4 of 10 Prayers | 3 Days

Pick three days of your week and spend some twenty or thirty minutes praying these ten prayers for our city.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

We thank God for reconciling us to himself through Christ. We confess that we think too lightly and too seldom on this glorious reality. We plead with God to help us grasp the explosive truth of Christ becoming sin for us so that we might become righteousness. We long to comprehend this message of reconciliation.

We thank God for calling us as his ambassadors to Greenville. We admit that it is a complicated city that we don’t entirely understand. We ask God to affect us with the serious responsibility of bearing the message of reconciliation. We ask him to teach us how to communicate the gospel to the people of Greenville in a way they understand.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare… (Jeremiah 29:4-14).

We thank God for sending us as exiles to Greenville. We know that our home resides with Christ, but we also recognize that God loves Greenville and desires to rescue its citizens from suffering. We pray that God would be good toward Greenville’s citizens, though they don’t deserve it. We pray that God would alleviate the mental, emotional, financial, physical, social, and racial suffering in the city. We ask that believers would give God credit for his goodness to the city as he rightfully deserves.

We ask that God would be good toward Greenville’s citizens by saving many people – more people than we could imagine – though they don’t deserve it. We admit that we resist participating in this work because of fear, pride, and selfishness. We ask God to change what we want to become what he wants. We pray that God would use us through the churches of Greenville by the power of his Spirit to bring the gospel of Jesus to many citizens. And we pray that God would save thousands.

6 of 10 Prayers | 3 Days

Pick three days of your week and spend some twenty or thirty minutes praying these ten prayers for our city.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20).

We rejoice that God’s plans far surpass our own, and we thank him that he is carefully and patiently unleashing his gospel in Greenville. We confess that we are impatient and self-focused. We ask God to thrill us with the prospect of being a small part of his work, thanking that his work in Greenville extends beyond our impact team and beyond BSU.

We ask God by his Spirit to teach and guide Pendleton Street Baptist Church, Downtown Baptist Church, Grace Church Downtown, North Hills Community Church, and Upper Room Fellowship.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).

We ask God by his Spirit to empower church planters and to call them to Greenville.

We ask God to create a passion for church planting in local churches. We ask God to guide local churches to support church plants through funding, resources, training, and people. We confess our craving for comfort and regularity, and we ask God to send us wherever our money, gifts, and talents can best be used.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:44-47).

We confess our indifference toward the needs of Greenville’s poorest citizens. We admit that we hoard and we defend and we adore the very things that God gave us to give to others. We ask that God would greatly disturb the smug comfort of believers in Greenville. We ask God to invade our consciences with the bitter suffering of the urban poor.

We ask that God would create in us the self-sacrificing, self-denying love of Christ for those in Greenville who suffer and for those who are destined to suffer eternally. We ask for the creativity and opportunity to sacrifice more and more of what matters most to us for the cause of relieving suffering in Greenville.

Tuesday's outing (25 degrees is cold)

It was very cold again, but Dan and I were wearing pajama pants under our jeans, so we stayed warm. Katrine and Bethany survived as well. We got delayed on the way into downtown, meaning that we were slightly late for Food for Life, but we still had some good conversations.

-TJ: now working at the McDonald's near Triune
-Patrick: janitor at the hospital
-Kenny: has a cold; his bag was recently stolen; attending Changing Minds church on Wade Hampton Blvd.
-Michael: from Greenville; went to jail in Georgia but is now back in South Carolina; wants to know about the afterlife and judgment
-David: a carpenter who cannot find work because of the bad economy

Continue to remember our specific prayer focuses as well:

-Downtown churches
-City leaders
-Business leaders
-Local and national economy

Thanks for your faithfulness,
Paul

Prayer points

Hello everyone,

It was good to see you all at the meeting on Thursday, and I hope you're getting settled into your new schedule of classes. Obviously we want to be increasingly dedicated to God-honoring, worshipful, and intecessory prayer in this spring semester because we believe that God chooses to move when we align ourselves with His will in prayer. We want to do that in personal and corporate prayer, and we want to keep you updated on specific ways that we can pray. God has given us tremendous promises in His Word regarding prayer, and we would be foolish to ignore them. Here are a few specifics:

-Team unity
-Wisdom for how to specifically pursue new opportunities and ideas for ministry
-Downtown churches (GraceChurch Downtown, Pendleton Street Baptist, First Pres., etc.)
-City government (Mayor White, City Council, the police force)
-Wisdom for city businesses operating in a tough economy
-The discipleship of new believer Nathan
-Louis, Crazy, CW, Franklin, Leroy, Scipio, Veronica, Dwight, Ronnie, Robert, Kenny, and the rest of our friends on the street

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7

It's great to join with you in seeking the good of Greenville. Let's trust God for a great semester.

Paul Conner