Milton Bible Chapel
Milton, Ontario
January 15, 2011
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
Jeremiah 33:3
The last few years God has seen fit to reveal himself in many different ways at Milton Bible Church. We have been praying more, and we have seen God answering more. Some of those answers include salvations and baptisms, healings, spiritual and numerical growth, increased evangelistic opportunities and a wonderful sense of God’s presence with us.
One of the things that marks our church is that we love to pray. For instance on Sundays before worship we gather for prayer. During our meetings we set time aside for people to bring contributions – by bringing praise and by listening for God’s voice – he speaks to our church. Then after most services we have a ministry time when our prayer ministry team prays for people who respond. We have a motto, “If anything stops long enough to lay hands on it, we will pray for it!” Throughout the week in the life of Milton Bible we have several official times and unofficial times where people gather to pray.
Our church has intentionally moved away from a set “Prayer Meeting,” where church prayer is often thought of as confined to a time and place. We have become a movement of prayer that permeates the entire church. Don’t get me wrong, we still have prayer meetings; we just have lots more prayer with a lot more people praying.
As pastor, I believe the high point of our prayer life in 2011 at Milton Bible Church will be the 24-7 Prayer Initiative introduced by our Fellowship. This call to prayer excites us. We will answer that call by spending 24 hours each day praying for one entire week for our church, community, our nation and the nations. But before that happens a church-wide visitation program will be conducted to collect the prayer requests of our church family and to encourage their involvement. This kind of vision by our Fellowship leaders is motivating. To know we will be joining others who will cry out to God every hour of every day for one entire year from coast to coast – wow! That has the potential to awaken our nation for God, and it will definitely bind the hearts of our church together.
by Jim DeMarsh