Counting Down to the Eurogathering: 2 months to go.Scot Bower - 5 Aug 2011
While the sun blazed outside (a rare occurrence in an English Summer!) I spent most of this Wednesday with a few amazing people in what used to be a bowls (lawn not ten-pin!) clubhouse. We covered the walls in lengths of paper, broke out the marker pens, brewed some strong coffee and went to work planning this years Eurogathering.
2 months from now 200 or so church planters, community builders, missionaries, justice activists, prayer warriors and worshippers will gather in the city of Frankfurt for the 3rd 24-7 European gathering. Everyone is invited and all will be included. 24-7 gatherings are a great time to connect with one another, sharing stories and being impacted and encouraged by getting hold of the bigger picture of what God is up to. It's also going to be a time of envisioning and strategising for the future; it's time for the church to stand up!
In our bowls club as the caffeine kicked in and ideas began to flow it didn't take long before names, themes, prayers, plans and questions poured out and were scrawled in thick letters along the wall.
We got excited about many things including:
- Alek from Macedonia leading us in worship with some Balkan beats,
- Having the Burn 24-7 crew join us for some all night prayer and worship,
- hearing stories from across Europe from so many amazing people and places,
- the Friday night prayer session,
- praying for our North African and Middle Eastern neighbours,
- the legendary 24-7 Auction,
- …and daily theme songs!
In the midst of our frantic scribbling came an idea that felt it had been gently whispered from heaven
listen.
Simple. God was reminding us to make space to listen together for his voice. So…
The first thing we will do together at the Eurogathering will be to listen. To shut up and listen for the voice of the Father. Before we stand-up we will kneel down. The plan during the first session on Thursday evening is to tape our mouths shut, turn off our phones and ask for ears to hear what Jesus might want to say to us.
To prepare for that it would be great if we could all spend some time over the next 2 months listening and asking God what he wants to say to us during our gathering. If you have something you think God is saying to us we'd really appreciate it of you could email it to the team.
Tickets for Aufstehen - the 24-7 Eurogathering 2011are available to purchase from the 24-7 Shop now.