make us miserable in a sense,
just hurt for lost people. We have a great church, lots
of great people that have gifts of mercy and service,
some wonderful recovery ministries, divorce etc.., others
that are service oriented, but I believe that God really
needs to a deeper level of sharing the love of Christ
in a deeper way. Kind of like how Don Norris talks about
the "net washing revival", really we spend
a lot of time washing those nets and we've got some
clean nets in here, you know, we have a lot of meetings
and discuss a lot of things, but let's just pray for
God to help us put those nets in the water and do some
more fishing.
Anything you guys want to add? Ok. Oh, and also, we
had a real amazing family here by the name of Clay and
Laura Stewart, two of the most unselfish, servants of
God I've ever met. They were two of the most humble
people you would have ever met. They never had any children,
both died in their 80's, were married for about 66 years
and you would see them sometimes holding hands in the
grocery store, it was so precious you know. They lived
in a mobile home park, lived very humbly and when they
died, they left us 750 thousand dollars in this church,
and we were able with that to purchase the property,
so we remember them and all that God is doing with that.
Harry Skandera
Ok, we want to pray for the unity in this body and the
coming forth of the design/creativity of the new building.
We want to pray for God's heart for the lost, and that
they would really understand their identity in Christ.
Let's get Sonoma Avenue Church of Christ to , well,
we won't be able to call you that anymore(ha, ha,ha),
anyway, so let's have all the members out here in the
middle isle. Everybody else, come on up and surround
them, get your place on the firing line to pray. Some
of you have particular things on your heart to pray
right now that were quickened in you has he shared their
testimony as a church, and others of you, God is going
to give you something as you are standing there before
them, so we're not going to pray this one at a time,
this is like a Tsunami (ha,ha) to now pray over the
Sonoma Avenue Church of Christ now.
We really appreciate being here at Sonoma Avenue Church
of Christ and Sam is going to come up in just a second,
but what I want to say is this. California is going
to shift. We need to believe that and we need to pray
as though we believe that. One reason I like praying
in this building, with these people, is that they've
shifted. We mentioned the elders here were the first
group of leaders who repented. I'm not saying that every
group of leaders needs to repent, but what I'm saying
is that for a group of leaders to do it is a big deal.
We can stand here in a place that has responded to God
in a way that He wants to call us to respond on a bigger
way this year, and pray that God will give us the ability
as a state and a people to shift. I would like to pray
for that before Sam comes up to close.
Sam Tillery
As we wrap up, I was reflecting on the woman that you
all prayed for that is in my church, Virginia, and that's
been two years God has given her, and she has always
been such a blessing and has led our prayer in our congregation
for many years.
She is the place now where things have changed and
her time may be getting closer, but when she brought
that to you, it was three years ago, and the blessing
in that is that the body of Christ was a part of her
prayer, her need, and seeing her be the recipient of
that. (someone present at city reach) - I just want
to share a testimony about Virginia, the last 6-8 months
of this woman's life, a spirit of Evangelism has come
upon her and she is passionate about doing as much damage
as she possibly can to Satan's kingdom before she leaves
this place.
She has been passing out tracts to everybody, witnessing
to all of her doctors, friends and people she meets.
Her Christmas letters all had the four spiritual laws
in them and right now she is on fire for Jesus, even
in her weakness. She has slowed down a little bit, but
her same spirit is quite in tact and she's in joy. She's
not in any fear, any doubt and she wants to go out with
a harvest. If she could be here and ask for your prayers,
she would ask that God would give her a harvest of souls
before she leaves. She recorded her own message, because
she said she wants to preach at her own funeral.
Barny
I would also like it if Mike, a man from our congregation
could share, his wife just passed away this year from
cancer and she was a lot the same way as Virginia is.
She was kind of like a second mom to a lot of the young
singles in our church. I am sure that Mike would appreciate
your prayers. I know that he is glad that 2005 is here.
Anything that you would like to share Mike?
Mike-
Just real quickly. The memorial service here , was the
most uplifting service that I have ever been to. There
was so much joy at her graduation, and we had a video
cassette of her speaking and the family was all here.
There were tears, but it was like sunshine through the
rain. There was so much joy, it was one of the best
services I had ever been to! I mean, we had a guy with
a guitar up front!(ha,ha). It was like Sampson, she
accomplished more in her death and she had us breaking
all the rules, it was a wild celebration/graduation,
and it was proof that heaven really exists, because
her joy just kept on increasing the closer her passing
time came. So, Praise God.
Sam Tillery
Just continue to pray as we move into this year, our
servant leader team is expanding in that we are a county
movement, so we have invited some of the key pastors
to join our servant leader team. We've talked with one
from Petaluma and Sonoma, so pray for direction as far
as that is concerned.
We need God's wisdom and direction as we endeavor to
shepherd the body of Christ together. I want to say
that I have been so blessed by all of the pastors we
work with, but I want you to know, those of you here
from Sonoma Avenue Church of Christ, do you guys have
a new name for your church?, anyway I would have to
say from all of us, your Pastor Barny, is such a blessing
to all of us! He brings wisdom, life, vitality, creativity,
loyalty, he is an incredible asset to the church at
large and in this county.
So don't think about pulling back when things with
the new building get hectic, because I'll have a few
things to say about that, but I just want you to know
that by allowing him to be involved, have really sewn
into the greater work of God, and I think that it is
a part of your blessing as well. Barney, we love you
as pastors and appreciate your faithful service throughout
the years on the servant leaders team, so much goes
on behind the scenes and we are so thankful for you,
your ministry and your church. You just are a real bright
light. Thanks for being a friend and partner in the
ministry.
Next city reach prayer will be at Bethel Baptist Church
on Guerneville road, so we encourage you to come on
out for that.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document.
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