In March 2019 Jesus followers from Baptist churches around the Bay of Plenty (BOP) gathered to pray and fast together, believing together for God to do something miraculous in his church, in this country and in this broken world.
Called a u2018Sacred Huiu2019, the gathering was prompted by downward trending statistics in the Baptist Year Book. The message went out: u201cBefore we start with vision casting and strategy meetings, setting goals and looking for new programmes, letu2019s stop and seek God through a united commitment to pray and fast, to discover his heart for the region.u201d
People from churches across the BOP, from Whakatane and Rotorua to Katikati, attended two combined corporate times of prayer. Friday evening 1st March was a time of reflection, confession, repentance and worship. Prayer stations were set up at Otumoetai Baptist Church that encouraged whole family participation. These included symbolic wearing of sackcloth and ashes, writing confessions and shredding them in a shedder, writing messages in sand, writing prayers, using magnetic letters on a whiteboard
Sunday evening 3rd March we met again at Otumoetai Baptist, this time with prayer stations around the u2018seven mountains of societal influenceu2019: religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business. This also gave opportunity to pray for specific requests from churches in the region. Church groups met together to discuss what they believed the Holy Spirit was saying to them as a result of the time spent locally in his presence. These were then written on bricks and a memorial wall was built. This, too, was designed for crossu2011generational participation.
Between these two corporate times, each church was encouraged to fast and pray at their local church, for their fellowship and for the other Baptist churches in our region. Churches did this in different ways, including holding a prayer breakfast or an evening prayer vigil, having prayer stations during a Sunday morning service, or meeting at three mealtimes to pray. The style wasnu2019t important; that we were joining with our family of churches in this Sacred Hui was the overarching blessing and motivation.
The question has arisen, u201cWill we do it again?u201d The answer from many has been a strong, u201cYes!u201d
Story: Russell Embling, Pastor of Katikati Baptist Church
