The Day Everything ChangedScot Bower - 11 Sep 2011
10 years on from the defining day of our generation we look back and ask prayer champions from around what changed on the 11th of September 2001.
Ten years is a long time to reflect over, many things have changed during those years. Many of us can remember clearly exactly where we were when we first heard the news that the twin towers had been hit by an unthinkable terrorist attack. I began by asking our contributors where they were ten years ago:
Etienne Piek (EP) is a South African who now works for 24-7 Prayer but for many years served coordinating the Global Day of Prayer. On that day Etienne was in London on his way to visit the U.S.
“Our flight was supposed to depart from Heathrow that evening. We were out on the streets and when we got back to our hotel everyone was glued to the tv. People were looking at one another in shock and unbelief as the images of the two planes crashing into the Twin Towers was shown over and over again. The airspace was closed and we couldn’t fly out . . .”
Steve Hawthorne (SH) is based in Austin Texas and serves as general director of Waymakers. He’s the author of several publications which are helping the world to pray including a fantastic book called Prayer Walking. Steve was on his way to speak at a mission mobilisation gathering he told me what happened when he got to the venue:
“Everything was paralyzed. The organizers asked if we should cancel. No way! Now more than ever! I can still remember the awe as about a hundred of us gathered that evening. The topic was the same, but we went at it totally different than planned. We camped in Psalm 46. It wasn't hard to feel the "mountains tremble" (vs 3). But we also tasted the river that gladdens God's people in the midst of all things (vs 4). We could "behold the works of the Lord," even in the desolations (vs 8). We hushed ourselves to "Be still and know that I am God." We could almost audibly hear Him say: "I will be exalted among the nations" (vs 10).“
Carla Harding (CH) is the international prayer director for 24-7 Prayer and was at the 24-7 office in Chichester when she heard the news:
“We were just a small team then, unaware of how far this movement would spread. I was volunteering in my free time whilst studying at Chichester. A friend walked into the office and told us the news. We were so shocked, it didn't feel real. I headed home and many of our friends gathered in our living room to watch the news.”
Ian Cole (IC) is a founding director of the World Prayer Centre based in Birmingham, England.
“9/11 is one of those days when you remember what, where and when. I was in a meeting in Birmingham with our Charities solicitor, and the Dean of Birmingham Cathedral. I remember walking across the City centre back to my office and feeling the sense of increasing tension as people realised the enormity of what was happening.
My first thoughts on seeing the television pictures were, “goodness me, Pauline and I have stood on the roof of that place once with our children and once leading a prayer session for New York and America”.
We are told that everything changed on that day, that the world somehow was no longer the same. So what changed for you? And how has the church changed in the ten years since?
IC: “I cannot say anything dramatically changed for me that day, but on refection so much changed over the following months and years and is still changing. I wrote recently in response to the recent riots in the UK that had the American church continued to pray as it did for three weeks after 9/11 then maybe America would be a very different place today. We in the church have a habit of desperate prayer at desperate times and then hope things go back to normal when there is no more normal to go back to.
SH: “For a few weeks, all over the USA there were spontaneous gatherings of people and overcrowded churches with two different mentalities. Some were in countdown mode, since it seemed that the end of the world was underway. The fear was sincere, but it was focused on escape. But another mentality emerged, a "keep-on-pressing-on" mode. It was all about laying hold of what wouldn't shake. Somehow the unshakeable kingdom became a reality and people let go of a lot of distractions and nonsense in their lives. It became very clear that only a few things mattered. The surge of patriotism was a nice upbeat feeling, but for many Christians, the entire experience confirmed their dual citizenship: an American, yes, but even more, a Christ-follower. After a few months the fear phenomenon began to fade away. Churches went back to having just one service instead of two or three because the surge of safety-seekers went back into their normal routines.”
Steve continues:
“It's understandable that the protracted wars have attracted some measure of sustained prayer for American lives. But with that has come some increase in geographic awareness. Kandahar and Quetta are cities that Americans now know about, and get mentioned by some in their prayers. Much of the crisis praying has faded. But there has been a sustained—and in some circles, growing—move to pray for long-haul city-wide and global issues in churches and in small groups. I'm optimistic that God will help us fulfill our part in the work of prayer. I think our best days of praying in America are yet before us.”
EP: “My prayer focus changed that day . . . I suddenly realized that I take too many things for granted, like friends and family and that I should constantly be praying for their protection and blessing. I also realized that our prayer all over the world were too patriotic . . . We needed prayers to bless the nations, praying “away” from ourselves . . . 9/11 helped! And I knew that the whole Islam-issue needed much prayer, but different prayers, prayers linked to acts of love and blessing and not hatred and persecution. I knew we were in for a tough new season of prayer where God had to change us first!”
IC: With regard to the Prayer movement, a huge shift forward took place soon after 9/11 when a group of prayer leaders met together in New York and from that meeting came the International Prayer Council that now has representatives around the world… At present we are seeing the biggest prayer movement the church has ever seen as across the world; Christians are coming together to worship and seek God’s face.
CH: “…there has been such an acceleration in prayer across the globe in the last ten years. At the celebration for the Global Day of Prayer last year I was amazed by the number of movements that have sprung up throughout the last decade. God has called us to pray. It may look, sound and feel a little different from place to place, generation to generation, but there seems to be no doubt the heart is the same. We need him. The world needs him. We must pray.”
But what of the call to the church to be bringers of peace, the peacemakers Jesus calls blessed? For the last 10 years the western world has been at war, Looking forward to the months and years ahead what can we do to be those bringers of peace to a world in conflict?
CH: “The question I'm challenged to ask is "What does love look like?" Love is more than a word, an idea, a command, it's the pivot around which Jesus asks us to centre our lives. When faced with tragedy, with someone who's hurt us, with a need, or a thanks, or an opportunity, we can ask... What does loving prayer look like here? What does loving action look like now?”
SH: "God's quintessential blessing is peace. So here's what I think, if we're going to become a blessing, at the very least, we must at least practice the task of praying blessing on people near and far. We generally don't obey beyond what we pray. If we want to become, by God's doing, a force of blessing, that sows and grows seeds of peace all over the earth, then we at least have to get good at praying blessings. Praying prayers of peace is, of course, not the whole story. But without praying clearly for God to bring His peace, our efforts to generate peace may not amount to much more than trying to make people be nicer to each other. Not much hope in that. Peace is a work of God in which we can play a part.
EP: We can only bring the kind of peace the world needs if we are in Christ. We need to spend more time at His feet to be transformed by His incarnational love. We should be in this place until the Spirit “urges” us to go . . . Anything less would be human efforts and we have seen with economics and politics that we just don’t have the answers. We need God-answers and they are birthed in prayer and His people are prepared in prayer to be instruments of real change! So, in essence we need more prayer AND more action, but the kind of action that doesn’t come from our own strategies and creative projects. If we want to be peacemakers, we need to bring the church back to its mandate to be a house of prayer for all nations. I guess this touches on the principles of prayer, mission and justice . . .
I'll leave you with this final thought from Steve:
Peace is not the absence of conflict. Christ like peace is knowing God’s stillness in the midst of conflict.
If we seek first the Kingdom of God then in the midst of that conflict we will know His peace and be peacemakers."
This week let's remember to seek the kingdom of God and be bringers of peace to a broken world.
Title image is a derivative of the image 'Marine Leads Run to Ground Zero' by DVIDSHUB and is used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms.