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Hey everyone,

A rare Saturday post – I’d like to recap a wonderful conference we had at SSCC this weekend.  We had this guy named Tom Tanner come and speak about prayer – individual and corporate.  Tom pastors a church called Riverstone in Kennesaw, GA.

I really enjoyed leading worship – we used a smaller band because until a couple of days ago, this event was planned for our “Rooftop” room that seats around 250-300, but when registration exceeded that – we moved to the main auditorium.

Tom said lots of things that were just “good stuff” this weekend.  A few that really jumped out today were:

“we’re not praying to each other, we’re  praying to God”
(about praying out loud together)

“do you want your church’s corporate prayer to sound like a rushing river, or a toilet with a broken flapper”?
(about corporate praying out loud, everyone praying lifting up their voices simultaneously)

“pour the fuel of discipline on the spark of desire”
(about creating a discipline to pray)

“why can you all believe that God created all the heavens and earth just by speaking, but you won’t believe that he could grow feet on a guy”
(re: a Smith Wigglesworth story of how a guy with no feet was miraculously healed)

“if God told you to stand in your chair and praise Him, would you do it”?
(God sometimes calls us to do some weird things)

“get a place – find a place for prayer – let it be your prayer place … George Whitefield prayed in a treehouse – because nobody bothered him there”.
(actually, I think maybe that was Jonathan Edwards, but maybe George Whitefield, too … doesn’t matter, I got the idea!)

This was the first event of 2009 that we are calling “Reach for More” events.  These events are for those Believers who are hungry and thirsty for “more”.  For one, I’m thrilled that we’re stepping out and doing things like this – our Sunday morning environment is wonderful, and God touches hearts and changes lives, but we still walk a fine line in having liberty for Christians to express themselves passionately and trying to maintain an atmosphere that is “friendly” to the Seeker.

We prayed for three very specific things for our church today:

1. Supernatural grace for our debt to be paid off
2. That we would become a house of prayer
3. That we would not wait for the lost to come to us; rather, we’d go to the lost

I’m stirred, and feel a rekindling of passion in my prayer life.  Oh dear God, please help me to take what I learned this weekend and put it into practice, and not just go back to my old patterns.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.