We want to see people powerfully transformed to follow Jesus Christ, to live in loving obedience to God and to serve others in freedom and love
January 6, 2012
Last Sunday we had an excellent start to the new at Cascade with a meaningful time of worship when we considered what sort of ‘new things’ we might be expecting from God in 2012. During the service a number of people took the opportunity to share a personal testimony and some made mention of the richness of fellowship at Cascade and an appreciation of the prayers and practical love they had experienced from others in our congregation. This is always a great encouragement to hear these stories! We also heard from Blanche who told us that she is going to start a prayer journal in 2012. This is something she has never done before even though is quite advanced in years. What is that God wants you to do for the first time in 2012?
Christmas Kettles Campaign
A huge thank you to each one of you who participated in supporting our Kettles and Angel Tree ministries throughout December.. Many families in our Community were able to receive toys and gifts for their children through the Angel Tree and at this point we are more than $4,000 up on last year’s Kettles campaign. We give thanks to God for the opportunities this funding will give us to further serve the people of Abbotsford and Mission in the year 2012.
Transformed People, Connecting to God through Prayer, Releasing His power
Jesus taught us that prayer is a vital part of our relationship with God. Jesus spent much time in private prayer with His Heavenly Father and taught His disciples how to pray using the model that we now call The Lord’s Prayer. We also know from the model in the early church that the first followers of Jesus spent much time in corporate prayer and that the Holy Spirit came and filled the disciples as Pentecost and the gospel was preached with power and many people gave their hearts and lives to Jesus.
For these and other reasons prayer needs to be central to our personal lives in the 21st century, and also to the life of any local church. Last year we took some small first steps at Cascade to put prayer as the priority it should be. We held prayer gatherings on Monday evenings and an occasional prayer meeting was held on a Saturday morning. For the past several years we have had a special prayer focus during the season of Lent leading up to Easter. I want to experience a deeper relationship with God in this coming year, and I want my life to be further transformed and refined in the coming days. I also want our Cascade Church Community to be a place where God’s love, presence and power is experienced regularly. I want others outside of our community to come and share this experience of God with us. What is that you want in terms of your relationship with God in this coming year? What do you want, hope and pray to see in Cascade Community Church this year? These things need to be the subject our earnest individual and corporate prayers.
For the past several weeks I have been meeting regularly with Reg Burks and Barb Reynolds to pray and discuss our prayer strategy for 2012. Starting on Monday evening(tomorrow night) 9 January , 630pm, in the church sanctuarywe will commence a series of fortnightly (bi-weekly for the non –British) meetings. Also on Saturday morning 21 January at 10am we will hold our first of some occasional Saturday prayer meetings.
We will have an added concentrated prayer focus once again during the season of Lent starting in February.I urge you to give serious thought to revitalizing your own prayer life and to joining our prayer movement for 2012! Reg Burks, assisted by Barb Reynolds, are volunteering to coordinate these gatherings and to recruit prayer partners for this special season. Please speak to them if you need further information.
Hope to see you worshipping with us on Sunday!
Ross
