Our Thursday Night Community Group is unique compared to any Community Group I have ever been involved with, much less one that I am involved with leading. We merely call it Thursday Nights. It is filled with people who are committed to prayer, who are interested in the mystical side of the Christian life. It is not unusual for this group to pray for an hour on Thursday night, or even meet on another night of the week just to worship and pray.
I get very refreshed and excited that this group exists at All Nations. When people pray things happen. Generally we spend time singing and worshipping God. This leads us to into prayer, for our city, for our church, and for the people in the group. I generally share with the group some Biblical thoughts about prayer.
Just last night we looked at praying in times of trouble and used Psalm 22 as our God. My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?...I am not a man, I am a worm. The Psalmist understood hard times. To spur our thinking I opened by reading a quote from the Oakland Tribune that states, "There's no sense of hope. How do you give someone back their sense of hope?" The article was the names and stories of the 114 people who were murdered in our city this past year. We are living in times where there are great troubles. Per capita Oakland's murder rate is off the charts while we may average less murders than other major cities. We need prayer, and to intercede for this place we call home.