Springfield Church Day of Prayer Tuesday 26th June 2012

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, As we continue for the present without a Church centre, I am pleased to send to you some resources for Springfields Day of Prayer on Tuesday 26th June. As before, you might like to use these resources within your Cell. You will find here themes the Church would like prayer for at this time in particular, and also a selection of worship ideas to help your cell make the best of our Day of Prayer. I have supplemented some of the prayer ideas given last time with some new ideas as well. Do feel free to get creative! Each method of prayer could be used or adapted to help your cell pray for a particular prayer request. Have fun thinking about how! You might like to begin your prayer session by using one of the Getting into Worship prayers, and then follow on with another form (or more) of prayer that helps you pray about the needs of the Church and the wider community. Enjoy! I hope that you, and your cell, are richly blessed in your prayer time. Donna

Themes the Church would love prayer for at this time...

Personal Prayer Requests - please consult the Springfield Church newssheet, and ask within your Cell for individual prayer requests. Springfield between Centres this interim time between centres, and our search for a new one. The new contact point Cafe Connect meeting at Shotfield Library Cafe in Wallington on Monday mornings from 10.30 to midday. The ordinations of Sue Cooke as Deacon, and Donna Lazenby as Priest that their ordination retreats will be times of peaceful and prayerful encounter with God. Please pray that God will bless their ministries to the individuals and communities they serve. Trish King as she returns to Guatemala please pray for Trishs travelling, and for her safety throughout her stay. Please ask Gods blessing on her ministry there.

The wonderful work of the RUSH charity in Kenya for Andrew and Lucy, and the people their great efforts and loving commitment support.

Our summer outreach events: The Holiday Club for all the children who will come to Holiday Club, for the planning, especially the planning team and their meetings, everyone getting involved and helping, all leaders, the upcoming training day on July 7th . New Wine, Soul Survivor, Momentum that planning will go well, and everyone will have a wonderful experience of worship and growth in faith and fellowship. That those uncertain of whether or not to come will go for it! Anything that is close to your heart and that you wish to bring to prayer.

Some Resources for group prayer (perhaps for use in your Cell group)
Below are a few suggestions for forms of prayer which you might like to use in your cell. These particular ideas would help you to format a prayer session, and of course do add in space, as you wish, for extemporary (open) prayer. Each prayer can be creatively related to the prayer requests above, and could be used to explore that request more deeply in prayer with God and your companions. It can be spiritually helpful, before we pray for the needs of others, to come ourselves before God, to centre in His presence, to acknowledge our brokenness, and to lay ourselves down before His love and grace. The first two prayer ideas below can help with this personal spiritual preparation.

Prayer 1: Getting into Worship I: Breathing Prayer

This method of prayer can be used at the beginning of any service, or even in your everyday life when you feel yourself starting to get angry or stressed. It is called a breathing prayer. Method: Sit in a comfortable position and focus on your breathing for a minute. Then as you breathe in, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and imagine the breath of God filling you as your own breath goes in. As you breathe out, ask God to take away the things that are distracting you from worship. (It will probably help if one person guides the prayer, or give each person a print-out of the prayer so they can speak it inwardly as they breathe in and out).

Remind everyone to do this at a breathing pace that is natural for them, so that they feel comfortable and dont get faint. Repeat this prayer as often as you wish, but do it at least a few times to allow its meaning to sink in. Breathe in: Come Holy Spirit Breathe out: Distractions Breathe in: Come Holy Spirit Breathe out: Distractions You might want to play a song in the background while this is going on, with a Come Holy Spirit theme... A variation on this breathing prayer is to breathe in asking God to give you different fruits of the Spirit, and to breathe out the bad feelings that are the opposite of these fruits. You can use this like a sort of repentance prayer to say sorry (e.g. for the times we hate) and to ask for Gods love to replace it. Breathe in: love Breathe out: hate Breathe in: joy Breathe out: worries Breathe in: peace Breathe out: stress Breathe in: patience Breathe out: impatience Breathe in: kindness Breathe out: pettiness Breathe in: goodness Breathe out: anger Breathe in: faithfulness Breathe out: selfishness Breathe in: gentleness Breathe out: hardness Breathe in: self-control Breathe out: recklessness

Prayer 2: Getting into Worship II: Reviewing the Day/Week

This prayer technique was started by St Ignatius of Loyola. Resources: none required.

Method: It might be helpful for one person to guide the parts of the prayer: to say when we are moving on to the next part, although making sure that there is plenty of time for each part, so the prayer doesnt feel rushed. Everybody finds a position they feel comfortable in and asks Gods Holy Spirit to come and be with them. Ask God to prompt your thoughts as you do the next two parts. Sit and think of three things you want to thank God for, that have happened today, or this week. Spend some time just being thankful for these things, then move onto the next section. Now, ask the Holy Spirit to bring one event of the day, or week, to mind. Something that if you could change the way you dealt with it, you would. Talk to God about that event. If you feel you should apologise to God about it then do so (but dont go on a guilt trip about it). Talk to God about other ways you could have dealt with the event and ask Him to help you, next time, to deal with it in the new ways you have just thought about. You could finish with this prayer: Lord God, we are sorry for our sin and failure. We ask your forgiveness. Lord God, we are confident in your mercy and unfailing love. Bind up our brokenness, and give us a new heart. Lord, thank you for your forgiving love. Now come, Lord, and make me, in your good time, a new creation. Amen.

Prayer 3: Using Candles to Pray for People in Need

There are many different ways in which candles can be used in prayer. Many people take comfort from lighting a candle for someone they know is suffering and this is the idea that this prayer is based on. This form of prayer could be used to pray for those on our prayer list at this time, and specific prayer requests from your cell. Resources: Candles, a collection of broken things (maybe ask people in advance to bring some with them broken glass, pieces of pottery, old radios, pictures that are ripped, etc). Method: Take the collection of broken things and form into some sort of sculpture, maybe arranging them to form a mountain, or cross. Explain that we are going to spend some time thinking of people who feel that they are broken or suffering in some way (look at the prayer list on the newssheet, and ask each other about who we know that needs prayer). Play a piece of instrumental music and give

people time to think about the people they know who might be feeling like this. Give out some candles and ask everyone to light a candle, as they pray, for the person theyve been thinking about. Place the candles around the broken things: and remember that Christ is our lover, healer, comforter, and friend.

Prayer 4: Graffiti Wall

Resources: You need a wall or notice-board covered in a large piece of paper; lots of paint or marker pens. If paint is used, brushes will also be needed, and plastic sheets of newspaper to cover the floor. Method: Choose a theme for the Graffiti wall (such as Springfields summer outreach events) and invite people to come up to the wall and, in their own time, write or paint whatever slogans and prayers they wish on the wall. They may also draw pictures if they feel easier expressing their prayers in this way. At the end of the prayer session you may wish to summarise these prayers in some way, perhaps by writing Lord, hear our prayers or something similar at the bottom of the wall.

Prayer 5: Walkabout
Resources: Nothing Method: Go on a walk together around the area you are meeting in, or somewhere that is on your heart (go as a group to be safe). Before you all go for the walk, pray and ask God to use your eyes, ears, all your senses to make you aware of any places or circumstances He is concerned about and wishes to bring to your attention. Ask the Holy Spirit to enliven your heart to the life of the place you are walking in. Make the walk together at a gentle pace and try not so much to talk to one another as to look around you and listen. When you come back together again, share with one another any things you particularly noticed, things you felt God showed you or brought your attention to. Hold these things before God in prayer together. (Before a Christian community engages with outreach and mission it is important that we discern where God might be calling us to go, so we can join in Gods work, and not simply impose our own agenda: this kind of prayerful attention exercise, which can be done anywhere, helps us to tune into Gods desire for the places where we live. It can be a wonderful thing, as it was for Adam and Eve, to walk with God in the cool of the evening).

Prayer 6: Everybody at Once

Resources: Card/paper and pens to write down prayer requests at the centre of the room before you start praying. Method: This is a well-known prayer method. Basically everybody prays out loud at the same time. This could be a way of praying for specific individuals in our Church community, and within our wider communities, who need our prayer at this time. You could begin by writing down on visible cards at the centre of the room who/what you are going to pray for. Then everyone can pray for each person, or cause, as they feel moved. It is helpful (if people are a bit self-conscious) if one person is willing to be the first to start praying out loud, and the last to finish.