uring the last week of January we had a week of worship and prayer in West. We met each day from 7am to 8am and again from 8pm to 9.30pm. Each night we started the worship and prayer time with the sounding of the shofar. The sound of the shofar has profound significance for Jews, reminding them of the revelation at Mount Sinai, when trumpets were heard, and summoning them to repentance. It was also used in battle in Gideon's time. We then moved from that into worship, with a different worship group band leading us each night. Our intention was to get people to seek after God for the year that lies ahead.

Some people may wonder why the leadership of the church called the congregation to meet and pray together. Why should we have a week of prayer when people are praying in their own homes and in small groups, is it necessary? Well, there are different types of prayer, for example, intercession, thanksgiving and so on, different ways of praying, and different groupings for prayer.

In Matthew 6 Jesus tells us that there are times when we should pray alone. We should go into our room, close the door and pray to God our Father. Here Jesus was telling us not to be like the Pharisees who wanted to look good before other people, that this should not be the motivation behind our prayer. This sort of prayer is between us and God alone. We all need to be praying personally, in our rooms.

Then there is prayer for the small groups. In Matthew 18, when Jesus is talking about us asking God to do things for us, he tells us that there should be a plurality; there should be agreement between people. And the size of the group He refers to is made up of two or three people. Then in Acts 1 about 120 waited on the Lord to move in power, they waited for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So we have groupings of one, two or three and 120. In other words we are called to seek God personally, in small groups and as a larger group. Again, if you turn to Acts 4 you will see that those early Christians were met together to pray for Peter and John's release from prison.

When people stop going to church, often the reason they give to justify their position when challenged, is that they can worship God just as well by being on their own. They can walk along the beach and feel closer to God than being in a church fellowship meeting with others to worship. However, the Bible tells us to meet together. We all need fellowship; we need to share our love for God and for each other. We are part of a family. The same is true of prayer. You may say that you prefer to be on your own to pray, and while that is necessary, there must be more. Prayer is not only for the individual but for the family, for the church. And when we meet together to seek after God, to wait on Him, then things begin to happen in the heavenlies. Your church needs you to meet with us to pray.

Now, the week of prayer is over but there will be opportunities for us to meet as a congregation throughout the year. We are going to have a monthly prayer meeting for the church and then at the beginning of September we are going to have another week of prayer, but this time the Friday night meeting will go on throughout the night. In March the prayer evening will be on the last Tuesday, in April the last Wednesday, and so on. I hope you will support this move to become deeply involved in prayer.

Let me leave you with some comments made about the week of prayer…

“It was a joy to share God's presence and His peace in the company of other believers. There were the sounds of the triumph and His tranquillity. Let's keep going forward together.”

“It was such an encouragement to take "time out" and be still - to listen to God through worship and prayer.”

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. This truly took place during the early morning prayer times - togetherness, encouragement to focus on the peace of His presence, and the engaging of each one to participate in praise and prayer.”

“I was blessed the leadership called the church to pray. It was so encouraging to see how many people came nightly to seek God’s face (Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Isaiah 55). The sound of the Shofar blown each night to call God’s people to prayer was inspiring. We were asked to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us as it was blown. I sensed a ‘wake-up call’ from God; that He was saying ‘The time is short’, that He wants everyone included and that the victory is His. My prayer is that as a church we will continue to seek God’s face on a regular, corporate basis.”

“As the week progressed I was challenged in my own life between the commitment of trying to be there each night and the excitement of what God was about to do in our church. The two words given that witnessed most with myself were, ‘Now is the time’ and that ‘The mortar was beginning to crumble in the walls’. The week was a wonderful introduction to prayer and I look forward to how God will lead us into so much more.”

Richard Montgomery

The author

Richard Montgomery has been associate minister of West Church since 2004 and is passionate about helping people to live for God. His Bible teaching is both challenging and inspiring.

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