Sacred Gathering|Monday Night

Our second night of the Sacred Gathering got off to a great start. I did not count last night, but there seemed to be a few more folks than the first night. The floor of our Auditorium was full as people were connecting and you could feel the excitement in the air. For both nights, it has been cool to watch people arrive early and stay well past the time we were done. You can tell our people are anxious to be in community together, share what God is doing, and just be present with one another.

I had a mentor tell me one time that you sense health in body of believers by how they desire to just be around one another and enjoy life together. No doubt is that present in our people. An incredible time for me was speaking with a couple in our church who is beginning the process to go on the foreign mission field full time on another continent. It was moving to hear the confirmations God is giving them as the walk through this process.

Here are some of the highlights and Scripture passages from our second night of the Sacred Gathering:
-We started our evening in a worship set, some of the songs included God of Wonders, Praise You, and Hungry. We are Hungry was an incredible time of worship since we are all hungry because of our fast but realizing that our hunger for God should be and is greater than our hunger for food. A couple of lines from the song really defined our evening, "Hungry I come to You, ’cause I know You Satisfy" and "Jesus, You are all this heart is living for."
-Jeff began our first prayer movement by asking, "What other things [besides God] is my heart living for?" He then begin to share a little bit about the concept of community in Scripture. The church in Scripture is described as a community or koinonia in the New Testament. God says as we enter His redemptive rule and reign, we should live in this way, in community or koinonia…that is the church.
-He then led us to reflect on the following list of Scriptures from the New Testament (often described as the "one anothers"). He instructed to ask ourselves, ‘Am I living in this manner?’ and to ask God ‘Give me the desire to live this way and empower me to do so.’ The verses: Romans 12:10, Romans 13:8, Glatians 5:13, 1 Peter 1:22, Romans 12:16, Romans 15:5, 1 Corinthians 12:25, Galatians 6:2, Ephesians 4:32, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, 1 Peter 5:5, Romans 15:14, Ephesians 5:19, Ephesians 5:21, Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 10:24-25, Romans 14:13, Galatians 5:26, Colossians 3:9, James 4:11, James 5:9
-Jeff continued by saying that these verses are the description of the church, this is how we are to look. It cannot happen by just coming to a building, shaking some hands, singing some songs, hearing a message, throwing a couples of dollars in a bucket, and then leaving. This can only happen by a willingness to be in community, in a smaller gathering of believers where community can be lived out. Then, through these smaller groups of community we are called to penetrate the world with the love and message of Christ.
-Our next movement revolved around a deeper idea of building community as we spent time in intercession for one another, simply praying for others. We reflected on an outline from Colossians of how Paul interced for people. We are to ‘pray for their guidance and encouragment’: Colossians 1:9, 2:4, 2:6, 2:8, 4:12. We are also to ‘pray for their life in Christ’: Colossians 3:1-2, 3:15-16.
-Next we spent time praying with a prayer partner and then in a prayer huddle (4-5 people) interceding for one another.
-Jeff then shared that there is a simultaneous call to all Christ-followers to be about the nations—not just this local area. And as we reach locally and globally at the same time, we need to inform ourselves of the nations and unreached people groups so we can adequately pray for them. We then watched an informational video about the nation of India, all of the unreached people groups, and more. Following the video, we then prayed over 3 teams that will be going to Brazil, India, and China in the next few months from our church.
-We closed the evening with another worship set and some time for personal reflection. Some of the songs from the worship set were We Fall Down and Take My Life. One line from the last song that still resonates with me is "Here am I, all of me, Take my life, it’s all for Thee."

Thanks for being a part of the Sacred Gathering by reading and praying for our church. Hope to see you tonight if you are in Middle Tennessee.