"Seek God for the City"

We are calling for a forty days of prayer emphasis from March 9 through April 17.  The theme will be "Seek God for the City: Prayers of Biblical Hope."

Why?

As a church we understand that being missional hangs on our dependence from God.  We seek God for vision, direction and power.  We understand that spiritual vitality is essential to the mission.


We also understand that, according to Acts 1:8, our mission begins in “our Jerusalem.”  We pray for the transformation of our own city without taking our eyes off the “ends of the earth.”  In fact, we understand that transformation flows from the inside out: from the individual heart to the church, from the church to the community, from the community to the city, from the city to the region, and from the region to the ends of the earth.


When?


As we look forward to Palm Sunday, we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  This event was an event marked with hope.  We anticipate the increasing presence of His kingdom in our city.  Ultimately, we look with hope to his return.  It is with this kind of hope that we pray for our church, for our city and for our world.  Furthermore, taking our cue from the significance of periods of "forty" in the Bible:

• 40 days of testing for Noah in the ark (Genesis 7);
• Moses' 40 years of preparation before leading his people;
• Moses' 40 days on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24);
• Israel's 40 years of testing in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8);
• Jesus fasted for 40 days before beginning his ministry (Matthew 4);
• the preparation of the disciples for 40 days after Jesus' resurrection (Acts 1);

we dedicate 40 days as a church for focused prayer.  Counting back 40 days from Palm Sunday (April 17), we will begin our season of prayer on March 9.  Some traditions call this the Lent season.  We may or may not like to call it that but we will want it to be forty days of fervent prayer.

How?


Prayer guides for the “Seek God for the City” emphasis will be available in English or Spanish at the Calvary campus for those who are interested beginning this Sunday, February 27.


These prayer guides provide daily direction on how to pray for the city and for the world.  Each day has Scripture verses, a theme of prayer for city transformation, a population to pray for, and a list of countries.  During those six weeks we will pray seeking: (1) God’s face; (2) the gospel of the kingdom; (3) the righteousness of His kingdom; (4) the peace of the kingdom; (5) the joy of the kingdom; and (6) the visitation of Christ the king.  Each week we will pray for a different continent and its respective countries beginning with the Americas and ending with Jerusalem.


These prayer guides can be used in your individual devotional time, at the dinner table with the family, in Bible Fellowships, Choir and praise team rehearsals, men’s fraternity, GROW and WIT groups and in worship services.  No additional prayer meetings are being calendared for this emphasis.  We would like this emphasis to be incorporated into the existing events of the church.  However, if you feel led to form a prayer group for this purpose, feel free to do so.  The prayer guides will be made available in the bulletin table and in the foyer.  If you are able to, you may put a $1 cost-recovery donation for the booklet in an offering envelope and label it “prayer guide,” placing it in the offering plate.


I hope that as a Calvary leader, you will be intentional in both, your individual participation in prayer in these forty days, and in intentionally finding ways to lead your ministry to participate.


Additionally, we will be following the themes of this prayer guide in the Wednesday night prayer group that meets in the Slayton building at 6:30 pm beginning on March 9.



It is my hope and prayer that as his people we will grow closer in intimacy with him, we will experience his transforming power in our lives, we will grow in our compassion for our city and our world, and we will be thrust into his mission of redeeming the world to Himself.  Only God can do that!  That's why we are "seeking God" for our church and city!

Egypt and Muslims

We have all been concerned for the situation that has been unfolding in Egypt over the last several days.  The protests of a people who are tired of the tyranny of a dictator and the unwillingness of Mr. Mubarack to step down have given way to sympathy and empathy for the people, fear of the potential of the rise of an extremist islamic leader, and uncertainty about the stability of the middle east.


As Christians, these leads us to do at least three things: (1) pray for Egypt; a peaceful resolution to its situation; freedom for its people; protection for the Christ followers and missionaries there; (2) encourage our president to intervene on behalf of the people and human rights; (3) pray that the new leadership not be from the islamic extremists.


This brings to light a related subject that is broader than the Egypt issue.  It has to do with the growth of the Muslim population.  Two weeks ago I attended a conference that dealt with the subject of evangelizing Muslims in the United States.  Although this is something that I don't have any experience in doing, I have heard numerous testimonies which encourage me in this area.


The sheer population statistics should cause us as evangelical and missional Christ followers to reflect on this.


An article published by a CNN blog, reports the following,


"Twenty years ago, the world had about 1.1 billion Muslims. Twenty years from now, it will have about twice as many - and they'll represent more than a quarter of all people on earth, according to a new study released Thursday.  Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as home of the largest number of Muslims, as its population pushes over 256 million, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life projects.  The number of Muslims in the United States will more than double, to 6.2 million, it anticipates.

Afghanistan's population will nearly double, to about 50.5 million, making it home to the ninth largest Muslim population in the world.

Israel will become nearly a quarter Muslim. The Palestinian territories have one of the highest growth rates in the world.

Fractious Nigeria, where Christian-Muslim violence has left thousands dead in the past decade, will become a Muslim-majority country by 2030, the Pew Forum projects.

And two western European countries - France and Belgium - will become more than 10 percent Muslim. Sweden will hover just below that level, at 9.9 percent.

Iran, on the other hand, will see very slow growth. Iranian women have among the fewest children of anyone in the Muslim world. They use birth control at exactly the same rate as American women, 73 percent.

The Muslim share of the global population will rise primarily because of their relatively high birth rate, the large number of Muslims of childbearing age, and an increase in life expectancy in Muslim-majority countries, according to the report, "The Future of the Global Muslim Population."

Conversion will play relatively little part in the increase, the report anticipates. It says little data is available on conversion, but what little there is suggests Islam loses as many adherents via conversion as it gains."

While these are interesting facts, the report keeps things in perspective by comparing the growth to Christianity,
Despite the rapid growth of Islam, Christianity seems set to remain the biggest religion in the world for the next 20 years. There are currently more than 2 billion Christians - 30 to 35 percent of the global population - making it very unlikely that there will be fewer than 2.2 billion Christians in 2030.

"There is nothing in these numbers to indicate that in 2030 there would be more Muslims that Christians," Cooperman said.

In fact, both Christianity and Islam could be growing, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the whole, he pointed out.

"We don't want people to jump to the conclusion that if Islam is growing, everyone else is shrinking," he said. "Christianity and Islam could both be growing at the expense of other religions."

(you can read the entire article at World Muslim Population Doubling (CNN))

In terms of Texas, some sources report that there are 140,000 Muslims, making Texas the 8th largest Muslim population state in the Union.  They are primarily concentrated in Houston (57,000), Dallas (30,000), Fort Worth (4,000), Austin (5,000), San Antonio (5,000), Arlington (3,000) and El Paso (1,500).  Recently a Brownsville newspaper reported that in the Rio Grande Valley there are about 200 Sunni families who meet in four mosques: Brownsville, Edinburg, McAllen and Weslaco.  Interestingly, the article states that Muslims in the Valley find it easy to interact with the Hispanic culture and that Hispanics seem to be attracted to Islam.

There are some who lump all Muslims into the category of extremists and/or terrorists, which is an uninformed opinion.  Those who do so see all Muslims as the enemy and choose to either hate them or fear them (or both).

We must remember that God loves Muslims and that Jesus died for their sins too.  We should be encouraged by the fact that many of them have come to faith in Christ through dreams, visions and the witness of faithful missionaries.

We can choose to see them as the enemy and launch a crusade against them.  We can choose to ignore them with apathy as they continue to grow around us and die without Christ.  Or we can be proactive about praying for their salvation and learn how to share our faith with them.

I have much to learn in this last aspect but I believe that I need to reflect on my role in helping to bring the gospel to Muslim peoples as an individual.  I believe our church needs to do the same, with a very critical involvement of our Spanish ministry, and learning to network with other like-minded Christians.

In the meantime, join me in praying for:

• Muslim-background Christians to be used by God in witnessing to others;
• Missionaries to Muslim peoples;
• the salvation of Muslim peoples in our area and around the world;
• a vision and a passion for evangelizing Muslims;
• God's glory among all the nations of the world

The links to some of the sources used above:

Muslim Population distribution in Texas Cities

Muslim population in Texas

Brownsville Herald article about islamic community