Aufstehen Day 3: Standing FirmRachel Wegner - 8 Oct 2011
It seems we're all letting out a deep, contented sigh as we've just finished our second full day of the Eurogathering. The morning started with worship and then a word from Sister Liliane. She is one of three nuns from the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary who have blessed us greatly by joining our gathering this week.
"When nuns in white are praying with punks in black, you know God is here," Pete Greig said with a smile later on.
Brian Heasley spoke during the morning session, sharing from the stories of the early church in Acts 9 and 10. In this passage, God appeared to Peter in a vision and revealed that the Gospel was not only for Jews, but for Gentiles, too. Peter followed God's lead and the Gospel began to spread through Europe and beyond.
"For Peter, the vision was Jesus," Brian said. "For us, as 24-7 Prayer, the vision is Jesus. It's an incarnational model. We want it to propel the church out."
Tucked into our morning session was also a word from Patricia Green from Alabaster Jar, which is a ministry that reaches women caught up in sex trafficking. The afternoon was again a smorgasbord of seminars, with yesterday's conversations continuing with different leaders and topics.
The evening session kicked off with a lively worship set and also the commissioning of the 24-7 Germany community to launch a year of prayer (complete with a quintessential 24-7 crowd surfing of one of our German brothers). Pete Greig then shared out of stories from the Bible and from his own experiences with friends that illustrate how God sets the itinerary for His work, not us.
"When the Spirit of God is on the move, all we have to do is join," Pete said. "That is why prayer gives birth to mission."
He encouraged us to first be prayerful as we seek God for His vision for our life, both as individuals and as communities. He then charged us make to simply make practical plans to outwork whatever it is God has called us to, and to go (or stay) where He calls us. The evening closed as we gathered to pray for one another and to also give to the work of 24-7 Germany and 24-7 International.
Our final sessions together will be tomorrow (Sunday). I look forward to recapping our time shortly after!
Until then...
Rachel
p.s. The recordings from today's sessions, along with all of our seminars from the last few days, will be available online soon. Stay tuned for more news on that.