The Sacred Season of Prayer and Fasting

My church is in a Sacred Season of Prayer and Fasting at the moment. We are joining with members of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations (http://www.confessingcongregations.com/) all over Australia, and are praying for the Uniting Church as a whole. Many parts of the Uniting Church are leaning towards liberal or progressive theology, and the authority of scripture and the centrality of Christ is being lost. It's pretty serious stuff and its spread widely throughout the denomination. That's why a 40 day period of prayer and fasting has been declared - we're up to day 26, just 14 to go! The Assembly of Confessing Congregations (ACC), of which my church is a part, is committed to confessing Jesus as Lord and staying faithful to the gospel that is proclaimed in the Bible. There is no other Lord than Jesus - salvation comes from no-one else but Jesus. God alone is worthy of our praise! These are foundational truths that need to be upheld.

I've been fasting from 6am to 6pm, so I have breakfast and I have dinner but I don't eat anything in between. It's been hard getting used to it, because I haven't really fasted before but it could be worse. Some people are doing a complete fast and only having liquids. One person that I know of is only having water for the whole 40 days. That's incredibly full on, but it shows the passion that people have for biblical faithfulness and Christ's centrality within the church. Fasting isn't commanded in the Bible, but there definitely are examples of it. For this situation, fasting is a way to come humbly before God, to mourn for the way our church has gone and to pray fervently.

I have been encouraged by the deepening sense of unity that has arisen in my church as a result of this sacred season. Each day has pretty much the same structure, and there are many opportunities throughout the day to meet with eachother and with God. I have really loved the focus on God and all the different ways available to do this. The day starts at 5:45 am (!) with a communion service. I don't go to this every morning, sometimes I need a sleep in, even though it is at my house. When I have gone to communion, it's been beautiful. A really gentle service with lots of sung responses and bible passages. It's just a small service but it's really worthwhile, when I can actually be motivated to get out of bed at that hour. I'm usually better if I have a shower before I go downstairs!

In the middle of the day are our Bible study and liturgy prayers. Mostly we have the same group of people coming each day, and I'm getting to know these people really well. I've been given the ongoing task of writing the Bible studies for the sacred season. Each day I lead a Bible study looking at a passage from Ephesians. It's an awesome book, so relevant and practical to what's going on at the moment. In the first few studies, people were pretty quiet and didn't come up with many ideas. Now, I can hardly get a word in! Everyone keeps on talking about the ideas, and asks deep questions about the passages, which is what a Bible study is supposed to be, in my opinion. It is wonderful to look at the Bible in such depth and to talk about it with other Christians.

The liturgy prayers are more formal, and follow the same pattern every day. We start with a call to worship and then have a selection of Bible readings. We also read a paragraph from the Uniting Church Basis of Union each day. This document is actually very theologically sound, so I suppose we do this to declare the truth that so much of the church has gone away from. We then read a prayer that is based on the Bible passages and the doctrines presented in the Basis of Union. It's very structured but I like it being structured and formal. There's also a prayer meeting each day, but I don't go to that. I went for a few times but the prayers were too long for me. We have some people who are incredibly powerful intercessors, and they can pray for hours! I found myself getting bored, and if that's what happens then its probably better to not go, but to let them pray for however long they need to. I pray at home, in my own room. Maybe that's something I need to grow in.

The National Assembly for the Uniting Church is coming up very soon, so our prayers are focused on that. It's a really big thing that's happening, but God is in control of it all, and God is good!!