The class will take place on Saturday mornings, 10-11am from Jan 21 to Feb 11 in the Family Room at Grace Gathering’s building (3157 Minnich Rd). If you plan to attend, RSVP by emailing Michelle Atkinson.

Saturday, January 21st at 6:30pm we will be having a Family Movie Night at Charis House (431 Fairmount Pl). Please bring a generous-sized snack to share!

We will also be having a “Popcorn Making and Bagging” party at 5pm at the Sternke’s (7116 Tanbark Lane). Bring your supper to eat at their house, if it’s helpful

See you then!

How to Start a Missional Community

Our general gathering rhythm goes like this:

+ MC Gatherings (1st and 3rd Sundays)
+ Worship Celebration (2nd and 4th Sundays)
+ Small Groups (Midweek)

Epiphany looks like this, specifically:

FRI JAN 6 – PRAYER FURNACE
7pm @ 7116 Tanbark Ln || More info

SUN JAN 8 – EPIPHANY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St

SUN JAN 15: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 3:30pm at Holy Cross
• Open Door MC – BRUNCH & WORSHIP
  11AM @ 7116 Tanbark Ln
  Bring food to share. Participatory worship and sharing on Epiphany themes.

SAT JAN 21 – CHARIS HOUSE MOVIE NIGHT
6:30pm at 431 Fairmount Pl
Popcorn-making party beforehand at 5pm at 7116 Tanbark Ln.

SUN JAN 22 – EPIPHANY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 300 E Wayne St

FRI JAN 27 – PRAYER FURNACE
7pm @ 312 Taber Ave || More info

SUN JAN 29 – MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 10:30am at 4034 Arlington Ave. Bring brunch food to share.
• Open Door MC – 11am @ 5211 Delaware Ave. Bring brunch food to share.

SUN FEB 5: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 10:30am @ 2220 Alabama Ave. Bring brunch food to share.
• Open Door MC – 11am @ 7306 Tanbark Ln. Bring brunch food to share.

SUN FEB 12 – EPIPHANY WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 E Wayne St

SUN FEB 19: MISSIONAL COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

• Northside MC – 10:30am at TBA. Bring brunch food to share.
• Open Door MC – 11AM @ 7116 Tanbark Ln. Bring brunch food to share.

SUN FEB 26: LENT WORSHIP CELEBRATION
5pm @ 300 300 E Wayne St

Why pray? Here are ten reasons:

1. Our Father who art in heaven
Because without prayer there is only – myself. Between the heaven of prayer and the hell of the self there is no middle way. The more I try to find myself, the more I am lost. To call on God as Father is to discover myself as someone God calls child.

2. hallowed be thy name
Not because prayer will give me what I want, but because it will knead and pummel my wants, stretching them my whole life long, until at the last hour of my life I have learned to want one thing only, the only thing worth having. And so my whole life becomes a secret sigh, an inarticulate utterance of the hidden Name of God. And so even my death will be my prayer, the sigh by which I give myself up into the presence of the holy Name.

3. thy kingdom come
Because my prayer encompasses not my own life only but the entire world of which I am a part. What defines this world is scarcity, injustice, and oppression – in other words, hunger. To pray is to find in my own hunger an echo of the hunger of the world, in my own small cry an echo of the cry for justice that rises like smoke from the scorched earth.

4. thy will be done
Because prayer is the end of willing, the beginning of wisdom. The life of prayer is a slow dying into the will of God, a slow awakening into the freedom to live.

5. on earth as it is in heaven
Not because prayer is a technique of self-improvement or an instrument of spiritual experience, but because it is beyond all human competency, beyond all language and learning and control. Prayer is the speech of heaven. To pray is to live beyond the narrow walls of the self and beyond whatever I can merely control. As sunflowers open to the morning, so the praying life opens towards heaven, standing up straight into the bright burning presence of the Name.

6. give us this day our daily bread
Because every day, morning and night, I hunger. The stuff of my life is hunger, need, and lack. Technology and affluence blind me to this truth, but one day – a single morning – without food is enough to show me the truth of what I am. I live by lack: God lives by fullness. I am only hunger: God is only food.

7. and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Because hurt and disappointment and resentment are always knocking at the door of my life. As soon as I drive one away another arrives, eager to come in and set up its home in the little house of my heart. I will die of resentment; I am destroyed by what I am owed. But I learn to forgive when God writes off my debts and makes me free. Now I can live, now I can clear the debts of enemies and friends, and speak the magic word of forgiveness that drives resentments back into the dark.

8. and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
Because this world is only trial. Yet it is God’s world, and all the evils that crowd in upon my life can never hide my voice from the listening God.

9. for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever
Because God is glorious. All my life I was asleep within myself, but when I bowed my head to pray I opened my eyes to the glory of God. Glory should be seen. Just as it is right for a mountain to be seen or a piece of music to be heard or the body of a woman to be loved, so it is right to give God thanks and praise, for God is glorious.

10. Amen
Because the life of God is prayer itself. It is deep calling to deep, the endless giving and receiving of unbounded self-divesting self-communicating joy. My prayer is an eavesdropping on the Prayer that is God. God’s speech is grace and truth, God’s life is love, God’s silence is the annunciation of the Name. The word of my life is a modest, small, yet glad and true, Amen

We encourage everyone at Christ Church to read Scripture daily. There is something powerful and unifying about all of us reading the same Scriptures each day, too. Up until now we’ve been using the Daily Office Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer, but we’ve decided to make a switch to the Moravian Daily Texts, starting in 2012. You are encouraged to make this move with us!

We’re doing this for a few reasons.

Firstly, using the Moravian texts gets us through the entire Bible in two years (and the Psalms twice), whereas the Daily Office skips portions of Scripture that are deemed difficult to understand or awkward to modern sensibilities.

Secondly, the Moravian texts simply go through Scripture from beginning to end, whereas the Daily Office jumps around a bit in an effort to be seasonal.

Thirdly, using the Moravian texts provides us with more opportunities to engage in a devotional reading of Scripture, because of the resources available, which will be outlined below.

Here is how you can access the daily texts, as well as some of the devotional material available:

1. Subscribe to the daily email. For those who simply want to get the texts day-by-day, along with a prayer, the email is the way to go. Fair warning, though, the email usually doesn’t come until 7:30am or so.
2. Order the 2012 Daily Texts in paperback. This book will give you all the readings for the year, as well as devotional material (“Watchword for the week, watchword of the day, doctrinal texts, a few hymn verses, and a prayer). This makes for a great family devotional every day. You can also download the Guide to the Daily Texts [PDF].
3. Check out the 3DM Facebook page, where they post short devotional reflections on the texts each day. There is also sometimes an audio recording of their morning devotions, which are always focused on the texts of the day.

Also, you can read some interesting information about the history of of the daily texts, which have their origin in a “great spiritual awakening” in 1727 in Herrnhut, Germany, led by Count Zinzendorf.

Let’s continue to read Scripture every day, seeking to listen to receive from the Father, hear his voice and respond in faith and obedience in 2012.

Also, in groups you can use the pamphlet below to ask questions of one another to spur on discipleship to Jesus.

• Discipleship Questions Pamphlet (PDF)

Christ Church is committed to changing the atmosphere of the Fort Wayne region and the world through prayer.

We are going to be expressing this value in 2012 by meeting on the fourth Friday of every month at 7pm for an evening of worship and prayer for the Fort Wayne region. This “prayer furnace” will be a space for people from the Fort Wayne region to gather together to intercede for the church and our region. We gather corporately to agree with God in prayer, declaring who He is and proclaiming His desire for the Fort Wayne region.

We’ll also be reading through Andrew Murray’s book With Christ in the School of Prayer as a church. Order a copy so you’re ready to go the first week of January. Below is the reading schedule. We’ll spend the first 15 minutes of each prayer furnace discussing the past few weeks’ reading.

READING SCHEDULE

Week of January 1: Chapter 1 (Prayer Furnace Jan 6)
Week of January 8: Chapter 2
Week of January 15: Chapter 3
Week of January 22: Chapter 4 (Prayer Furnace Jan 27)
Week of January 29: Chapter 5

Week of February 5: Chapter 6
Week of February 12: Chapter 7
Week of February 19: Chapter 8 (Prayer Furnace Feb 24)
Week of February 26: Chapter 9

Week of March 4: Chapter 10
Week of March 11: Chapter 11
Week of March 18: Chapter 12 (Prayer Furnace Mar 23)
Week of March 25: Chapter 13

Week of April 1: Chapter 14
Week of April 8: Chapter 15
Week of April 15: Chapter 16
Week of April 22: Chapter 17 (Prayer Furnace Apr 27)
Week of April 29: Chapter 18

Week of May 6: Chapter 19
Week of May 13: Chapter 20
Week of May 20: Chapter 21 (Prayer Furnace May 25)
Week of May 27: Chapter 22

Week of June 3: Chapter 23
Week of June 10: Chapter 24
Week of June 17: Chapter 25 (Prayer Furnace June 22)
Week of June 24: Chapter 26

Week of July 1: Chapter 27
Week of July 8: Chapter 28
Week of July 15: Chapter 29
Week of July 22: Chapter 30 (Prayer Furnace July 27)
Week of July 29: Chapter 31