Richard Sims

Ok, so how many of you guessed that we'd open our Prayer series with "Livin' On A Prayer"? Thanks to Jason Sartain and the band for opening us up with that song and for leading us in worship.

Prayer is so vital to the Christian life, yet many of us just don't pray enough. How about you? Do you have a strong prayer life? Or does your prayer life need a boost? Are you completely honest with God when you pray? Do you pray throughout your day? Do you pray about everything that's important to you?

Since we're talking about prayer, here's something important that we'd like to ask you to pray about. We're currently blessed to be meeting at New Covenant Church, a church who has opened her arms wide to us and to whom we're so grateful. We still view this location, however, as a temporary one, and we're praying and searching for property that will allow us to move back to a Sunday morning meeting time.

But not just any property. We want to create an irresistible foyer environment. So would you consider praying this prayer on a daily basis? "Heavenly Father, please provide us with a Sunday morning environment where we're comfortable inviting unchurched people to attend." 

If you'd be willing to pray that prayer with us, let me know by adding your comment to this post. I am pumped about what God has in store for us!

Time To Pray

The election is over, the votes have been cast, and the choice has been made. Senator Obama has been chosen to be our next president. Some of you voted for the winning candidate, others of you did not. Some of us awoke this morning with a feeling of celebration, and some of us had a feeling of dread and grave concern for this country.

But regardless of your thoughts and feelings about the election, I want to ask you to commit to doing something for the next four years: pray for our president.

Don't pray against him, or about him, but pray for him. Pray that God will give President-Elect Obama great wisdom in every decision. Pray for God's protection for him and his family. And pray that the President-Elect will submit himself to God's leadership and that even when he fails to do so, that God's will would be done anyway.

I'm committed to praying. How about you?

Please pray...

Many of you know the music of Steven Curtis Chapman.  Last night at the family home in Nashville, Steven's 5-year-old daughter, Maria Sue, was killed when her older brother struck her while backing out of the driveway.  Please stop what you're doing and pray for this family...

Catalyst Church Update

Last week I asked you to pray for Catalyst Church in Greenville, South Carolina.  Good friend Ryan Fitzgerald is the service programming director there.  Catalyst asked big, you asked big for them, and here are the results:

• They needed 35 families to commit to being regular percentage givers. 45 families/individuals made this commitment!
• They needed $35,000 in donations by the end of the day yesterday.  They received $35,401!

Thank you for your prayers!  It'll be fun to watch God use Catalyst to turn Greenville upside down for His glory!
 

ISP?

Normally, the abbreviation ISP stands for Internet Service Provider.  In our case, though, it stands for the three things we can all be doing in these final three days before our first Tapestry gathering at Excel.

Invite - Because of our direct mail piece, newspaper ads and newspaper article, lots of people know we're here.  But there is a huge difference between someone knowing about Tapestry and attending Tapestry.  A personal invitation can bridge that gap.  I realize that some people may be tired of me asking you to invite, but I will never apologize for that!  Our mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Christ, and inviting them to a gathering where they can experience him firsthand is a huge way to help that to happen.  Please invite everyone you know!

Serve - We still have places where people can serve this Sunday and after.  Production team, Host team, and Waumba Land spots are available.  We could also use some help setting up/taking down.  If you'd like to serve, just e-mail me (see the column to the right) or visit www.tapestrychurchonline.com/teaminfo.

Pray - It's just impossible to pray too  much!  Please pray for this Sunday's gathering, for God to draw people to attend, that He would speak to all of us during the worship and the message...I could go on and on, but, please, pray!

More about Prayer...

Yesterday I mentioned three things that are desperately needed right now at Tapestry:

1. Invite everyone you know to our October 21 gathering
2. Serve on the Host Team, in preschool, on the Tech Team and to set-up and take-down.
3. Pray...

I mentioned that there would be more about prayer in today's post, so here goes. Please pray daily that God brings people on 10/21 who need to meet Him or who need to reconnect with Him. Ask God to bring people who are lost, who are far from Him, who have given up on church, as well as believers who want to be part of a ministry with an outward focus.

There is one more thing I'd like to ask you to do in the area of prayer. This one thing has the potential to impact your life and Tapestry powerfully. So,in addition to asking you to pray daily, I am asking each of you to fast with us for one 24-hour period each of these next three weeks, September 30 through October 21. We did this before our June and July gatherings, and I know it made a significant impact on my life and in those services.

Here are the specifics: I'm asking you to abstain from food from sundown one day to sundown the next day once a week for the next three weeks, beginning this Sunday, September 30.  Maybe you're on a different schedule and it needs to be from sun-up to sun-up, or from lunch to lunch, doesn't matter, we're not legalistic, the results are the same.  (For details on fasting, please visit this link from Campus Crusade.)

If you aren't medically able to complete a 24-hour fast, please don't feel obligated to do this. God knows your heart. For the rest of us, you'll find it to be a wonderfully difficult thing to do. While it may be hard, you will be amazed at how your attention and reliance on the Lord will increase. That's the wonderful part. Every time you have a hunger pain, focus on God. Every time you feel like you just have to put some food in your mouth, ask Him to help you be strong. And every time you focus on God, ask Him to bless Tapestry Church and our gathering on 10/21.

If you have questions about the fast, please email me.  

In the meantime, thank you for praying, inviting, serving...and fasting.

I hope you're as excited about 10/21 as I am!

Prayer Requests from Sunday

In yesterday's message, I mentioned three specific prayer requests for Tapestry.  Just in case you didn't get a chance to write them down, here they are:

• Pray that we would magnify the name of Jesus
• Pray for a location and that we would win favor in the eyes of our new neighbors
• Pray that people who have rejected the church and rejected Jesus would somehow be interested in coming to know the Savior

Please consider making these prayers a part of your everyday routine!  It's going to be awesome looking back and seeing how God has answered these prayers!

Church Loses Meeting Place

Please take some time and pray for our friends at Watermarke Church in Canton.  They have lost their lease at Freedom Middle School and are desperately looking for a place to meet.  Watermarke is doing an incredible job of introducing people to Jesus, and they've also ministered in wonderful ways to us over the past year.  Let's ask God to do something so awesome it rocks Canton!  And while we're at it, let's also pray for the administration at Freedom Middle and the local board of education.  I think God wants to say something to them as well.