August always brings change to our communities. As summer comes to a close, school begins, schedules change, and before you know it, the Holiday seasons are upon us. At CSM, the seasons are an excellent guide for us in learning how to engage with the city.
For many churches and ministries, August is a time of prayer and preparation to reach souls and change lives. Many holidays serve as opportunities for transformational outreach. None of this work happens apart from prayer.
CSM aims to create a space where pastors can gather to walk together in Oneness. We have a group of 100 church leaders who have committed to praying together in August and January, asking God to bring more profound unity to the Church so that we may be seen as one in Christ.
In August, we pray daily toward the goal of unity and reflect on qualities that should characterize us as followers of Christ. We want to deepen our unity through prayer by coming together on September 15 to seek the Lord with one voice. Pastor Price of 16th Street Baptist Church has penned a prayer that many churches throughout the city will be praying as we reflect on the tragic bombing of four little girls who were killed at 16th Street church 61 years ago. We believe that unity in prayer changes us so that we can be made more into the image of Christ. While this is just one step toward unity, we believe that prayer isn’t a last resort, but rather, we trust that prayer is the work. The common prayer will read as follows:
“Lord, as your Body, we pray together today with one voice. We pray that your love, a love that forgives, be displayed in us and through us. May we be one just as You are One. Amen.”
We would love for you to join us on September 15th, 2024, by praying this with your congregation. If you so desire, please email info@csmission.org to let us know if you will or have participated. Our goal is to have 40 churches praying together on this day. If you want your church to join others in asking God to deepen our Christian unity in this city, email us and we will send you the details.
