A Labor of Love for 2014

Fr. Eirik’s prayer points have been refined since our annual meeting and are available on our Lenten Prayer Card.

Click here to listen to the meeting.

 

Dear Light of Christ Family,

What a joy it was this past Sunday to give thanks with you for the blessings of 2013 and to anticipate together the call of 2014!

Jeanne and I are blessed and excited about the Bishop and vestry’s call to full time work as Rector of Light of Christ. Bishop Stewart has challenged us to pray first, plan second, and eventually move towards doing this sometime in the last quarter of 2014. How we do that is something we need to discern and realize together.

As a follow-up to my talk at our annual meeting, I wanted to recap the highlights of how we are seeing 2014 and the call to prayer during Lent.

The Work of 2014 in Three Chapters

While we seek the Lord’s wisdom for regarding the full-time pastorate, we do so in the context of our greater purpose–to work with Jesus in a Labor of Love for Kenosha.

With our Bishop, we see this Labor of Love unfolding in three chapters of responsibility:

a call to prayer,
a call to prepare,
a call to proclaim.

We invite you to prayer, and to join us in renewing the disciplines of prayer, with special devotion during the season of Lent.

This call to prayer was initially prompted by our need for wisdom and provision as move to establish the full-time pastorate. It still has that in mind, of course, but we see this prayer request rooted in a far greater one: that the Lord of the Harvest provide everything we need for the labor of love He has called us to do in Kenosha.

This is the prayer-work that Jesus urged upon the disciples in Matthew 9, it is pre-Pentecost prayer He commanded at His Ascension, and it is the call we believe He is renewing for us now.

The Ways of Prayer

We have a few suggested prayer requests, and some help for how to pray. Our adult Sunday School will be dedicated to the disciplines of prayer in the midst of real life.

We will sponsor and encourage prayer at home, in house groups, in chapel offices and in private. We will provide opportunities and partnering.

Join us and enjoy with us God’s love and the ministries and labors that He will birth through these prayers.

Suggested Prayer Requests

1. He is the Lord of the Harvest and He has the resources, so pray to for Him to provide the laborers. Ask Him for more laborers–disciples, ministers, workers, teachers, healers, prophets and musicians to love and light the way for the distressed and dispirited in Kenosha.
2. Ask Him for the provision and wisdom we need in the call to establish a full-time pastorate.
3. Ask Him to help all our elders to be diligent in mending the nets of ministry, to have wisdom to know where and when to cast our ministry nets, and to have the knowledge and compassion to lead meekly and helpfully. We need our equippers to equip us for the ministries that Jesus has given to each of us.
4. Pray by name for the specific distressed and dispirited ones that you know. Bathe them in the compassion of Jesus, and see Him take them to green pastures and healing waters.
5. Pray for the Lord of the Harvest to show you your labor of love in the midst of your life and times. You will have many moments of ministry. Ask Him to reveal the labors of love in your householding, in your studies, in your work, in your family relationships. And ask Him to reveal your special sacrifice of love, your calling, and the steps of obedience He may ask you to take later this year.From Matthew 9:35-38

As we move through Lent, we will be asking you how God is leading, what flames of ministry desire He is fanning, and what labors of love you see Him calling forth. We will also be asking for any wisdom He may give you regarding the path towards full-time pastorate.

The Vestry and I look forward to hearing from you and praying with you.

We will begin our next “chapter,” with its plans and preparations, after this season of prayer.

God bless you. I am praying for you. Please pray for me, our vestry, our Bishop and our families.

-Fr E+