Today, a letter from the search team was included in the bulletin. I'd check your email, too. Didn't see it? Try looking HERE.
If you were at church, you were also given a Commitment Card to pray. You can also sign-up for one, HERE, on-line.
Why all this fuss?
If you're a Grace Member, it's very important that you take time to read it because we really want you to join with the rest of Grace Community Church in ceaseless prayer for the shepherd God has for Grace. In Matthew 9, the Lord was approached by two blind men who cried out to him for mercy. He asked if they believed he could heal them. They replied, "Yes, Lord." Then he simply said: "According to your faith will it be done to you." Not according to their presumption, or righteousness, or abilities, but according to their faith. Your leadership is asking you to pray often, pray ceaselessly, pray boldly, and pray with great faith. But you might be asking: How do I pray for a Senior Pastor?
That's a great question! One of the most important things to consider is WHAT to ask our Heavenly Father to give. Let's start with a couple of great "pastoral qualification" passages (we'll share more, later). Ask our Heavenly Father to bring us a Shepherd like this:
Tim. 3:1-7
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
Peter 5:1-4
To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers–not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
It's Time for Reckless Abandon!
Now, we've said it a couple of times: we're asking that you be shameless or bold in your asking. Why? In Luke 11:5-10, right after his instruction on how to pray, the Lord all but told us to do our best to ask audaciously:
Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
The Greek word for boldness is anaídeia, which means a "recklessness, audacity, shamelessness, insolence. Recklessness or disregard of consideration by the one making the request."
We believe God wants us to shamelessly ask Him to send someone powerful in faith, character, deed and word - someone that matches the faith and audacity that we can present.
The man in the story got "as much as he needed."
Let's shameless ask for more!