Welcome by Pastor Sam
Tillery.
We are so glad to be able to host this City Reach
prayer here at Westview Christian Church.
Sam Tillery
Father, we come together in answer to your prayer in
John:17, that we would be one so that the world may
believe. And as we come together from different congregations,
different cities within this county. We invite You now
to lead us this evening. Lead us in how we should pray,
what we should pray. Lead us into deeper unity and focus
upon You. We thank you Lord, that you have made us one
through the incredible, perfect work of Christ. Thank
you Father that you didn’t stay in the grave,
but that You rose from the dead, and as You died on
the cross You took upon Yourself our sin, You’ve
broken down the middle wall of partition, so that we
could come together with You and pray with one another,
so bless and lead us this evening, in Jesus name we
pray. Amen
I’d like to welcome you all on behalf of the
Pastors Prayer and Ministry Alliance. I’m Pastor
Sam Tillery, and I pastor at Foothills Community Church
here in Santa Rosa and also am a part of the servant
leader team of the pastors in our county in this movement
to pray together and minister TOGETHER for God’s
glory.
For the past four years, we are now well into the fifth
year, the first Friday of every month we gather the
body of Christ together to kind of multiply what we
do together as pastors every week on Wednesday mornings,
we gather to pray for our city and one another. City
Reach Prayer is an extension of that as a means to invite
the greater body of Christ to come together in unity.
Something happens when we unite together in prayer,
and so we want to welcome you tonight and thank the
Lord that we can be in this wonderful new and newly
named facility, which we will hear more about Westview
on the second half of our time.
City Reach Prayer is divided into two parts, the first
part we focus on worship and the City in which we are
in and pray through various things. The second half
of our time we focus on the host ministry and so, what’s
been happening these past five years, we’ve been
traveling around the body of Christ in various cities,
churches and ministries. Whether it’s a prayer
walk or meetings in various locations, we’ve been
asking God’s blessing and direction.
So, we’ll talk a little bit more about vision
and direction in the second half and perhaps some of
the challenges that we face as the church and we’ll
pray into that as the greater body of Christ. We are
going to do some more worship, which is a part of spiritual
warfare, as we declare His truths and affirm who He
is, so as you think of the words, don’t just get
caught up in the flow and the sound of the music, but
look at the words and let them be an expression of your
hearts affirmation of who God is and as a declaration
to the dark side, that this is who we are and where
we stand in Christ, so we’ll do about three more
songs and then move into prayer following that.
(Worship time)
Sam Tillery
So, we come together to bless you Father, to be your
partners, Your spiritual deputy’s, to release
your plan in Santa Rosa, in this County and beyond.
We praise you and we bless you.
Let’s just take a moment and in short expressions,
express our thanks to the Lord, some attributes and
aspects of who He is, just speak it out loud. Your incredible
mercy, everlasting kindness, healing, for being there
always, your sovereignty, Your in total control, Your
ways are not our ways, Your everlasting love, Your forgiveness,
thank you for answering our prayers, thank you for being
our Deliverer, for Your guidance Father. Your mercy
and grace that is so sufficient for your people, your
Holy Spirit, Thank you for your sacrifice, thank you
for your word. Now, just reach your hand out and touch
someone near you and thank the Lord for your brother
or sister in Christ.
This is a prayer meeting, but not like a traditional
prayer meeting where we gather around those that we
are well acquainted with every week, but it is one where
we are linking the body together. And so, we come together
in many different parts. The person for whom you blessed,
whether they were in your family, a friend or a stranger,
you were blessing a part of your body, for we are members
of one body. And being members of one another, we are
caring for one another by gathering here, as we represent
different churches.
As I look out, I see that there are some from the body
of Christ in PETALUMA, some from the city of SONOMA,
and of course SANTA ROSA. Do we have anyone here from
SEBASTOPOL, yeah, we’ve got Sebastopol. Also,
HEALDSBURG and ROHNERT PARK, so we’ve got five
cities represented here this evening, and many more
churches. As we gather together, it’s not about
getting large numbers, but it is about BEING FAITHFUL.
Month after month, gathering to pray.
Yesterday was a wonderful day, because it began at
7:00 am at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, the National
day of Prayer, then it moved to the noon day. I was
a little surprised, because of the potential rain, they
had to move it from courthouse square to the fair grounds.
I didn’t hear about it, I got down there and it
had moved, so I drove over to the fairgrounds and made
it in time. I was pleasently surprised at the
number of folks who were able to adjust to the change,
and so there was prayer there.
And then in the evening we gathered at Bethel Baptist
for this City Reach rally. Now, this is the beginning
of a move of God around the World, as we’ll end
up next Sunday evening at 6:30 at Redwood Covenant Church
for the GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER, FIRST TIME IN HISTORY
OF THE WORLD. Over 200 million Christians gathering
in various venues, praying over that 24 hour period
of time. In the different time zones, as the sun moves
across the world, the body of Christ labors in prayer
until it sets, praying the same essential things TOGETHER.
Something is going to happen! It is the heart of God
that we pray. One of the exciting things that also is
happening is something that was actually birthed right
here just a month ago, was a new ministry called the
"GREATER CALLING”. It is taking the technology
of conference calling and it is going to network across
the world to where facilitators, and we could use some
of you as facilitators, will link people together from
around the world in conference call prayer rooms, so
all that you have to do is pick up your phone and dial
a certain number, and you will enter into a group of
folks from around the world who will pray together and
be led in declarations in prayers.
We are talking about where the Bible says that if two
or three are gathered and agree, that God hears and
answers. When we are in symphony together, and so,
you’ll can pick up the phone and someone will
be facilitating maybe 20 to 100 people for an hour block
of time.You can hang up when you want or come in when
you want, but this is the first time in history of the
world that this has ever been done as well. So, they
are thinking upwards, potentially of a million people
that can’t make it to the various venues, locations,
stadiums, open areas and churches that cannot make that,
can get on the telephone and enter into an agreement
in prayer. That was birthed right here just about a
month ago in Santa Rosa. That will launch many other
things in the coming days.
God is stirring and bringing His body together, so
tonight, City Reach Prayer is about prayer, but it’s
not about prayer that is scattered all over the place,
it’s focused prayer. So we’re going to hear
a few things about our city a little bit later on from
Carol Skandera who will share a little bit and then
we will pray into those areas.
First I am going to share with you in just a moment
to give you a little focus, because we believe in the
core of intercession. When we agree together, we’re
focusing our prayer, so much more happens than if we
are just scattered about here and there, as we focus
not upon ourselves, but on God’s purposes.
You’ll notice up here on the screen, a railroad
track, it is leading somewhere out there. We’re
kind of like this as a prayer movement, because we want
to get on a track that leads somewhere, and often we
say, “ok, we want to go somewhere in our prayer”,
but there is no engine and no sense of direction, so
put up the next slide. We want as a prayer movement,
this is not an event, but is a part of a movement of
God bringing His people together and we want to answer
the prayer of Jesus in John:17, which we made reference
to earlier.
You know, we may all be able to raise our hands and
say that we have some outstanding prayer requests that
you have asked God about, they haven’t quite yet
been answered. You know that God hears and that He answers,
but I have some prayer requests that haven’t quite
yet been answered, so we continue to pray. BUT HERE
IS THE PRAYER OF JESUS, and He is waiting on us to answer
His prayer, that we would come together as one in prayer
and in ministry, and honor Him, that the world would
see that the answer is not YOUR CHURCH OR MY CHURCH,
this denomination or that denomination. But that it
is found in the person of Jesus Christ, who then is
a God of diversity of expressions.
So, we want to be a church that answers the prayer
of Jesus, so that is a prayer focus of ours tonight
when we get in our groups. So God, would you protect
and continue to bring forth spiritual leaders who would
then lead others to respond. Looking at the next point
here, that we are united for a reason which is for the
harvest of souls. We are not just united for unity’s
sake, but for the harvest, so that’s a prayer
point. The problem is not the harvest, we have the passage
in scripture that calls the harvest ripe, white or ready,
but the problem is the laborers, the workers are few.
So see, our prayer should not be so bent on that the
world should be saved, Jesus is saying wait, the harvest
is ready, the issue is that somehow the soldiers are
in their barracks.
Or we’ve gotten ready for a picnic, and so we
go to church and we put on the act that we are going
to a picnic and we put on our flip flops, Bermuda shorts
and t-shirts and we’re running out into a battle
zone, but somehow we didn’t get the message. So
we’re disillusioned, because we have all these
bombs and say. “Ah, somebody’s shooting
at me! How dare they”, and we’re hiding
behind something, because someone is shooting at us,
and we’re going. “What’s wrong with
everybody”? The problem is that we’re
not prepared. When you’re going to battle, you
put on camouflage gear and you’ve got a pack to
survive for awhile and you’ve got a shovel to
dig a fox hole with, and you’ve got all kinds
of supplies. You’ve got boots on so that you don’t
stub your toe on the rocks your running through, and
you’ve got a helmet and you’ve got your
eyes looking out for someone who is looking to take
your life, it’s a whole different mind-set.
In Ephesians:6 It says how we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood, but against all kinds of spiritual
powers and forces that are coming against our families.
Coming against our cities and churches and all kinds
of things, so tonight we need to pray that the church
would rise up and answer that, and we’re doing
that tonight though prayer. We’re moving
into 10 days of focused prayer. Any day you can go and
pray, we’ll be giving you more information about
that, leading up to Pentecost which is next Sunday,
when the Globe unites for the first time to pray.
We want to answer the prayer of Jesus, the world is
coming and it’s for the harvest. (Go ahead and
go to the next slide). We want to become a church, right
here in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County that is of irresistible
influence.
Irresistible, now how does that happen? Now, as I look
at our churches, as I look at my church, I wouldn’t
say that we are irresistible, in fact I might say that
we’re the opposite, we are repelling others away
almost daily. Something is not happening, but when we
are together as one, the community of people begins
to see something so unique and different, that their
eyes are open up. (Go ahead and go to the next slide).
We see ourselves as one church with many congregations
united in Christ. This is kind of the theme and picture
of this prayer movement, of Pastor’s Prayer Ministry
Alliance. We want to run on these tracks and be balanced
in these things. And we bring it to your attention,
because the devil would want us to get off the track.
Or would want us to run down one track or simply try
to get somewhere by running down the middle of the rails.
Those ties between the two tracks have a reason for
being there. If you have ever tried to walk on those
down a track, you know that it becomes very tiring and
cumbersome to walk on them for very long. Now the ties
holding the two tracks together. Now, look at the next
slide. As we look in the Bible at 1 Corinthians 13,
we see Paul is talking about the expression of the body
of Christ in ministering to itself and to the world.
He likens the church to a body with many parts and spiritual
gifts. Now, the diversity of spiritual gifts has been
a controversial issue. I believe that God gives all
of the spiritual gift, but at the very end of chapter
13, states that it is the operation of the body working
together, which is the key point - TOGETHER.
These are the things we need to pray that God would
protect, because at the end Paul states the three things
that will remain, all the other stuff will disappear,
not that they were bad, but three things remain.
Three things are a priority. Those three things are
FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE. So, we as the Pastors Prayer and
Ministry Alliance, are endeavoring to be balanced and
we want to run down the track on the left side which
is FAITH and we also want to be balanced on the right
side with LOVE and what holds these two things true
is the HOPE. Which are the ties on the track which holds
them together.
Now in the scriptures, well, Faith, we've been running
on that for a lot of years. (go ahead and go to the
next slide). We've been uniting together for the past
16 -17 years as pastors and spiritual leaders in the
City. Faithfully every week gathering to pray and then
doing special events to gather ourselves together to
pray, but the devil doesn't want us to continue. Or,
we get tired. We say, "I'm tired of walking on
this rail". You know, after awhile we get tired
of trying to balance ourselves on this edge and so often
that happens in our ministries. We get tired of going
on a good thing, and what we have realized as pastors,
is that we've been out of balance, because there are
many in the body of Christ that are not sharing the
same passion or depth of understanding of prayer.
Then we move to the idea of LOVE. ( go to the next
slide). Now, within this realm of applying the love
with the faith, we believe that God hears and answers
our prayer. The Pastor’s Prayer Ministry Alliance,
wants to reach our communities through strategic, united
prayer. It's strategic why we gather the first Friday
of every month. Why? It's the first Friday of every
month so that you do not forget, it's easy for you to
remember. The very attitude of bringing the body together,
whether they all show up or not, blesses the heart of
God wouldn't you think? He's called us to be obedient.
Hasn't He? Not successful. And He's looking, "Are
you going to be faithful after awhile"?
It's easy to be excited about something and you run
for a few weeks, then after awhile it's like well, now
that's different. So, for 16 years, we've been endeavoring
to run on this track. (Move to the next slide please).
These are three circles of PRAYER, POWER AND PARTNERSHIP.
These are circles of prayer, and within that prayer
is power, and the next word is partnership, the three
P's. So, weekly, spiritual leaders have been meeting
together to pray. (Let’s look at the next slide
please). Monthly, uniting the body to pray at City Reach
Prayer.
Now, we are wanting you to see that there is a strategic,
purposeful plan that we are doing, so that we can stay
moving forward, otherwise there is no leadership and
we get scattered. (look to the next slide please). And
then we have the quarterly out reach to the body of
Christ, Concerts of Prayer and Praise, things of that
nature, and that is really to draw others in and it
has a little bit different of a flavor.
It may not be as deep as City Reach Prayer or what
you pray in your closet, but we're endeavoring to bring
the greater body in larger venues, out quarterly. (look
at the next slide please).
Annually, the Pastor's Prayer Summit. Seeking God
together in prayer, bringing the leaders together for
3-4 days to specifically pray, pray, pray, read the
Word of God and worship. No agenda, but to pray and
seek God, that's been happening for a lot of years and
it needs the support of the body of Christ praying for
their leaders as they go away to seek God. The devil
gets our calendars full, so it's like, "Oh, I forgot
to put it on my calendar, I can't go this year."
That's the plan of the evil one. And we have a good
reason why we can't go, because we didn't adjust our
calendar, well, maybe that person has a different priority,
so we get into it like that.
So, these are areas that we need to pray. "God
protect these things." (quickly, let's look at
the next slide). We have the Sonoma County intercessors
and some of them are here tonight. Carol Skandera is
one of them. Gathering the various cities to pray for
the pastors, leaders and their cities on a different
level. It's not a prayer chain which is like, "God
heal this person that is sick", which is needful,
but it's a whole different kind of praying and we won't
get into that right now. It is a form of praying specifically
for the protection and direction and empowering of God
upon the spiritual leaders and the blessing their families.
I'll tell you what, it has made a tremendous difference
in my life and in my family. I have been a pastor for
some 30 years now, and it's only been since I've been
in Santa Rosa the past 10 years that I've come to realize
the value and the power of prayer when people are specifically
praying for me. It has made a huge difference and those
who are intercessors know, because I have told them
and I repeatedly tell them of the difference it makes.
Don't stop doing that!
(Then look to the next slide). About 8 months ago,
we began what is called, the Business Leaders Prayer
Forum. Business leaders, you have to own your own business
or be in a high level of management to be a part of
this particular group, because we are starting at the
top level, teaching and gathering the marketplace leaders
to pray. The market place for the economy of our city
and our community and it is powerful. Now, they started
to do their own City Reach Prayer, but they are moving
out and doing prayer walks on location for various Christian
businesses.
This year the strategy is to target Christian businesses,
that God would empower and wake-up the body of Christ.
Strengthen those who may be struggling with a Christian
testimony even though they believe in Christ, but maybe
they've gone camouflage, and they are praying for this
and there is a difference made. The business leaders
recently took their time to drive to Petaluma in the
middle of the day to pray.
Next Tuesday, we're going to an attorney's office,
and as to influence others, we are going to pray into
the aspect of law within our community, Christian business
attorney. So, every month business leaders now are doing
that, isn't that cool? And they are praying in ways
that we as pastors don't think, because we're not in
that realm necessarily, so they are able to better pray
into things that we are not.
So, we move back to the whole idea of FAITH, HOPE and
LOVE, but LOVE, we need to serve together as one. For
many years we have praying in this aspect of love and
serving, but we really haven't been strategically loving
as God wants us to love, so to beginning to serve together
as one in the community.
(Look at the next slide.) LOVING WHAT GOD LOVES. He
loves two primary things, HIS BRIDE and HIS LOST PEOPLE.
Now, we have been really good on focusing on lost people,
or at least praying, "Oh, God, win the lost",
but the lost have not been responding, because we have
not loved the bride. If your in another church, and
I ignore you, you are the Bride and if I'm the husband
and I introduce you to my wife and we go out to dinner,
but you just look at me and talk to me and pay no attention
to my wife. She's going to start to feel a little bit
hurt, and I am going to start to feel a little bit like,
" what is up with this guy?" He is ignoring
part of me. And that is what has happened in the body
of Christ. The Bible says that we are to serve one another,
and so, we are to love what God loves, lost people and
we are to love the bride. The different expressions
of the body of Christ.
Now, that is happening, but the enemy is going to work
so that that doesn't continue to happen, so we need
to pray that that does not happen. And so, we've got,
"Serving as one", and, " Loving what
God loves", and so as you gather tonight, it is
an expression of loving different parts of the body.
Why did I want you to reach out and touch somebody?
To connect with a different part of the body of Christ
that you haven't known. Tonight I would encourage you
as we break up to pray in just a few moments, that you
would try not to sit with the person that you always
sit with, maybe try to break out of that mold and interface
with someone from another congregation, because tonight
is not the night for you to be in your closet and be
comfortable. When we do break up into small groups,
some of you may not be as comfortable praying out loud
and that is OK. You can agree with them in prayer, but
I do not want you to feel that everyone has to pray
out loud. I do suggest that your prayers would be short
and to the point. If it is strategic, you don't have
to explain to God all of the problems, as if He doesn't
already know. What He is wanting us to do, is to release
in the spiritual realm what we already know He wants
to do, so, " God, awaken the body of Christ and
unite us". Well then, how do you want Him
to unite us? Don't stay to general, get specific, and
He will bring that to you.
(Moving to the next slide.) Together, trusting and
growing in Jesus Christ and His word. The Word HOPE
in the old and new testament, if you do a word study
on it, it comes down to the fundamental doctrines, is
TRUTH, the Word of God, that is what hope is. Hope in
the scriptures is not a wishing type of hope, but is
a confidence in, a grounding in the word of God. Trusting
in the truths that God has laid out in His word and
in creation. So, the hope that what is going to hold
true, is what God has said in His word. Being grounded
in the truth. And then, it will manifest itself in faith
that prays great big things and steps out in those things.
So, let's break up into groups of maybe 3, 4, or 5,
but no more than 5, and let's introduce ourselves.
And then we want to go ahead and take one of these areas
that we have talked about and begin to pray into it.
FAITH, HOPE, LOVE.
(prayer time)
Carol Skandera
Last week at our church, they had passed out these little
rubber band bracelets to remind us to pray during the
National Day of Prayer and the Global Day of Prayer,
and when I was at G&G market at the check out, the
man said, " Hey, what is that little thing on your
wrist?" I said that it was to remind me to pray,
and he said to me, " Really, well you sure are
an optimist." I then proceeded to tell him,"
Well, no, not really. I consider myself to be a realist",
and that is what I think of us here tonight. We are
realists, because we know that God answers our prayers.
When prayer for the city began 17 years ago, it was
just between two pastor's from different congregations
who were realists. They had a vision of bringing the
city leaders together and making them unified. We now
have well over 50 leaders who meet together weekly,
and they come and pray and they have broken down walls
and encouraged one another.
They actually want other churches to be blessed and
grow, even if it is not theirs. Many wonderful things
have happened. And now we have been doing the City Reach
for about 5 years, as a time to really cry out to God.
I don't think that it is an accident that we are here
tonight at Westview Christian Church, because one of
the things we've talked about is, " earned virtue".
Which my husband has talked about, as something that
you have more authority to pray if you have been through
it yourself. My husband has often said that he doesn't
have any earned virtue in birthing children. He's seen
it done and figures it looks easy to him, but he hasn't
earned the virtue in it. We are in a church that has,
actually used to all be one before any of us were around,
called, "First Christian Church of Santa Rosa".
Through things that happened, there was a separation,
and so, Pastor Rod and his wife Diane weren't any part
of that, but they are here now and they realized that
there was something blocking. And so, they approached
us in humility and said. "We need to get something
straight", And we did, and there are good things
breaking through, because of that.
There is earned virtue in this church to pray for
unity, because they have been broken and they have gone
through the healing process. I believe that that is
one reason that we are here tonight. I believe that
another reason we are here tonight is, if you saw in
the paper this week, this particular location is very
near all of the violence from Cinco De Mayo. Just 2
blocks from here, so I think that it is very strategic
that we are here tonight.
There were three different articles. One was on all
of the violence, and of course the youth think that
the police were unreasonable and the police think that
the youth were outrageous and violent, and so there
is that conflict. Then we also saw another division
in the article titled. "Ribbons divides Santa Rosa
Home Owners". A man who put a yellow ribbon in
front of his condo, because he is praying that his son
will return from Iraq in safety, and other people got
really upset, because they didn't like the yellow ribbon.
They didn't like what's happening in Iraq and they didn't
want the place to start to look like a car wash, so
it is one of those crazy things that causes division.
But, then there was a third article. "Grace at
the Heart of the Prayer Day events in Santa Rosa",
and that is why we are here tonight.
We are to bring grace to the division that is among
us. And so, we are going to pray for those things tonight
and we are praying as realists. First, as we break up
into our groups, we are going to pray for our policemen
and people who participate in protecting our community
and who punish evil and protect what is good. We are
here to pray for the violent ones.
The ones who are full of frustration and anger, not
knowing what to do with it or where to go with it, because
sometimes that anger may be justified, not the acting
out in it, but the stirring in their hearts. We are
here to pray for the families of the police officers
and our City authorities and the families of this generation
of Hispanic youth that are coming up, many of them in
a country that they don't think of as their own. They
haven't thought of it in the same way that we have,
it's not necessarily wrong, it's just different.
Pray that they will be a rest here, find their place
and be productive and find growth in it. We are here
to pray for outreach of the church in Santa Rosa, that
there would be openness to receive the redemption that
Jesus offers to all men. We are here to pray for open
hearts to receive it and for willing laborers to take
it.
And then, I think that it is appropriate that we pray
for the Mayor's Gang Task Force
. Mayor Bender, is really an amazing woman. She has
been very open to the Christian community. She has blessed
us and honored us and has even invited a few of our
pastors to be on her intimate gang task force. We need
to pray that God will give us His wisdom and that His
church will become the head and not the tail. That we
will make a difference in our community and that we
will have God's solutions where man's solutions have
not worked.
Sam Tillery
Actually, the Mayor has invited Adam Peacock
to represent the Pastors on her policy making board
regarding the Gang Taskforce, and that is an answer
to prayer. We are able to directly and strategically
partner with the City of Santa Rosa in this area.
(prayer time)
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document.
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