Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Student's Story: Erica


Something new this year for us this year has been a blog that we are keeping via our website. Recently, one of our student leaders, Erica, shared how God has been at work in her life recently. We really have been impressed by what God's been doing in her life and are blessed to walk through this journey with her. I hope you are encouraged by what she has to share.

http://www.columbiarock.com/archives/1433

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Prayer Night


Once a month, we have a service in which we celebrate one of the biblically-based core values of The Rock. We call this service Axis, as these are central to who we are. This semester, we are celebrating Stewardship. In a different approach, we decided to view prayer through this lens, that one of our basic function as believers is to be in fellowship with God. It was with this in mind that we decided to spend an hour in prayer.

As the producer for Axis, I got the chance to organize the night. I contacted six different students to help facilitate prayer stations that groups rotated through for about 8 minutes each, categorized in  Upward prayers to God, Outward prayers concerning other people and Inward prayers on personal reflection.

Upward
Praise - celebrating Jesus by hearing a psalm and writing a letter praising Jesus.
Giving Thanks - writing down things they were thankful for and lifting those up together.

Outward
Mizzou, partner ministries - praying together for the the evangelistic work with pictures for visual aid.
The Church - writing on note cards reminders to pray for throughout the week and praying for The Rock and its leaders

Inward
Personal Growth - personal written response in praying through the fruits of the Spirit
Struggles and Challenges - praying in small groups, lifting personal prayer requests to the Lord

Watching the church pray for an hour was so cool to see. For many, that was probably the longest they'd ever prayed. For some it broke the mold on what prayer looks like. For the leaders, well we were just so proud of the participation and facilitation of students.

Thought I'd share! Thank you for your own prayers.