Every month SEW Ministries picks one area church and invites the region to join us in lavishing them with prayer for thirty days.
As of December 13th The trumpet has sounded! The call to pray for New Life Community Church has been sent out to the region. As a part of the call SEW Ministries invites you to pray daily-or as often as you can set aside-for New Life Community until January 13th.
After saturating them in prayer for the thirty day time period, we assemble on location at their church, joining together hand in hand, ushering in a night of Holy Fire.
Please join us for a night of worship and prayer at New Life Community Church, it's congregation, and the community it serves. Come for any length of time on Friday, January 13, 2006. From 7pm to Midnight, at: New Life Community Church 2958 N. Damen Ave Chicago Il, 60618.
Included below is a bio of the New Life Community and a list of their perceived prayer needs. We welcome and encourage you to please send us any scripture, or what God may be saying to that church in answer to your prayer for them. In song we will use your prayer answers on the evening of the 13th by singing them to New Life Community Church. Please send us your prayerful insights as you get them until Jan 12th at Hfprayerfeedback@sewministries.com
Thank you for your participation, Phil Livingston, SEW Ministries
For more information about SEW Ministries or prayer for the Chicagoland church Click the headline above to visit our website.
Bio: New Life Community Church
New Life Community Church, Lakeview, is one of eight satellite churches of New Life Community Church/Chicago.The church began in September of 2000 as a result of the former church that
occupied the building for many years, Galilee Baptist, giving us their
building because they were having trouble reaching the community. We began
the church with about 30 people and now have 2 English services totaling
around 350-400 people in attendance on Sunday mornings and 1 Spanish
service totaling 60 people. We have two Pastors that minister to the
English church and 1 pastor that ministers to the Spanish church. From the
beginning, we believed that this was a GOD ordained opportunity. Our
church has home or small groups that we encourage everyone to be involved
in for spiritual growth and community. Currently we have around 10
groups. A good majority of our congregation have not walked with the Lord
for that long.
We get a lot of people that come to our church, but don't stay. This
could be because of people being transferred out of Chicago due to their jobs.
The neighborhood we are located in is Lakeview. Lakeview is one of the
more wealthy neighborhoods in Chicago, perhaps second to Lincoln Park. In
the past 10 years, the neighborhood around the church has gone through
incredible gentrification. The majority of homes that line Damen Ave
(where we are located), have been torn down and new, 3 story brick condos
have gone up all selling for over $300.000 for 2 and 3 bedroom units. As a
result, the neighborhood has become mostly young urban professionals.
However, 3 blocks away is housing project for low income/welfare families,
mostly African-American. Lakeview has one of the largest gay/lesbian
populations in the city. Our church building is located a little over one mile from
most of the bars and hang-outs. I'm pretty sure that a lot of the occult
and witch-craft in Chicago is located in Lakeview, but I don't have the
facts on that.
Our goals and heart for the community.:
I'm not so sure if we have a real goal defined. However, there
have been attempts to get things started. One of the prayer request
is the Alpha ministry which we will be starting.
We have had block parties in the past, but they did not go
over so well. We also had several outreaches to the community this past
summer that did go well... a picnic at the Lathrop homes (the housing
project) where we went and had food for all, games for the children...we
just loved on them. Handed our water bottles at the gay pride parade. We
have a few people that are passionate about outreach and evangelism, I
guess they need prayer for more laborers and help.
Prayer needs:
● The purity of Sunday School teachers who teach kids every week
● Blessing upon "behind-the-scenes" workers of the church
(Maria, Neptali, Diana, Miriam. EJ, Stacy, etc.)
● Favor upon the Youth Group that is developing and meeting on Fridays
● That God would draw "fence" people to Himself
● Strengthen the unity between the members of the leadership team.
● Alpha Ministry
That God would equip and protect Dimitrios and Erin, the team leaders
That they would connect with the right people to form the core team
That Alpha would be effective in reaching unchurched/backslidden people
This Spring
That it would be a source of blessing to First Free, our partner in Alpha
● Worship Ministry
A rising spiritual temperature in the worship practices on Wednesday nights
A personal, deepening passion for God among the team members
Hungry worship leaders who are not afraid to lead people
● Leadership Team
Rising spiritual temperature among every member of the leadership team
Deep conviction regarding the importance of their spiritual and ministry example
Protection
● Learn dependence on God for the weaknesses and needs of the various ministries
● That God's people would not get caught in the American Dream, but in God's dream
● Passion for the worship team as they lead the congregation weekly
● Stability for the children's ministry: High turnover, burnout, understaffed, etc.
● Heart of service and teachability for professional types
● Home Groups
Increase in leaders and assistants
Increase in total church involvement in home groups
New types of affinity groups (support/recovery, service-orientation etc.)
● Children's Ministry
Each teacher and worker owning a deeper passion for the importance of their time
Teaching the children each Sunday
Increase in workers
Sense of team, enjoyment, purpose among children's staff
● Building
Wisdom regarding major renovation to front of church
Right time, right approach, spiritual/kingdom increase as a result
● Growth of leaders who desire to reach out into the community
● Guidance for college students who attend our services regularly
● Quality conferences or outside resources to take church into best practices
● A deeper hunger for the presence of GOD and faith that is lived out on a daily basis
● Repentance of materialism
● Outreach
Unsaved people in the church coming under conviction, responding to God
That Alpha would open a door to more creative outreach ministries
That every believer would respond to the prompting of God in sharing their
faith in their daily life
● Spiritual Atmosphere
Greater willingness to express brokenness and vulnerability during Sunday morning
Increasing sense of the presence of God when we meet
A Congregation more and more marked by spontaneous joy due to the increase of God's work in their daily life
Increase in faith!
Environment where leaders are raised and challenged constantly● Marriage/Family
Healthy growing marriages existing to serve others
Relationship healing
Live-in couples under conviction, responding to God and making things right
● Stronger spiritual community. There is a lack of this.
● A hunger for prayer and true worship. Prayer and worship that is Spirit-led and brought about as a result of understanding who God is and what HE has done and what HE desires to do through us.
● Repentance and deliverance over impurity
● A true understanding of what it means to be holy and to live as "strangers and aliens"
in this culture
● A stronger ministry of prayer, prayer gatherings, teaching people to process through
life's struggles through prayer
● Community
Birth of a ministry that will meet needs and care for the poor and broken
● Missions
Every missions team member in 2006 comes back with a greater sense of
consecration in their life
Called missionaries would discover their calling in this next season and move
move toward it
● Prayer
Prayer team for the 10:45 a.m. service
God's hand of favor on the gathering
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