Final Entry...

Well, I hope that the blog experience this summer was helpful as we continue our quest to become a community that grows in listening to God in prayer and experiencing His power and love. Since February, when Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil spoke so powerfully to our church, I have struggled but tried to put words to what it means for us as a body as we move deeper into God's heart. These blog entries have been part of that process.

I will conclude with one more quote, but before I do I would like to make an appeal to those who have been reading to help me with something. In September I will teach a series called "Into the River." This series will build on many of the themes we have been exploring throughout this blog, the book, and the many conversations.

The help that i am asking for is to get a better sense of where those in our body are at as they relate to this topic and this direction we have been taking. Specifically, here are some questions that i have been wondering, but do not necessarily have a clear sense of:

• What is the posture people feel towards this shift we are trying to move towards?
• What are the fears that they are feeling as we move in this direction?
• What questions do they have that they wish would be addressed as we move in this direction?

If you have thoughts on any of those questions it would be really helpful for me to hear from you. I am guessing that answering them on the blog feels too public for many of you, so instead i am asking that you would consider sending an email response to info@rivercity.cc

It would be really helpful for the preparation of our next series if you could...

Now for one last quote from "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" (p153):

“God will manifest himself in direct proportion to our passion for him. The principle he laid down long ago is still true. ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’ (Jeremiah 29.13).”

There is a mysterious interaction between God's pursuit of us and our response to Him, and I won't even try to define where i think one starts and the other ends. But it is helpful to always come back front and center to what we know for sure, and these words spoken to Jeremiah are reiterated in one form or another all throughout Scripture.

When we seek God with all of our heart - when we burn with passion for who He is and what He means to us - we are guaranteed to find Him. The reverse, of course, is true as well. If we are uninterested, apathetic, or even avoiding God's presence and power, we will not find Him.

So the final question i ask on this blog will not likely be considered profound, but it is so imporant:

How badly do we want God?

As the months roll on this is what i believe is the most important indicator in this journey. Are we growing in desire for who He is? Do we long to reflect the heart and character of God in our own lives? Are we growing in dependence on Him? Are we increasing the level of submission to God? Are we more aware of our sin and faster to repent? Are we seeking him with all of our hearts?

Thank you again for coming on this journey with us this summer. May you continue to pursue the heart of God with all your being, just as He is pursuing you with all of His.

Blessings,

Daniel Hill
Senior Pastor, River City Community Church

Building a lasting foundation

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.” (1 Corinthians 3.11-14)

As we continue on this journey towards the heart of God through deeper experiences of prayer, listening, reflection, and obedience, I believe the Scripture above has a lot to both teach us and inspire us towards. What we are NOT trying to do is add another bullet point to our spiritual to-do list. What we are NOT trying to do is summon up guilt that we never pray enough. What we are NOT trying to do is look for the path of least resistance, and hope that God will bless our lives more if we can figure out the right prayers to throw up.

What we ARE trying to do is to build on the foundation of God’s love through Jesus Christ in our lives. We are wanting to commune more deeply, hear more clearly, and connect more thoroughly to the heart of God. Listen to and reflect on Warren Wiersbe’s comments on this text to the Brooklyn Tabernacle staff (found on pgs. 135-136 of “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”):

“Warren Wiersbe made an interesting observation about [1 Corinthians 3.13] to the Brooklyn Tabernacle staff. ‘What’s the difference between these materials, besides the obvious – that one group is fireproof while the other isn’t? I think it’s significant that the wood, hay, and straw are abundant… right outside your door, or only a few miles away at most. Any forest, any farmer’s field has an abundance of these. But if you want gold, silver, and costly stones, you have to dig for them. They’re not just lying around everywhere. You have to go deep into the earth.’” P135-136

[A spiritual façade] “that uses wood, hay, and straw come easy – little work, little seeking, no travail, no birthing. You just slap it on and it will look adequate – for a while. But if you want to build something that will endure on Judgment Day, the work is much more costly. On that day it won’t matter what your fellow Christians thought of you… You and I will stand before the One whose eyes are ‘like fire.’ We won’t soften him up by telling him how brilliant our strategy was. We will face his searing gaze.”

Moving towards the end...

I am grateful to see how many within the River City family took up the challenge to read a book together this summer. "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" has been the story we have used to examine prayer, to open our hearts to God in new ways, and to create a collective conversation.

The aim was to dedicate July and August to reading and discussing the book, and then continuing on with some of these themes in September with our next series "Into the River." We are now in the last stretch of August, so this will be the last week of blogs and replies.

Today's blog is tied to the last entry, so you may want to re-read that one again before jumping in. Here is a quote from the book on pgs 134-135:

“Alexander Whyte, after observing the 1859 awakening in Scotland, made this marvelous statement: “In revival, the congregation does the preaching.” What he meant was that, beyond the presence of preachers, musicians, and other ministries, what speaks to the heart is that God is dwelling in close communion with his people.”

I thought this was a particularly important concept for us to remember as we more deeply pursue the heart of God through prayer and listening. There are a lot of elements to a revival taking root – great preaching, preparatory prayer, and spirit-led worship, are just a few. But that is not historically what lights the match to the kindling. Instead, as Alexander Whyte observed, “in revival, the congregation does the preaching.”

Wherever you are at in your prayer journey, I hope that you will reflect on this quote today and do some honest introspection. Is revival happening in your own heart? Do you want it to be happening? Is your character being transformed? Are you becoming more loving and less irritable? Do you find yourself growing in generosity and shrinking in selfishness? Are you seeing the passions of God in this world with more clarity? Is repentance becoming something your heart desires more all the time, so that you can commune with God?

These questions are not posed to create a guilt trip. Instead, it is to remind us that spiritual renewal is not a minister’s job. If those watching from the outside are going to have an encounter with God, it will most likely happen because they see the congregation having an encounter with God.

If you don’t sense this happening, but wish you did, there is good news! Desire is all you need to begin. If you feel even the slightest pull to open yourself to God’s healing presence, then that is evidence He is already at work within you. Pray that what begins with a trickle will turn into a might river, and that all around us will get swept in to the mighty power of God.

Secrets of the Heart

P134 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

“According to 1 Corinthians 14, if meetings are governed by the Holy Spirit, the result for the visitor will be that “the secrets of the heart will be laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’” (v25). This should be our goal. When a visitor comes in, there should be such a mixture of God’s truth and God’s presence that the person’s heart is x-rayed, the futility of his life is exposed, and he crumbles in repentance…. Are we longing for this? Are we praying for this? Are today’s church leaders aiming for this? Are church members encouraging their pastors to act on the Lord’s promptings no matter the cost?”

One of the repetitive themes you will pick up if you are reading our blog this summer is that 2008 has been marked by a deeper call to prayer, repentance, and listening to God. You wouldn’t have found a River City leader before this year saying prayer was unimportant, but for whatever reason this year has carried a distinct sense of an experience that God is calling the people of River City to deeper expressions of His heart and His desires for repentance and renewal in this world.

One of the outcomes for us as leadership is to ask questions of both our personal prayer lives and our corporate prayer life at River City. How do we take it to the next level in our own lives? How do we take it to the next level corporately?

At one Elder meeting this summer we took this Cymbala quote and used it as a way to pray for River City. A fresh encounter with this passage brought new perspective on how we can pray for our times together as a body. 1 Corinthians 14 paints an incredible picture of a Spirit-filled service. When God’s truth and God’s presence mix together with prayerful hearts, the secrets of the human heart will be laid bare and even those who may not know God yet will be compelled to say, “God is really among you.”

So we as leaders invite you to pray this prayer for our body along with us. Pray for the church leaders, that we would aim for this. Pray for me, that I would be willing to act on the Lord’s promptings, no matter the cost. Pray for the worship leaders, that they would be able to create the atmosphere that makes us most receptive to this. Pray for each other, that we will come in with a sense of expectation that God wants to move like this. And pray for those who have not come to River City yet. Pray that when we take the risk to invite our friends to River City that they will not walk away saying we are cool, fun, organized, or edgy. Instead, pray that they will walk away saying, “God is really among you.”

Who do you say that I am?

This question has been in my heart for the past month or so. If you recall, Jesus asked the disciples who the people thought He was. They told him some folks called Him Elijah and others called Him John the Baptist. Curious, but what Jesus really wanted to know was, "But who do you say that I am?"

He poses the same question to us today and our answer is important as we desire to grow in prayer and in following the Spirit. It'll make or break how we go...even if we'll start at all. A lot of our issues with prayer is not with the concept of prayer itself, but fundamentally with our view of God. Since prayer is communication in a relationship, the quality of the relationship is key. So is it surprising that we lack prayer and that we are unable to follow the Spirit when we feel that God doesn't really like us or even that He doesn't care about us? Does God even know that I exist other than the fact that I use up saving grace to get to heaven?

This past month, I have had a newborn to care for. I always thought that when parents talked about getting no sleep that it was figurative. I have since learned otherwise. It's literal. My life goes in 2-3 hour cycles of existence that consists of feeding, changing diapers, putting to sleep, trying to keep asleep, and hopefully, getting some sleep. Combine sleeplessness with being at home alone most of the time and you can get a little loopy...even if you absolutely delight in your baby.

It's in the midst of this existence that one day I felt God persisting with this question. I was feeling completely abandoned out in left field and He kept asking me, "Who do you say that I am?" I struggled with the question and I knew what He wanted to hear from me--the problem was, I didn't feel it. But I finally confessed, "You are my Father," and in that moment, I felt His presence envelope me and wash away the unbelief and hurt. If He was my Father, He loved me, I was not abandoned, He was tender with me even more than we can be with our own children.

We all have our own inner dialogs that we need God's Spirit to speak too, but I would be willing to bet that most of us have an age old struggle that God doesn't really care about or know me. Remember the Israelites? We all know that they grumbled and complained after they left Egypt. It seemed like no matter what God did for them, they quickly forgot and resorted to testing God. We read in Hebrews 4 that their major issue was unbelief--they didn't believe that God was for them, that He loved them, that He would take care of them...and it resulted in them trusting in themselves and trying to make a way on their own--or even worse--wishing they were back in Egypt where they conveniently forgot that they were slaves.

That illustration is not isolated--not then, not now, but we fight back with faith. We take God at His word. We look to the cross and see that He gave His most precious son for us already--how will He not also give us all things promised. Is God a liar? Is He fickle? Is He faithless? Can you say He is your Good Shepherd, loving Father, Provider, Protector, faithful, your compassionate Advocate? Do you believe that He is for you and that He likes you?

If you find yourself struggling in your walk with God, with prayer, ask yourself what it is you really believe about God. Listen to your heart to hear what accusations you hold against Him and then bring those things in honesty to Him. Let Him reveal Himself to you through the word, through remembrance of the past and find those accusations melt away. Find healing in His presence.

"River City, who do you say that I am?"

The Spirit & Wind

P134 of “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”:

“A basic sign of revival is that the wind is allowed to blow where it will.”

Here is a short but sweet statement, and one that leads to a question: “In your life, how free is the wind to blow where it will?” A penetrating question, isn’t it?

I ask the same question of myself. I wonder if this question might not reveal a lot about the true level of submission we each bring to our relationship with God. Rules are so much simpler than the wind. If I adhere to a set of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ then it feels like I have some level of control of my life. Giving full access to my life’s values and directions is a different story. Then it feels like nothing is secure. In that arrangement the wind can blow anytime in any direction, and I lose all (sense of) control in my life.

In regards to a topic that appears as simple as prayer, I have found that I am much less willing to let the wind blow where it will than I thought. For example, I have had some bad experiences in church environments that used Spirit language a lot yet who lost their credibility by having too many mixed-motive people abuse the freedom that was meant for the Spirit. My response? Over the years I have narrowed the box in my life in how much or in what ways the Spirit is allowed to move.

But if I am going to experience revival in my life, the wind must be allowed to blow where it will. For me, that has included facing some of my wounds from past experiences and trusting that God is still God and that I need to be open for God to use me and speak to me however He chooses. This has been scary for me, yet necessary if revival is going to happen.

Questions: Is the wind of the Spirit of God allowed to blow where it will in your life? If not, what are the compartments of your life that currently have the door closed? Why? What would it take for you to open those to God?

Drawing near to God

P112 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

“All we find in the New Testament is the admonition to “come near to God and he will come near to you” (James 4.8). The responsibility lies with us. If enough people in New York City or San Francisco call out to God with all their hearts, those cities can become world-famous for revival. God is no respecter of geography.”

This quote reminded me of the important passage in 2 Chronicles 7.14: “...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

There is an interesting relationship throughout Scripture between God’s outpouring of power and the people of God calling out to God for that power. The sometimes frustrating part is that there is clearly no formula – you don’t pray a certain way or a certain number of times and then sit back with a sense of spiritual entitlement that God has to perform in a certain way. Yet on the other hand, you also can’t avoid this clear relationship between God’s power being an outflow of repentance, humility, and hunger for the fullness of God.

I would love to imagine what the city of Chicago would look like if the citizens of this great city prayed and postured ourselves in the spirit of 2 Chronicles 7. For that matter, I would love to imagine what would happen if the citizens of the greater Humboldt Park neighborhood would do that.

But let’s start far smaller than that. Is this true in River City? Are God’s people in River City, who are called by name, humbling ourselves and praying and seeking God’s face, ready to turn from our wicked ways? Am I? Are you?

These are the ingredients of receptive spiritual soil…

Prayer and Filling of the Spirit

P96 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

"Ephesians 5.18 says 'be always being filled with the Spirit.' The disciples in the NT needed regular, fresh infillings. When they were under attack, they received fresh power, fresh courage, fresh fire from the Holy Spirit. Our store of spiritual power apparently dissipates with time."

“Always being filled with the Spirit.” What does that mean to you? What does it look like when we are filled with the Spirit? What does it look like when we are not? These are key questions, especially if Cymbala is right when he suggests that even a full spiritual tank doesn’t last, that “our store of spiritual power apparently dissipates with time.” So how do we know if we are full or empty? How do we receive fresh power, fresh courage, and fresh fire from the Spirit when we most badly need it?

Here is one way we could think about it. In Matthew 3.13-17 we see the Spirit come upon Jesus in power, and in a way that would seem to qualify as being “filled with the Spirit.” What did it look like for Jesus to be filled with the Spirit?

We get a clue in v17 when a voice from Heaven says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Apparently being filled with the Spirit means, among other things, that we have a deep intellectual and emotional understanding that we are sons and daughters of God, and that we are pleased and accepted by the King of this world.

How does that relate to the need we have for fresh power, fresh courage, and fresh fire? I would suggest that if we actually believed what Jesus heard in our own lives, and that the truth of that claim made its way to the core, we would get all of the above.

Where does real power come from? When we know that the ultimate source of power in this world has called us to Himself and into this world. Where does real courage come from? When we know that “He that is within us is greater than what is in the world,” and that the King of the universe has our back and is cheering us on. Where does fresh fire come from? When we realize in new ways the measure of cost and sacrifice that was made so that we could be called children of God.

I imagine that what Jesus heard in Matthew 3 from Heaven was very similar to what the disciples heard in the deepest part of their soul when they were under attack. “You are my sons, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” I believe this is where their fresh fire and fresh courage came to go further than they ever dreamed and to take risks far greater than they ever thought they could.

You and I are no different than the disciples. We have access to the same Spirit. Our spiritual power dissipates just like theirs did – this is the inevitable outcome of being sinful people who get disconnected from the power base. But spiritual power is also available to us – when we are filled with the Spirit.

“God, teach us how to walk in step with your Spirit. Fill every crevice and crack in our hearts with the wonder of your goodness, power and might. May we have experiences of depth and reality where who we are and whose we are comes to light in new ways. Send us into the riskiest places on earth, and then fill us with fresh power, fresh courage, and fresh fire.”

A Prayer of Hope

P78 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

“Charles Spurgeon once said that when a jeweler shows his best diamonds, he sets them against a black velvet backdrop. The contrast of the jewels against the dark velvet brings out the luster. In the same way, God does his most stunning work where things seem hopeless. Wherever there is pain, suffering, and desperation, Jesus is. And that’s where his people belong – among those who are vulnerable, who think nobody cares. What better place for the brilliance of Christ to shine?”

Is there anyone going on this journey with us that feels a pang in their spirit when they read this? Does anyone feel a sense of hopelessness right now? Is anyone marked by a pain, suffering, or desperation that seems to overpower every other emotion?

If so, perhaps these words will bring some comfort to you today. God indeed does his most stunning work where things seem hopeless. Maybe this can be your prayer for today:

“God, everything seems hopeless for me right now. I feel surrounded by blackness, by silence, by the despair of my own thoughts. If it is true that wherever there is pain, suffering, and desperation, Jesus is – then I need Jesus now more than ever. God, please shine the brilliance of Christ’s love into my life right now.”

What is effective ministry?

From p71 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

“Our forebearers back in the camp meetings days used to say that if people left a meeting talking about what a wonderful sermon the preacher gave or how beautifully the singers sang, the meeting had failed. But if people went home saying things like, “Isn’t God good? He met me tonight in such a wonderful way,” it was a good meeting. There was to be no sharing the stage with the Lord.”

I spent the first five years of my ministerial career working at Willow Creek Community Church. One of the great legacies Willow left in me was the importance of evaluating ministry. The thesis went something like this: in every domain outside of the church we are expected to pursue our goals and ambitions with excellence and intensity, yet when we are in church we for some reason lower our standards. If church is the house of God, wouldn’t we do the opposite and increase our standards?”

To this day I cannot attend a church service or ministry event without quickly moving through a series of filters as I evaluate whether I considered the event to be a success. But this leads to the inevitable and very important question: “What is the basis of success?” Which filters should be used? Timeliness? Excellence? Quality of delivery? Authenticity? Perhaps these should all be considered. But how about the question Cymbal poses here, rooted in the history of our ‘forebearers.’ Questions like, “Isn’t God good?” and “Did I meet God tonight?”

So here is my challenge: Take a month and use this as your evaluation tool. When you go to your community group, or when you come to a Sunday worship service, or when you go to any environment whose purpose is to lift up God, ask these questions of yourself when it is over. “Did I meet God tonight at community group?” “Did I meet God today at service?” “Did I meet God at this church event?”

This is a wonderful way to calibrate our expectations of a great event or service. If the answer is ‘yes’ then we are moving in the right direction! And if the answer is ‘no,’ then we have to ask some really important questions of ourselves…

A Prayer for Prayer

From p73 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

“The apostles had this instinct: When in trouble, pray. When intimidated, pray. When challenged, pray. When persecuted, pray.”

Here is my prayer for those of us on this journey to a deeper understanding and experience of prayer:

“God, instill in us the same instinct that marked your early followers. When we are in trouble, may our instinct be to pray. When we are intimidated, may our instinct be to pray. When we are challenged, may our instinct be to pray. When we are persecuted, may our instinct be to pray. Whether our days bring joy or our days bring hardship, may we continually find ourselves moving – instinctively – towards the heart of God in prayer.”

Revivals & Prayer

From p58 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

“The history of past revivals portray this truth in full color… you always find men and women who first inwardly groan, longing to see the status quo changed – in themselves and in their churches. They begin to call on God with insistence; prayer begets revival, which begets more prayer. It’s like Psalm 80, where Asaph bemoans the sad state of his time, the broken walls, the rampaging animals, the burnt vineyards. Then in v18 he pleads, “Revive us, and we will call on your name.”

One of the questions that have made its way to me on a regular basis over the last couple of months goes something like this (with my own interpretive tone to it): “Is this prayer kick the latest River City fad? Is it possible that this is another product of our ADD culture that temporarily focuses on one thing until the next big thing comes along?”

I don’t actually fault anyone who wonders this. We probably have been guilty at times of failing to see something through that had begun with much excitement. It’s probably a question anyone serious about this topic would and should ask.

The best way I know how to answer it is to take a line from this quote at the top:

“The history of past revivals portray this truth in full color… you always find men and women who first inwardly groan, longing to see the status quo changed – in themselves and in their churches.”

This picture describes what has happened to me over the past 6 months. There is an inward sensation that I continuously sense, and a ‘groan’ is probably as close as I can come to putting a word on it. It is a groan to see the status quo changed – in our global world, in our city of Chicago, in our neighborhood of Humboldt Park, in our faith community River City. But as much as I groan to see the status quo changed in all of those, I might sense it deepest in the desire for the status quo to change in myself.

I don’t want to just do ‘church.’ I don’t want to fall into the many traps that lie before people in my space that range from moral shortcomings to apathy and powerlessness. I don’t want to fall into despair, losing hope that anything can ever change. I don’t want day after day to go by with no sense that God is mightily at work in my life and in our neighborhood.

So I groan inwardly. Not because I even want to groan, but because I don’t know what else to do. So I have began to call on God in a way that I never have before. I pray for the status quo to change. I pray for revival, repentance, and reconciliation. I pray that I will learn to pray better. I pray that we will learn to pray better. I pray that we will become people of prayer.

As I have studied revivals over the last couple centuries, I see more and more that it not something we can generate as much as it is something we respond to. God begins to stir our spirits, and we feel that sense of an inward groan. The inward groan leads to prayer and an increasing hunger for the manifestation of God in our lives. And that in turns produces a hunger for even more prayer…

Confidence & Doubt

On p56 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire," Cymbala says the following:

“Listen to David’s confident assertion in Psalm 4.3: ‘Know that the Lord has set apart the Godly for Himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him.’ That was David’s whole posture, his instinct, and especially his approach to warfare.”

“The Lord will hear when I call to him.”

Can you imagine saying something like that? Can you imagine praying that in the stillness of your own heart? This statement from David reminds me of the disciple John, who referred to himself in first person as the one “Jesus loved.”

As we move deeper into a prayerful posture as both a community and as individuals, I can’t help but wonder how much this dynamic affects our momentum. It probably goes without saying that both doubt and confidence significantly affect your overall posture and expectation.

If you doubt that God hears your prayers, or you doubt that He cares, or you doubt that you have been set apart for Him, you will not be motivated to pray much or pray intensely.

If, on the other hand, the core of who you are is filled with confidence that God does hear your prayers, does care about your prayers, and has indeed set you apart for Himself, wouldn’t you almost be compelled to constantly pray?

So here is the question that gnaws at me: Why doesn’t that ring true in the soul of the average Christian? Why is that that we are far less like David and far more like doubting children that are not sure if their Heavenly Father really cares? What needs to happen for that truth to travel into the center of our being?

The phrase that defined David's life was that he was a "man after God's own heart." I find myself praying that this will be true of both myself and our River City community. The quote at the top says that David's whole posture and instinct leaned towards an assurance of being set apart by God and being heard by God.

May that become true of us...

What are you experiencing? (part 2)

The last post was designed to get some thoughts from you as you read and experience the book. Part 1 is asking you to comment on the parts of the book that stimulated you, caused you to think in a new way, or have even affected your journey towards the heart of God.

This post is designed to get a different kind of feedback - the parts of the book that have been difficult, uncomfortable, or even controversial. I have been having conversations with those of you who are reading it, and there are clearly parts of the book that fall into both categories.

So, take a risk and post a comment. What is a quote, theme, story, or idea that has been difficult, uncomfortable, or controversial to you?

What are you experiencing?

To this point the "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" blog has revolved around thoughts and reflections from myself and Noella Chung. We will continue to post entries on key concepts of the book as we go along, but we wanted to give you an opportunity to blog on what you are experiencing as well.

I imagine that it can be intimidating to put your intimate thoughts out for everyone to read, but we'd love for you to consider taking the chance.

To help streamline the process, we will create two different entries to stimulate conversation. The first entry will be this one, and the purpose is to solicit your thoughts on what has positively stimulated you in the first 4 chapters of the book.

Here are some questions to consider:

• What has inspired you?
• What has caused you to consider a new perspective?
• Have you sensed God speaking to you through any of the material you've read so far?
• Has there been any changes in your own life based on the themes of this book?

We would like to hear your thoughts on the first chapter! I will send out another post soon that will ask the opposite question - what has made you uncomfortable, challenged by, or maybe even disagree with? But for now, let's hear your thoughts on what you have experienced as you have read the book.

(If you are new to blogging, just click on the 'Comments' link below this entry to share your thoughts)

The Great Discovery, part 2

On page 56 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire," Cymbala makes the following statement in regards to the relationship of spiritual warfare and prayer:

“Satan’s main strategy with God’s people has always been to whisper, ‘Don’t call, don’t ask, don’t depend on God to do great things. You’ll get along fine if you just rely on your own cleverness and energy.’ The truth of the matter is that the devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials. But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we lift up our hearts to God.”

This quote has really stuck with me as I reflect on what we are called to as a body at River City Community Church. We are attempting to take on some of the great giants of our day – racism, economic inequality, failing schools systems, a struggling family unit, escalating violence – just to name a few. We have a church community that is eager to make progress on these fronts and that is smart and ready to go to work.

I want to see 'great things' happen in these domains as much as anyone, but Cymbala's warning is ever-present in my mind and gives a sobering reminder. He says it like this: “the devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials.”

As impressive as the many resumes are in River City, the collective credentials still do little to make the devil afraid. There is just not enough power within our human intelligence and creativity. It is when, instead of relying on our human strength and effort, we “lift up our hearts to God” that we experience power and transformation.

This is perhaps the most important lesson I sense God teaching me in 2008 - the 'Great Discovery.' The point of a quote like this is not that human effort, creativity, and intelligence are unimportant in regards to comprehensive transformation and change. God wants us to have our skin in the game and to give the best of what we have. Instead, quotes like this remind us of an extremely important principle that is consisent throughout Scripture:

God's power and grace flow through humility. God's power and grace and are blocked by pride.

Though creativity, intelligence, and ability are gifts from God, if they are used outside of a reliance on God they actually become forms of pride. We rely on the power of the gifts instead of the Giver, and end up with no power at all.

I used to think it was amazing that a person or community could be smart, gifted, and apply their abilities to areas that God cares about, yet experience very little power. I am realizing that this shouldn't be so amazing to me after all. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become "fools" so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight" (1 Corinthians 3.18-19a).

This gets to one of the great aspirations I have for River City Community Church. On a human level, we want to marshall all the gifts, abilities, experiences, creativity, and intelligence of our wonderful people, and leverage those for comprehensive transformation in the greater Humboldt Park neighborhood and beyond. But, as important as that is, it should be secondary.

Our greatest strength needs to come from 'foolishness.' There needs to be a vibrant connection and reliance on God's wisdom, strength and power that defines River City. Not a passing prayer as we go about our human agenda; not an opening prayer as we plan out our master strategy; not a weak acknowledgment that we need God while secretly being unsure.

Instead, how wonderful would it be if we were marked by a genuine reliance on God? How great would it be if we felt the need and dependence on God in the center of our beings? If as a community we were connected to God's passions and desires for our city and through prayer gained wisdom, insight, power and direction to accomplish those?

In Jonah 3, after hearing the message of repentance and reconciliation, the king of Nineveh cries out to the people, "Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence." He follows that with a question, "Who knows?"

I love that question, and often rephrase it in my own words. "Let everyone in River City and all of God's people in Humboldt Park and Chicago call urgently on God. Let us give up all that is evil and outside of God's best for us, and let us repent and connect to God through prayer and listen to God's heart. And who knows what God may do?"

The Great Discovery, part 1

On page 56 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire," Cymbala makes the following statement in regards to the relationship of spiritual warfare and prayer:

“Satan’s main strategy with God’s people has always been to whisper, ‘Don’t call, don’t ask, don’t depend on God to do great things. You’ll get along fine if you just rely on your own cleverness and energy.’ The truth of the matter is that the devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials. But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we lift up our hearts to God.”

I want to blog on two different aspects of this quote. For the first, let’s talk about the topic of Satan, whom Cymbala refers to at the beginning of the quote. I have observed over the years that when the topic of Satan comes up, people tend to move towards one end of the spectrum or the other. The modern mind tends to laugh off the idea of spiritual warfare, and often thinks of Satan more as a cartoon character than an evil force to be reckoned with. Some go the far opposite direction, and see the work of Satan in everything from losing their keys to getting stuck in traffic.

But what if this perspective is correct, and Satan is real and present in our lives? What if this really is the devil's strategy – incrementally pushing us away from our dependence on God? How would that change the way we view spiritual warfare? How would that change the way we pray? How would that affect the perspective we carry regarding the challenges we face in our lives?

Question: As we move deeper towards the heart of God in prayer, how could/should this perspective of spiritual warfare influence the way we pray?

A Song for the Desperate

In chapter 3 of the book "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" Jim Cymbala makes an observation regarding the motivation of prayer:

“Prayer cannot truly be taught by principles and seminars and symposiums. It has to be born out of a whole environment of felt need. If I say, “I ought to pray,” I will soon run out of motivation and quit; the flesh is too strong. I have to be driven to pray.” (p49)

I found this to be a very provocative quote, especially considering the journey towards deeper prayer that River City is moving into. On one hand, we as leaders clearly owe it to the body to teach, to train, to distill principles and ideas for growing in prayer as a corporate body. On the other hand, it is wise for us to recognize the truth behind this quote. At the end of the day we can offer as many seminars and symposiums as we can think of, yet that will not necessarily create a culture of prayer, dependence, and listening to God.

If the end result of this era is a larger group of people feeling guilted into praying and a notebook of new techniques, Cymbala says we will soon run out of motivation and quit. "The flesh is too strong. I have to be driven to pray." Somehow we need to see an environmental shift - we need to move from a culture of self-sufficiency to a culture of felt need (I like that Cymbala adds 'felt' to the need, because we are all in great need of the grace of God; some of us however don't feel how great our need is for grace).

So here is the question i would like to pose:

When have you found yourself 'driven' to pray? Are there catalysts you have discovered along the way that have moved you from 'ought' to pray to instead be 'driven' to pray?

Let's get this conversation started!

Thank you to those who have bought a copy of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire," and who have been following along on the blog as we explore the contents and meaning of the book. Noella Chung has written the majority of the entries so far, and as of Tuesday morning she has gone into labor! So please keep she and her husband and Ji in your prayers, even as you read this blog now!

To this point the blogs entries have been reflections on the first two chapters of the book. We have not received any comments so far, so i am assuming that part of that is because you are not sure how to respond or which part to respond to.

SO, from this point forward we will try to end each blog with a question, and we would really value hearing from you as you go on this journey with us. Sound good?

Let's start with a quote from the book. On page 20 Cymbala says:

“Jesus called fishermen, not graduates of rabbinical schools. The main requirement was to be natural and sincere. His disciples had to depend totally upon the Lord and his power.”

I have often wondered why Jesus went this route. Jesus was well respected as a Rabbi and could have easily recruited the 'best of the best' from the Harvard and Yale rabbinical schools of his day. But instead, he chose fishermen and common people.

Cymbala's observation is seen even clearer in an excerpt from Acts chapter 4. Following the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the early church exploded with a sense of mission, purpose, life, and power. People were being healed, racial and cultural barriers were being broken, people were experiencing spiritual and emotional transformation, and thousands called upon the name of Jesus.

The leaders of the synagogue didn't know how to make sense of it, so they had Peter and John brought before them to be questioned. Here is what the teachers of the law and the elders asked them:

"By what power or what name did you do this?"

Peter and John go on to answer the question and explain where this power surge originates - it is Jesus Christ. It is the one that was crucified but resurrected. It is the one that heals all who come into contact with the river of life.

The rulers and elders were perplexed, for they had never seen power like this. Here they knew the law inside and out, were widely considered to be the intellectual elite, and had devoted their lives to upright, religious behavior. But more than anything, here is what stunned them:

"They saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men."

The most stunning part to these religions leaders was not the power that flowed through the disciples. The most stunning part was not the healings that were occurring nor the mass professions of faith. What stunned the religious elite was the fact that the disciples were unschooled, and in every perceptible way ordinary.

For me, that leads to a pair of inevitable and crucial questions:

1.) Why does God consistently choose to show his power through those who in every way appear ordinary, instead of those with the impressive credentials and resumes?

2.) How do I/we position ourselves to reflect the posture of those God consistently calls?

--Daniel Hill

All for love

In chapter 2, Cymbala realized that end of the day, what people really wanted was love. In prayer, their first love for God was rekindled and in turn, they started to see the people around them and pour out love upon them.

Whenever prayer is mentioned in a Christian setting, I notice that eyes tend to glaze over and people check out. It's so cliche and banal. It doesn't do much for us. Most of us associate prayer with something dull and/or difficult; something we know we ought to do more, but don't and therefore makes us feel guilty.

If only we could see God's design in inviting us to commune with Him. After all, in all of scripture, He designates His house as one thing--a house of prayer. The moment of His zeal in the temple is recorded in each synoptic gospel. Back then, the temple was the physical representation of His house, but on this side of the cross, we are the temple of God--both as individuals and as a body. He still desires that His house be called a house of prayer and the zeal in which he will cleanse us today is just as fierce today. And why wouldn't it be? The invitation is to fellowship with a holy God.

Those of us with a guilt ridden internal drive often stop at that place of fear, however fear is never a good motivator. The original quote about the house of prayer comes from Isaiah 56:7, "Even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."

Beloved, first notice that He is the one drawing us to the holy mountain...and it's not to scorch us, but because He wants to makes us joyful. We come to a throne of grace to find mercy by the blood of Jesus, our savior. The first love that makes prayer work is the love of God for us. He is the one that draws us near. The invitation is always there to come. The people of Brooklyn Tabernacle discovered this through their time spent with Him in prayer and as a result of experiencing it anew, their first love for God was rekindled.

Remember that we are always responding to His love. He loves us first. Unless we can receive that reality, prayer will always be difficult, feeling laborious and burdensome. Prayer flows much more easily when I know that I am loved. I open up my heart knowing that I am safe in Him and welcomed as a child, as a bride, as a friend. This is the second love that makes prayer work--to love God back with all that we have.

And then, as we love on Him, He begins to show us the things on His heart. He shows us how He feels about circumstances and people. We may bring things that are on our heart and in the course of talking with Him about it, we get a new perspective and a new understanding. We begin to feel what He feels about the things on this earth and that is the birth of intercessory prayer. It's not simply because we see a need, but because we see God's desire in a situation or in a life and we cry out for love.

Without this filter of looking out through His eyes, we end up leaning on our own judgments, our assessments and, therefore, our own solutions. The sad thing is that what we hope would happen in situations and people is often a far cry from the God-sized dreams born from heaven and so we tend to work for less and settle for less. I'd rather have what eye has not seen and what ear has not heard, beyond what I can ask or imagine which comes in the place of prayer.

That doesn't mean prayer is always easy. There are times to labor, to birth things. There are times of warfare. There are times when you sit in quiet, trusting He is near. Even in all of these things, the reality of God's love for you, your love for Him and His love poured into you for others are essential. The work is often in believing Him.

Have you been made joyful in the house of prayer? It is available for you. I pray that you will taste and see that the Lord is good and continue to hunger and thirst for more. For love He draws you. For love, respond to Him.

~ Noella

On Waiting

These days, whenever I talk to someone, invariably the first comment or question out is, "You're still pregnant!? When is she coming?" I wish I could tell you.

40 weeks is a long time to gestate, but I suppose going from a single cell to a full on human being takes time. When Ji and I first found out we were going to be parents, we were ecstatic...and scared spitless. I found myself grateful for the 9 months we had to prepare ourselves for the awesome reality of parenthood.

It's interesting that the time of gestation is 40 weeks. The number 40 is a significant time period in the Bible and each time, it seems to be a time of probation to see what direction will be taken. Noah sent out the raven at the end of 40 days, the Israelites wandered the wilderness for 40 years, Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days, Elijah hid from Jezebel for 40 days on Mt. Horeb, Ninevah was given 4o days until destruction, and of course, Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. There's even more examples than that if you look.

In each of those instances, there was a choice to be made...a response that had to be given. In the 40 weeks we've had, it's been a time of examining our values, our lifestyle, and how we want to raise this child. I still don't think we'd say we're "ready" for parenthood, but we've made ourselves ready as best as we can to receive her in our hearts and made commitments before God. It's also been a personal time of challenge for me as I respond to things that God has been pointing out that He wants me to move forward in.

Of course, we've also bought baby things, read baby books, taken baby classes and a gazillion other baby things. Our waiting hasn't been passive, but now, after all of that, the only things we have left to do is wait for her. I don't really care how cute the clothes are or how pretty the nursery is at the end of the day. She is the promise we are waiting for at the end of the 40 weeks. I know she's in there. I know it can't be that long, but the crazy thing is, sometimes I feel this wave of dark thinking, "She's never going to come." And then I quickly realize that's ridiculous.

Our listening journey with God and prayer walk is often a lot like pregnancy. For this blog, I was thinking about how Cymbala received a promise from God on that fishing boat in Florida when he was at the end of his rope and desperate for something real in the church. I love how God's promise broke in and gave him peace, calm and excitement at the same time--something only God's voice can do. In that moment, if he took a prayer pregnancy test, it would have read "PREGNANT!" He heard, he believed. A seed was planted.

He went home and immediately obeyed, but the crowds probably didn't happen overnight. The money didn't flow in overnight. Brooklyn wasn't changed overnight. It took time. And as we'll see, there were tests of that promise along the way in places that hurt a lot, but he and his church believed that the baby was there, the promise was real, and they continued to seek God and wait on Him.

When I think about River City, I think of the energy behind ideas and the desire to do something. Often times, those visions and dreams are God-given like the one Arloa had when she was a young girl on a farm. We have things that we get excited about, are passionate about, feel deeply about and many of us feel a call. Maybe that's been there from our youth, maybe it's something that got stirred up when Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil spoke or at other times.

Those things are seeds planted in us, but often we mistake the call or the pull as the permission to go and do it. Today, I want us to consider God's ways--that often He calls, and then He asks us to wait. The waiting is not the same as dilly-dallying. It's often the waiting that prepares us to receive the baby, the promise. The waiting is sometimes small beginnings that isn't the full promise we've received. The waiting changes us--ridding us of our fears, our self-sufficiency, our self-righteousness, our unbelief, and whatever else may need to be cleaned out. It's also to learn, like a server in a restaurant, what God wants, what He's like. It's a time for relationship.

"Be still and know," it says in Psalm 46:10. Other versions say "Cease striving." To strive is to exert energy or struggle. Someone once told me God wouldn't give me a map because I'd be quick to leave Him in the dust in my enthusiastic desires to serve Him. So He keeps me leaning, dependent upon Him because He wants me. I am His promise.

The ironic thing is that entering a place of rest through waiting on God takes a lot of energy. Hebrews 4:11 tells us to be diligent, or make every effort to enter the rest of God. The energy goes into subduing our fallen nature to the cross so that we can be one with God and partner with the works He completed. That way, we can say with Jesus, I only do what I see the Father doing...and how many of us know that is a place of efficacy and power?

You may be in your own "40 weeks" period of gestation, but maybe it hasn't been pretty. You're either distracted, avoiding the call, running around trying to make things happen with little fruit, or just in despair because you feel abandoned or like nothing is happening. We heard on Sunday that prayer is disciplined dedication to pay attention to God, trusting He'll speak to you because you're His child. Pay attention, wait on Him and prepare yourself to receive the baby.

~Noella

The Offensiveness of Prayer

As I was reading chapter 1 of FWFF, one of the first things that caught my attention was on page 19 where Cymbala realized that God is attracted to weakness. That truth resonated with me and I decided to write on that...yesterday, and I guess God thought it might be nice for me to have an object lesson.

Yesterday, in an odd collision of timing, several things happened. I had conflict with our building management in which I became very frustrated...and expressed that frustration. Then our internet was on the fritz all day and being on the phone with tech support is never my idea of a time well spent. At the end of all that effort, it still didn't work. Then, a friend that I haven't talked to in a while basically hung up on me because it seemed like I was having a bad day and she didn't want to deal with me. That's a summary. I'll leave out the details.

Needless to say, at the end of it all, I felt less than human. I felt frustrated, angry, tired, disrespected, devalued, light-headed, and very hormonal. I felt that familiar feeling of being slimed by life, that dirty feeling that I am not loved, not worthy of it and unable to give it.

I felt weak. I don't like feeling weak. Who does? Weakness is not a positive word in any context whether it refers to lack of physical strength, emotional stamina, mental acumen or spiritual fortitude. Whatever it is, weakness, by definition, indicates a lack or deficiency. It's certainly not something to strive for.

So when we read or hear that God is attracted to weakness, some of us might respond, Yay. Good, because that's me. And I'm sure there's a part of us all that recognizes that. But when the rubber meets the road and we actually are in that place, it's hard to embrace. We disqualify ourselves from the presence of God because of our perceived inadequacies. Honestly, I knew I needed God yesterday, but it was doggone hard to go there because I felt so dirty on the inside.

This morning, I awoke with the reality of Hebrews 10:19-23 ringing in my heart, that we have a great high priest whose blood is enough to wash us clean from our guilty and evil consciences and Hebrews 4:15-16, this priest sympathizes with us in our weakness. The call is to draw near, draw near, come with confidence, find mercy, find grace, but we run. Isn't it a sick and twisted form of pride that we will not come to His presence when we need His help the most? I don't know what we are afraid of. Condemnation? There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Disappointment? We are His children whom He longs for, always interceding for us before the Father. Silence? He draws near to those who draw near to Him.

I don't want to seem like relationship with God is formulaic and that there are pat answers to life, but the point is the relationship itself. Prayer is relationship. To know God is to pray, to be, and to communicate. As in any relationship, we approach with some level of faith believing and trusting that the person's heart is for us, not against us. In Cymbala's case, it was believing that God cared about him as a pastor and little ole po'dunk Brooklyn Tabernacle and it was ok that he couldn't make anything happen at that church. He was weak, but he prayed, he believed, he came to God.

I think that underlying a lot of difficulty regarding prayer is that it is offensive to our core. It attacks our self-sufficiency and substitutes it with a desperate plea of, "Lord, I need you." It's weak in that we spend a lot of time waiting on Him...seemingly wasted, just being with Him, hearing from Him instead of telling Him how things should be done. We are offended too that we can't be more holy or more put together when we come and don't want God to see us that way. Pshaw! Just come.

If there's one thing I find consistent in my journey with God, it's this: His love and mercy are far beyond what I can dare dream or imagine. It's not a license to live at will and call it grace. This past Sunday, Daniel talked about God's love as a consuming fire--it doesn't warm without burning and Jonah had to learn that it was extravagant and free enough to save a wicked city, but expensive and demanding enough to want ALL of him. God's love is demanding, but yield to that love and its invitation, respond to it, even in weakness, and I believe you'll find along the way that He is indeed good.

~ Noella

Why are we all reading the same book this summer?

In February 2008 Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil spoke at River City Community Church and gave a powerful sermon entitled, “What time is it?” The heart of her message was that God was calling the River City body to become a Kingdom community. Becoming a Kingdom community would have multiple dimensions to it – it was time to submit to the King, it was time to do the will of the King, and it was time to do the work of reconciliation that defined the King’s domain.

This sermon turned into a divine moment for our community. There was a sense of conviction and response unlike anything we had experienced in our first 5 years at River City. There were many who gave their lives to God for the first time. Others re-committed their lives before the King. Still others had a profound spiritual experience, sensing God calling them into lives of full time devotion in fields ranging from law to medicine to international missions.

Because of the overwhelming response to the message, we hastily organized a midweek prayer gathering to follow up on the Sunday service. We had held prayer meetings before, but never with much enthusiasm or longevity. We would soon discover that this prayer meeting was going to be very different.

Within 10 minutes we realized that the 15 chairs we had set up (which we thought was optimistic) was going to be nowhere close to enough. The office space swelled with those who had been impacted by Dr. Salter McNeil, augmented by many who had not even been there but who didn’t want to miss what was happening.

We spent the first hour or so going around the room and allowing those who had come out to share how God had worked within them that past Sunday. The highlight of the night was something I will never forget. A young lady stood up to share, and those of us who knew her were surprised because by nature she is quite introverted.

This isn’t an exact quote, but she essentially said something like this: “God is moving in my life right now in a way that I have never experienced. I feel God pursuing me and calling me to Himself.” She then paused, and said, “In fact, even right now, I feel God calling me out of my comfort zone.” With that she began to move towards the center of the circle. Nobody was sure what she was planning, and as she got to the middle of the room she surprised everyone as she abruptly fell on her hands and knees prostrate before God. She began to weep, and her tears were soon followed by one guttural prayer after another. She cried out to God as if she was the only one in the room.

I am embarrassed by my reaction, and looking back I see that my flesh was stronger than my spirit. Instead of realizing the sacredness of the moment, all I could think about was how to get control back of the meeting. “What is everyone going to think now?” I thought to myself. “They are going to think we are a bunch of crazies.” My overly analytical mind was in full gear. I was leaning on my years of ministry experience to try and figure out how to use this as a ‘teachable moment’ and then proceed on with the rest of my plans for the night.

What happened next blew me away. As I was sitting there lost in my thoughts, every person in the room had a different reaction. They all fell to their knees simultaneously, and with no prompting joined this young lady in prayer. There was no signal to do so, and no guilt trips given to try and connect people to the moment. Instead, there was an astute sensitivity to the sacredness of the moment and the movement of God’s Spirit.

I was the last person in the room to fall on my knees, and when I finally did I knew exactly what I needed to pray. My first prayer was a prayer of repentance. I asked God to forgive my short-sightedness and my lack of faith. Here God was working in powerful and mysterious ways, and all I could do was try to figure out how to control the flow of the meeting. My second prayer was a prayer of submission. I finally was getting the picture that God was painting. This wasn’t supposed to be one emotion-filled prayer meeting. God wanted to move within the River City community in a powerful way, and He needed me to stay out of the way of what He wanted to do.

Since that first week in February I have been on an intense personal journey rediscovering prayer. I have always prayed, and in my 10+ years of vocational ministry I have done my best to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my life and in ministry. Yet even with this being the case, I quickly discerned that God was trying to take me to a new dimension in my personal prayer life, as He was with the other people in the River City community.

Since that time I have repeatedly asked God to reveal Himself to me in new ways, and to show me how to better listen and move in the Spirit. I participated and helped facilitate weekly prayer meetings through the end of May. I have read books on prayer at a feverish pace. I have reached out to those whose prayer life I admire, and asked them for guidance. I have sat under those who have an effective prayer ministry and allowed them to speak into my life through prayer. I feel like I am one of the disciples who watched Jesus pray so regularly and intimately only to finally come to the conclusion that they didn’t quite understand how it worked. Finally they asked, as I ask now, “Jesus, teach us to pray.”

I imagine that those of you who will follow this blog journey over the next 8 weeks are at a variety of places on the spectrum. Perhaps some of you are on a similar track as myself, and sense an almost continuous prompting from God to move deeper into His heart through prayer, reflection, and listening. Maybe you just started coming to River City and are peering in to see what all the commotion is about. Maybe you have been here for this whole run and feel guilty that you haven’t had the same response as those who seem to be on fire right now.

Wherever you are at, I am glad that you are tracking with us. If there is one thing we see throughout Scripture it is a God who loves and pursues His people, and continually calls them to Himself. It is no accident that you have visited this site, and I pray that you will see that as confirmation of one of the many ways that God is already at work in your life.

In order to create some structure for our exploration of prayer, of listening to God, and moving in the Spirit, we decided to choose a book that the entire River City community could read through and discuss together, hence the name, “One Church, One Book.”

Choosing one book for this type of adventure is no easy task. Do we choose a book that is academic or narrative? A book that is full of systematic theology or stories? A book that is a ‘how-to’ or a book that leaves space for you to fill in the blanks?

We pray that we have chosen the right book for the journey. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire is the story of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, but it is really about every person’s and every church’s need to experience the power of God in their lives. We believe that it is a helpful book for provoking reflection, discussion, and action. There may be ideas that are new to you, stories that stretch you, and perspectives that make you a bit uncomfortable. That is ok – this book is a tool to bring you closer to God, and we believe that if you enter it with an open mind and spirit you will benefit greatly from it.

One of the sojourners that has been so helpful for me on this journey to God’s heart through prayer and listening this year is Noella Chung. I have found she and her husband Ji to have a robust understanding of prayer, and both have been very helpful in my process. Noella is going to co-write this blog with me, supplemented by occasional posts by Elders and Staff of River City.

Our plan is to post at least every other day and to get through at least a chapter a week, so jump on in! Read the book, discuss it with friends, read the blog, and make comments as you interact with the content. Let us pray together that the big picture will remain clear. The God of the Universe has invited His children to intimately connect to Him through prayer. He has invited us to hear His heart, to receive His words, to conform our lives to His will, and to experience the healing and wholeness that comes through a vibrant connection to the Heavenly Father. Our prayer is that this book plays a small part in moving each of us towards this reality.

Blessings on the journey,

Daniel Hill
Senior Pastor, River City Community Church