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Side by Side Prayer Guide: Introduction
By CRCC | February 19, 2006
What you’ll find in the following posts is unlike what you’ve found in our previous Columbia Ridge devotional materials. There are no long passages written by me and no theological points I’m trying to “bring home” each day. Were there such things, I believe they would detract from what God wants to do in your life, and in our church and world, through Side by Side.
And just what does God want to do through Side by Side? With regard to you and your church, He wants to grow your heart to be more like His, and He wants to grow the Columbia Ridge family into a beautiful reflection of His Son. As much as I’d like to think that my teaching is the essential element in that process, I know that it is not. What is both essential and primary for any of us to be changed is that we first turn to Lord, giving Him complete access to every nook and cranny of our soul, as well as the invitation to have His will be done in our lives. With this in mind, we’re preparing for our Side by Side journey by spending a week in prayer, sincerely asking that God would transform us so that we might dream His dreams and work toward them with joy in our heart.
As we enter into this together, please remember that Side by Side is not primarily about the construction of a building to house our worship services and ministries to the community. Nor is it primarily about the development of a partnership with an AIDS-devastated community in Africa that sees only darkness on the horizon, instead of hope. Don’t get me wrong, both of these aspects of Side by Side are very important, even essential; however, they are only tools to the end God is after. I believe with all my heart that God’s hope for Side by Side is that his people (that’s you and me) and his world (that’s our community and beyond) would come to share his dream fully and, in so doing, become changed to the core.
So please join with me and the leadership team at CRCC this week as we pray together that our church might become transformed as we grasp what God’s dream is and as we become fully invested participants in that dream. Pray that our hearts would beat to the same pattern as that of our Father in heaven; pray that our hearts will break over what breaks His heart and find joy in what brings Him joy.
But the Side by Side dream doesn’t end with us, for God’s dream is that we would become so much like Christ that we would move out into our world in a new and substantial way to help make His dream a reality in others’ lives. That is the second main focus of our prayer this week, that through God’s challenge to us we might move out into the world in a brand new way, making differences large and small through His lead and by His power. In other words, pray that those who feel far away from God’s love and concern might discover that love and concern and draw nearer to Him through our work in Him.
Again, this guide is not about teaching you the theological underpinnings of this campaign (you’ll get that as I teach through our Side by Side weekend series). Instead, it is about beginning the process of transformation in your life and your world by encouraging you to spend time in prayer with your Creator each day in the next week. I have found, as I’m sure you have as well, that we are changed the most when we openly come to God and pray that our hearts would become more like His.
So will you join me this week in praying each day that God might start his work in our lives and challenge us to invest fully in His dream? I ask with the full assurance of knowing that if you say “yes,” you’re beginning a journey that you’ll look back on with thankfulness to God!
Traveling with you,
Pastor Reed
PS – You’ll find details about our church-wide day of fasting on Day 6 of this guide. If you’re able, the prayer team, led by Rick Berry, would love to have you join the rest of the church in this!
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