Facilitated
by:
(Harry Skandera)
Welcome, My wife and I were discussing
how it might be a little thin tonight, because many
of the people who usually attend City Reach, are in
Israel right now and of course it is Cinco De Mayo.
We will be praying tonight for those
who are in Israel a little bit later. Another reason
that there are not as many people here tonight might
be because it is the Friday after a big event. So often
after a powerful, spiritual event, we get so happy with
ourselves, that we take a snooze right afterwards. I
am personally excited tonight, because we’re here
and we are not snoozing. There is a definite escalation
in the spiritual atmosphere in our city.
We are going to pray tonight about
Israel and of course for the teams that are in Israel.
One of the reasons that we chose this sanctuary, which
is my home church, is because of these banners that
you see around you representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
We are going to also pray into Cinco
de Mayo. If we are going to pray for the peace of Jerusalem,
how about the peace of Sonoma County? I have heard reports
from the Sheriff’s department, they are very concerned
and have actually beefed up their troops by bringing
in some help from outside sheriff’s departments,
so that they can have a show of force. They just do
not want things to get out of hand and are concerned
with the safety of everyone.
For those of you who haven’t
been here before, we go around Sonoma County to any
church or ministry that invites us and the first hour,
we focus our prayer on the bigger community wide type
issues. Then we pray into the host ministry and ask
the pastor of that particular church or ministry to
take the ball from there.
The pastor of this church, Steve Marshall,
is unable to be here tonight, so he handed it back to
us. We will be praying for Santa Rosa Christian Church
then during the second half of our time together. We
have also done prayer walks. We do meet the first Friday
of every month and you may check www.unitedprayer.org
to find out current locations and get directions. We
have done some progressive prayer, where we have had
about four ministries that we pray for as we jump in
cars and go from one to the next, but most of the time
we will be in one of the cities in our county.
We have tended to be more often in
Santa Rosa, because it is larger and there are more
ministries. We have also ministered on an average for
the past six years, in Sonoma, Sebastopol and Healdsburg.
So, I would like us to go ahead and
enter into some worship together. We have some local
talent here that is going to play the piano for us.
(Worship)
(Harry Skandera)
I had mentioned earlier that one of
the reasons that we had decided to host this nights
City Reach Prayer here was, because we were going to
be praying for Israel.
In scripture, God describes Israel
in a number of ways; the apple of His eye, the center
of His purposes on earth. Other’s have called
Israel God’s time-table for world events. All
of those things are certainly true, but you might ask
how that connects to Santa Rosa, California?
As you go through the Psalms, you
will find places where it states that from the ends
of the earth, they will praise His name. You realize
that we are the ends of the earth? If Jerusalem is the
center, California is the geographical place,
that is the land mass that is the farthest from Jerusalem.
Whenever you think about that or read that in scripture,
you can know that that is talking about us.
The ends of the earth is us.
I think that is very significant that
we have sent, governmentally, a group of people representing
Sonoma County to be in Israel from us, the ends of the
earth. We were invited for the first time last year
and a number of us went. An invitation was extended
from the government of Israel to those who pray and,
because many of us knew Rosemary Schindler, the grand
niece of Oscar Schindler, they rolled out the red carpet.
So it wasn’t like a Bible land tour. We went to
some historical Biblical sites and that was very moving,
but what made that trip powerful and the one this year,
is that we were there at the particular request of the
Israeli government.
They looked around after all of the
turmoil that has hit them and were looking to see who
were still their friends? Who, through all of the bombings
and everything else has continued to come and to help
support us? It is the Evangelical Christians in the
United States. They were asking how they could be-friend
us and reach out to us, because we have been that way
to them. It was a very relational connection between
here and there.
I say all of that, because I want you
to feel the Father’s heart about something that
is going on for our home town and home county with the
nation of Israel. Our brothers and sisters are there
again, strengthening the bonds of love. I know that
they will come back with powerful reports representing
the change that is occurring here.
I wanted us to take a few minutes
here tonight, in this sanctuary. It is a little bit
hard for me to talk about this, because in this last
year, one of my best friends died. We are surrounded
by one of the greatest things that Will Piltcher was
called in his life to bring out for the Lord, and it
is these banners that you see hung all around this sanctuary.
Not all of them are up, because we
had a special thing going on for Easter, but we have
10 of the 12 tribes of Israel represented in these banners.
You are literally in the midst of a tabernacle experience.
Tribes are encamped around you. This project took 10
years to complete. A number of artists prayed and fasted
and came up with an illustration and design that they
believe was of the Lord, for each of the tribe’s
of Israel.
There is layer upon layer of revelation
in this place, if you had the time. Our intercessors
in this place, we come in here a couple of times a year
at least and just pray in regards to the presence of
the prophetic reflection in these banners.
I want to give you that opportunity
to do that as well, because I really believe that the
presence of the Lord is here in a powerful way, reflected
in these pieces of art that have been offered up to
Him. As you look at one of these banners, there is several
things about them. I am not going to go into great detail,
but each of them reflect a different name of the Lord.
Christ
the Redeemer, Christ
the Sufferer, Christ
the Conqueror, Christ
the Sacrifice,
Christ the Living Water,
Christ the Liberator,
Christ the Crowned Lamb, Christ
the Judge, and Christ
the King.
As Gentiles, we realize that we made
a serious error in the making of these banners, in that
this totally ministers to any Jewish person, except
where it says Christ. When we put these up on the web
site, we were able to digitally change it to say Messiah
instead of Christ. The Hebrew and everything else that
you can see, even the stones going down the sides of
each banner, represent the colors of the stones that
were in the ephods of the priest. This particular one
is an actual picture of the ephods and the scale there
at the bottom.
There is a serious picture in each
one of these and a lot to spur your heart of prayer,
so go ahead and move to the one that most captures your
attention and we will have a time of prayer. You can
go by yourself or in a group of maybe 3 or 4. Just like
some people can play an instrument to worship the Lord
and draw others into worship, so can an artist depict
something that draws us into worship, speaks to us of
God’s heart and draws us closer to Him.
One of the things that I am always
reminded of in this place, is that with the Lord, everything
has meaning. The banners always remind me of that. If
any of you wanted to look into this any further, there
is a poster size index in the lobby that goes over each
banner and each symbol in an abbreviated way with scripture
and the prophecy over that particular tribe.
Part of our purpose here tonight is
to worship for Israel. I don’t think that we can
visit Israel without having a sense of coming from every
nation, every tribe. When you go there, you definitely
get a sense of that happening and it stirs your faith
for the in gathering of Santa Rosa, for all of those
who are lost and outside of God’s covenant calling,
and He is using us to beckon them.
(Prayer at the banners)
(Harry Skandera)
Of all of the places that I like to
pray, some outside and some inside, but Israel was an
amazing place to be. Many of us know personally some
of those who are in Israel now. Some of them are from
within our circle here, some outside. Sam Tillery who
would normally be helping to lead this meeting here
tonight us there. Lawrence Lehr, who is a member of
this church here, but is also on the board for Santa
Rosa Christian School. One of our lovely Native American
pastors, Ben is there as well. Annet S., Diane K., who
is the president of out Intercessors team, the pastor
from the Nazarene Church, and of course Miles Weiss
who is leading the group. All of these and many that
were not mentioned are representing a relational tie.
I would like to spend some time within
our small group to pray out. You may know somebody by
name, but we want to pray for their time there and whatever
the Lord would put on your heart.
(Prayer)
Father, we are so thankful that by
extension we are in Israel. God, we pray that you would
light a fire beneath them, that you would stir their
faith and that they would sense your heart in a special
way as they are in the land.
Father we ask that, even that those
who believe in you are going from the ends of the earth
to the center, that they would take your spirit with
them in a way that deposits something into the land
and into the people that opens them up and makes them
more receptive to the truth of your son Jesus.
(Harry Skandera)
We said tonight that we would be amiss
to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and not for the peace
of our own city. We have already heard some of the sirens
tonight, but I want to just lay a short framework, because
we want to pray for the Sheriff’s Department that
God would protect them and that they would keep the
peace, but we know that it is really the Lord that brings
peace in a city. We believe that in the preceding events
that there was a dynamic breakthrough last Saturday,
as over 1,100 Christians gathered together in this county,
went out and stewarded, as an act of worship for our
city and county, by Spring Clean.
A testimony, not of the Christians,
but of the government workers, was awesome. I interviewed
some of the people, because I was preaching the next
day. He was one of the city workers that was there after
everyone was all finished and was gathering the last
of the goods. If you saw the Spring Clean video from
last year, you would have seen him, because he was all
over that video, but he is not a believer.
He is definitely a God fearer and
definitely sensitized to something beyond the natural.
I asked him what was the thing that most impacted him
throughout the day and he said, “Well, I am
a government worker, so I can’t say what I am
getting ready to say. In the media and in our community
right now, there is a lot of stuff being reported about
our ethnic groups in regards to the immigration issue
and most of it is negative. I have just experienced
the other side, the positive and watching something
spiritual that is happening and not showing up in the
paper, it is astounding the way that we are able to
work together and how much the same groups got a total
heart for what is happening in the city and county.”
That is what he said caught him. He
is very perceptive, but there is also faith in what
he was saying and I believe that he actually touched
part of the destiny of Sonoma County and particularly
Santa Rosa, that we are called and meant to be a refuge,
not people fleeing from persecution, but a place where
all nations and diversity of people are able to come
together and be united.
Not uniform, but united. What he was
speaking was something that the Lord is doing amongst
us as Christians. We are not uniform, but we are becoming
united. One church, many congregations. We are seeing
that pattern repeated in that the governments are beginning
to work together, the city and the county. That was
another testimony that they had, because they had never
worked together on such a project.
Usually there is contention and division
between the city and the county. They said, ”The
churches have inspired us to lay down our axes and to
work together.
They are doing it and if they are doing
it then we can do it.” Isn’t that awesome?
What is so moving about that to me
is that, we are not talking, it is being imparted. We
are letting them do the talking, that’s when you
are starting to talk revival. We don’t have to
talk about it, because it is coming out of the unbelievers
who are being drawn by the goodness of God. That’s
powerful!
I say all of that to say, I know that
there is trouble possibly in what’s happening
out there, but I also know what we all felt six days
ago, and that is that the presence of the Lord is beginning
to be felt somewhere besides our sanctuaries and in
our own hearts. Those are all critical things, but what
we are praying for is the transformation of our city
and county, that it is felt out there by the folks who
really need it.
It is probably not going to come through
Billy Graham’s preaching in this county, at least
not at this point and time. It is going to come through
the Lord, however He wants it to come, but it’s
more likely going to come through what is imparted and
caught by people than what we are allowed to say.
For prayer tonight, I want to lift
up the sheriff’s department, because I know that
they have concerns and they are risking their lives.
We are save here in our sanctuary having our prayer
meeting, they are out there trying not to catch a bullet
and not to cause strife and keep the peace at the same
time and that is not easy.
(Prayer)
We pray Lord that you would release
angels and establish your hand, so that there will not
be a recurrence. We pray that it will stay the hand
of the tagger’s that want to put their tag on
the city.
Lord we pray that it would be your
signature that is on this city. We also want to pray
for two highway sections Lord that are inundated with
fatalities. We pray that you would post angels at the
intersection of 12 and the 101, that whatever is spiritual
that is causing the accidents there Lord, that that
would be driven out and that a guard would be posted.
Lord, let those places of mayhem and violence by accidents,
be cleansed from within the boundaries of our city.
We also want to lift up the Hearn avenue
corridor on 101 where so many fatalities have occurred.
God, we pray that you would post angels there again
and that they would guard the free passage back and
forth and that the accidents that occur there would
cease. That the highway would be cleansed of death in
Jesus name. Let these highways be open Lord to the life
of Christ and your presence. Not only those who live
here in this city, but those who are passing through,
may they have safe passage.
One of the testimonies that is just
amazing from Spring Clean came from one of these problem
areas. Some of the folks for our church were on the
graffiti abatement team and they went into a place just
off of Hearn called Kenton Court. Kenton Court is notorious
in the sheriff’s department, because over the
last 10 years, they’ve had at least two all out
shoot outs with automatic weapons, gas, police dogs,
the whole thing.
It is not something that shows up in
the paper, but tough. It’s not that big of an
area really. The graffiti team had to go in with an
escort to remove the graffiti and they filled 6 dumpster's
that the city had brought in.
What happened was, as the workers began to come in,
the people living there began to come out and were so
excited that someone had come to help clean up their
neighborhood, that they began to clean up their areas
and throw stuff in the dumpster's too. It developed
into a huge time of fellowship.
The sheriff’s department set
up a little booth to kind of greet and meet the people
and ended up starting a barbecue and people were coming
out of their house with food to share. It ended up being
a great time of fellowship. The sheriff’s were
saying that this is really more of what we need to do,
so it was a beautiful testimony.
Here we are going into this place where
we have had shootouts before, but the Lord’s presence
going before, everybody could recognize. Again, the
thing that I want to encourage you in, is expect to
see the word of the Lord in the P.D., expect to hear
the unbeliever testify, and that is when you know that
you have something going. We can always say it, but
when it starts to come out of others, that’s God.
I want to shift now to pray for Santa
Rosa Christian Church. I am a little prejudice, but
we have been here since 1974, but we knew and had relations
with people here in this church for many years before
that. This church is also part of the same background
historically as what my wife and I were raised in, the
disciples of Christ, The Church of Christ.
We were raised in the non instrumental
brand, this would have been very liberal for us, because
they had instruments. Our heritage is here, but more
specifically it has been our home. A couple of things
about this church; when this denomination began, one
of the heart cry’s that was being stirred in the
time that we were in, was,”We are the only Christians.”
Isn’t it interesting how the
devil will take something of God and absolutely pervert
it, almost the exact opposite. I believe that across
this country, I have faith for this, it doesn’t
have a denomination, but it has a denominational spirit.
God is using it in a particular way to bring unity,
because that’s the original revelation that birthed
this string of God. I would have to say that that has
been very much a part of the history of Santa Rosa Christian
Church.
A real source of frustration began
to be felt when we realized over a span of about 7 years
that we were not able to assimilate anybody. People
are drawn here. A lot of leaders come here who are burnt
out, blown out, wounded and they get healed, and we
expect them to move on. But we have all of these people
in the community drawn in who love the worship, etc...,
but hardly anybody stayed.
We began to ask ourselves, what are
we doing wrong, because we can’t assimilate anybody,
and we began to pray about it. Then, through a Baptist,
The Purpose Driven Life came and we did that study.
Many were not into it, because of the program thing,
but we just felt like the Lord was saying to go ahead
and launch it.
We immediately went from 2 to 23 home
groups. Home groups had been in the history of the church,
but that had faded and that was a gift that the Lord
gave us. So, we are assimilating again, but that’s
always an issue at this church, because that is part
of the calling on this church, it’s part of the
calling on this city. I believe that is why we are called
Santa Rosa Christian Church.
There are a lot of things about the
identity of this city that you’ll see reflected
here. Most of it is totally unconscious, but you step
back and you can see it. Santa Rosa is a city where
people come to find their destiny, they do not always
stay, but they are re-fired in this place. That has
been historically true of Sonoma County and Santa Rosa
for over 100 years and this church is very much the
epitome of that.
We went through a stage a few, many
years ago where we tried to hold on and we had a prophet
come through and say, “you have General’s,
Colonel’s, and Major’s, and it is over crowded.
You should be planting churches.” Well, we were
all excited about that word, but we didn’t do
anything. It took a church split to get us out into
the community in the way that I believe God is calling
us. You know, you do it or you get spanked and God is
going to end up doing it anyway, so. That kind of a
thing is so traumatic though, at the time all we could
see was the negative, but once you get back away from
it and look back, can you realize that God had His way.
There is a heart for worship here.
There is an openness to the spirit of the Lord. Because
we have been open and somewhat diverse, we have a history
of splits. It’s not been one every year, but if
we get out of wack in a certain way, it has a negative
bent instead of positive and it is better to let God’s
hand be in the parting ways than to wait for someone
to explode. Usually what happens in a split is the conservative
people end up being the one’s who stay, not the
people that are less conservative. The last couple of
splits here, it has been the other way around. Interesting.
This church has a prophetic bent to
it. Sometimes some of the more prophetic people get
kind of frustrated, because they feel that it ought
to be more, but if you step back, there is a unique
blend of government and prophetic here. For example,
we have had prophetic teams in operation here every
week for thirteen years after every service. People
for prophetic prayer on one side and healing on the
other. That is a unique combination. We have had a lot
of breakthroughs and people’s lives touched and
encouraged, but nothing really spectacular in the sense
of sensational miracles.
We have been faithful intercessors.
We have started a lot of things that
have touched the whole community, that doesn’t
wear the church’s name at all. P.C.C. was started
out of sister’s from this church. We didn’t
start Free to Be, but we have been huge supporters of
it for many years.
Last night at the National Day of
Prayer rally, they had a special ceremony that they
wanted our pastor to come to. One of our stars is our
having been the most consistent with Free to Be, which
is part of the Catholic Charity’s ministry, whereas
other protestant churches aren’t comfortable being
a part of it. That is one of the things that strikes
me about this church, is a willingness to serve without
saying, “Hey, look what we did, look what we did.”
That is headed by J.R. Young and is a part of what we
call extension ministries. It has been a real key.
One of the things that we would like
prayer for though is that the Lord would continue to
give us wisdom in terms of the way that we function
together in unity. Obviously, that is a question for
us when we have splits. You’d rather not have
it. You’d rather come to it the way that the Lord
would have us come to it.
As far as we know, we do not have any
troubles brewing in the church right now, and we would
covet your prayers not just, “Lord, don’t
let us have troubles”, but, “Lord, let us
fulfill the destiny for this place.
Another thing would be the assimilation
problem that I spoke of earlier. This place has never
been a recruiter type, it has been more about getting
people to the part of the body of Christ that they are
drawn to and fit with. We believe that this is a great
place and if you are called here, great, but if your
not then how can we help bless you on your way. That
is a blessing, but can be a little frustrating too when
you don’t see many sticking around.
If you would just come and gather around
all of us here who are members of this church and pray
into these things that would be great.
(Prayer)
(Harry Skandera)
Ok, we have come to the announcements
portion of the evening. For those of you who haven’t
been here before, this happens every month. I think
that we just set a record here tonight. There are 14
of us. This is the smallest group that we have had in
6 years. I don’t say that, because I feel discouraged.
I got over the number thing about 5 years ago, because
I realized that that doesn’t hinder the Lord working.
Sometimes we have had as many as 160.
There have been so many phenomenal things and God can
deliver by few or by many, but it is always different
and I think that is why I love being a part of it. You
never know what the Lord is going to do on any given
evening. Sometimes you get to go by your plan and sometimes
not, but it is always a blessing. One of the most exciting
things is that you never know what part of the body
of Christ is going to show up. It is always a little
different flavor, because the mix is always a little
bit different and it is great.
Next month we are going to meet at
City Life Fellowship and the Giving Tree church both
joining forces to host us. It is located across from
Marie Cal lender’s on Mendocino Ave.
Another thing that is happening between
now and then. The Global day of prayer happens 2 days
after City Reach on June 4th. There is going to be another
coming together, kind of a worship thing on that Sunday
night over at Redwood Covenant Church. We did it there
last year too. That is a tremendous experience.
The story of the Global day of prayer
is right here in these pamphlet’s if you would
like to take one. In Africa in the year 2000, Christians
began to get together to pray. It grew the next year
to several cities in South Africa. It grew the next
year to several nations in Africa, until the 5th year,
it was every nation in Africa and they got the revelation
to ask the rest of the world in on it. The first one
that was really a world wide deal was this last year
and I believe that there were 20 million praying on
that day. There has never been another time in world
history where you could speak a prayer request in one
end of the world and within moments it can be read and
everyone is praying within one accord.
That night we actually taped into a
world wide connection and you could see as the prayer
went around the world as the changing day to night,
how many millions of people joined together. It was
a very moving time, not just because there was a video
hook up and all of that, but because of the reality
of what is actually happening. We will meet for the
10 days leading up to that rally again this year here
at S.R.C.C., 7pm. These are great prayer guides here
in this pamphlet. God is in this and the world is coming
to pray. It is worth showing up. I can see that the
faith level is increasing with the increase of prayer.
I look at America, then I look at California and I look
at Sonoma County with totally different eyes now, because
you start to look at things God’s way and it doesn’t
seem as dark as it has been, because you see God’s
hand moving.
Thanks for coming.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document.
|
