Join us for 77 days of Prayer

Leaves are changing colour. Sap retreats to the roots to hibernate safely underground. Sunset comes sooner and sunrise is slower. And we turn again to prayer, to attentive listening.

CBWC has a new Executive Minister, and as we all look ahead to the next years of work and ministry, first we’ll settle into prayer, “a silence in which another voice may speak.”

Starting October 1, Rob has initiated 77 days of prayer and discernment, and you’re invited to participate.

“Will you join together with us as we earnestly listen and discern for God’s leading,” Rob writes, “and from that, by faith, seek His blessing?”

The idea is to find a group of three to pray with once a week, either in person or over video conferencing. There’s a guide here with a Scripture and prompting question for each week. One person out of the three is asked to record what comes up during prayer, and share them with Rob’s office (email: prayer@cbwc.ca or call 604-225-5916).

“I can’t help but wonder,” Rob writes, “what it would sound like to God to have people from 170 churches and ministries all asking at the same time for the direction He would have us take for the next five years.”

First Baptist in Nelson, BC is one of many churches who have committed to participate. They’ve integrated the prayer guide into their ongoing ministries.

“We’re coming into a new season with new initiatives in our church locally, so I want to spend the time in prayer this quarter as well,” says pastor John Thwaites. Instead of starting a separate new initiative around the prayer triads, FBC Nelson is integrating the prayer guide into their regular ministries & prayer times.

“We’re going to have a bunch of evening prayer times, so we’ll use this as a guide for how to pray for our denomination and also what’s going on locally here,” John says. “I love that this is the beginning of Rob [Ogilvie’s] term, that he’s bathing it in prayer.”

The church has printed out the bookmarks and prayer guides for bible study leaders and ministry staff to hand out, and have instructed them to incorporate the prayer guide into what they’re already doing. “So for their closing prayer, this week they’ll read Colossians 3:12-17 together and ask, ‘what is God’s desire for us as a people of compassion?’” John says. “I love the bookmark idea, because it’ll be in someone’s Bible or on their fridge, so they get reminded while they’re doing what they were already doing.”

“Too often I create plans, and then I stop and ask God to bless them,” Rob writes. “I know, it’s backwards. If we really believe that God has gone before us, then we need to begin by asking him for those ideas, and then to be attentive to the way he directs us.”