Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of June 7, 2023
Rev. Catherine Nance
Good evening friends! I am at Lake Junsaluksa, North Carolina attending the Holston Annual Conference along with Pastor Tim and our lay members. It has been a glorious time of worship and hearing reports about what is happening in our conference. “Recalibrating” is the key word for the conference and forward-looking positivity is the energy in the room. I want to share with you today some of the prayers that have been offered here. You are part of this meeting although you are not here physically. The Holy Spirit always connects us through prayer. – Pastor Catherine
BREAKTHROUGH PRAYER for Holston Conference (You can insert ‘CSUMC’ or ‘our family’ or ‘me’ where the prayer mentions ‘conference.’)
Gracious God, we know that you are with us and you are for us. Together we pray:
- Pour out your spirit upon Holston Conference to renew and revive us in new ways.
- Reveal where the Holy Spirit is leading us as a conference and as your people.
- Break through our barriers, opening new doors of dreams, hopes, and possibilities beyond what we know and can imagine.
- Grant us the courage to walk through the doors you are opening.
- Stir us to seek you first and root us deeply in your will and way.
- Renew, revive, and replant this conference, unleashing new and abundant life. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Prayer offered at ordination service (we were reminded by our Bishop that we have ALL been called at our baptism to be in ministry). This was the prayer for those ordained elders:
Give to these your servants the grace and power they need to serve you in this ministry. Make them faithful pastors, patent teachers, and wise counselors. Enable them to serve without reproach, to proclaim the gospel of salvation, to administer the sacraments of the new covenant, and to offer with all your people spiritual sacrifices acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Below is a portion of the prayer offered at the Memorial Service where we remembered clergy and spouses who have died since last year’s Annual Conference. Many of us who read these Wednesday prayers continue in our grief.
Months or years may have passed, and still we feel near to them. Our hearts yearn for them. Though bitter grief has softened, duller pain abides; for the place where once they stood is empty now. The links of life are broken, but the links for love and longing cannot break. Their souls are bound up in ours forever. We see them now with the eye of memory, their faults forgiven, their virtues grown larger. So does goodness live, and weakness fade from sight. We remember them with gratitude and bless their names. Their memory is a blessing forever.
Dear God who hears our prayers whether they are whispered by an individual or read in unison in sanctuary, we thank you for the privilege we have in being able to communicate with you. We are thankful you desire to be in communion with us. Stir up in us the acknowledgement of our responsibility in carrying out and living out the prayers we bring before you. In the power of our Risen Savior we pray, Amen.
We pray for ….
- A wife who began chemo treatments this week; may she feel God’s healing presence
- A Soup Kitchen guest who has been attempting to get a bus ticket to Phoenix; he has the money – just not the technology that is required these days. Bless all those who do not have access to email, internet and who struggle to do transactions without.
- A brother who has moved to skilled care; prayers for him and for family as he makes decisions about palliative care.
- For a newly wed couple; may their life be one of contentment and joy.
- For a son undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer
- A young father having cancer surgery tomorrow at Vanderbilt; prayers for his wife and daughter and all the family as they wait.
- A grandchild who has a cyst on kidney; may the MRI today bring clarity and discernment
- A church member who has two broken vertebrae; prayers for healing and patience as he wears neck brace for next twelve weeks
- A friend undergoing tests today;
- A church member having knee replacement surgery
- Prayers for one going through IVF cycle
- For church members and friends who are hospitalized; may they feel the presence of our prayers
- A son who is executor of father’s estate
We give thanks for ….
- Successful knee replacement surgery for a member last week
- The good news being reported about Annual Conference
- Harp music last Sunday! Praise God!
- Stephen Ministers
- The experience our youth choir is having on their tour
- A good visit with extended family while on vacation
We continue to pray for ….
- Our military who are serving around our country and world
- Our leaders – local and national
- A little boy struggling with so many health concerns; prayers for family
- Those whose grief is overwhelming
- A husband looking for meaningful employment
- A couple longing to have a child
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
