ONE OF THE THREE PURPOSES OF THE BETTER PLACE is to give leadership to networking the body of Christ in our region in order to receive the promise of Second Chronicles 7:14 (If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.) This is one purpose that The Better Place ministry can be pursuing now, even before our campus is built. -- Our organizing director, Roy Miller, serves as the chairperson of the New York State Prayer Summit Servant Leader Team and, this past March, he served as the facilitator of the New York State Prayer summit. What follows is a synopsis of that historic first state-wide prayer summit.
Ninety leaders in prayer ministry from across NY State gathered over a four-day period in Painted Post, NY from March 1 -- 4 to participate in the historic first statewide prayer summit. They gathered in pursuit of a vision from God to see the Empire State transformed to His Kingdom State. The participants represented a great diversity of different cities and towns from Long Island to Buffalo, from Watertown to Jamestown and from many communities in between these poles including New York City.
Most of the participants had spent at least one day in prayer with fasting as a preparation for the Summit before their arrival. Twenty of the participants participated in the Intercessor's Track. While leaders in pastor's prayer ministry met throughout the morning and afternoon in one location, the intercessors were in another building interceding for the Summit. God repeatedly confirmed His leadership by speaking the same prophetic word to the intercessors that He was speaking to the ministry leaders and by guiding the intercessors in prayer in accordance with what the ministry leaders were being led to pray about.
During two time-blocks each morning, Tuesday and Wednesday, and one time-block each of these afternoons, gifted teachers presented topics. The teaching then became a matter of prayer as the ministry leaders gathered in small groups or in other ways as the Spirit directed through each presenter. Topics covered included, Large Cities and Urban Areas, Small Cities and Rural Areas, Pastors Prayer Groups, Networking With Government, Compassion Ministries, Reconciliation and Linking the State. -- Each evening, ministry leaders and intercessors were all together for worship, prayer and communion. On Monday and Tuesday evening, the Spirit led the group into times of deep repentance and the breaking of old strongholds at several locations in the state. Wednesday evening was a time of celebration and thanksgiving. Each evening concluded with a time of sharing the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion.
Judging from the evaluation forms, everyone was blessed by the table fellowship and the connecting that took place there (The food was tremendous too!). Some took advantage of the free time to further pursue building new relationships and establishing new connections. The book table received plenty of positive attention. Vision was extended. God was heard. -- Here are some comments from the evaluation forms that help to summarize the experience: I am deeply moved by the humility, honesty, repentance, gifts and faith. I was stretched. I believe all of us have been spoken to by God. / Relationships are the thing! / God is definitely on the move in NYS. / I have a better focus in reaching my community. The Summit has helped me network; it has given me a broader perspective of what God is doing throughout New York State. / I've been encourage; built relationships, had my vision lifted, seen more clearly God's strategy. This Summit is now the one non-negotiable in my ministry calendar! / Breakout prayer groups were great. / This reaffirmed the necessity and beauty of unity. / It was good to identify other leaders with different backgrounds throughout the state. / In the spiritual realm, this has been an historical and monumental time. Many good things have been set into motion.
A common theme that kept running through the Summit was God's will for every strata and every nook and cranny of society throughout the state to be brought into His Kingdom. Appropriately, then, every participant received a copy of Joseph Mattera's, Ruling in the Gates, as a gift. Also, each attendee received a set of CD's from the United States Strategic Prayer Network's "Releasing the Word of the Lord" 50 state tour, with Dr.'s Chuck Pierce and Dutch Sheets, that took place in New York State from January 15 -- 17, 2004. During their NYS tour, Pierce and Sheets traveled from NYC to Albany and to Rochester to release prophetic words to the church in NYS. [One prophetic word that came forth from Dutch Sheets while in Rochester was that there would be a sign during the "spring thaw" that would give us revelation that would set the stage for revival to begin to take place. This sign came forth during the NYS Prayer Summit as the news media reported concerning some building foundations in WNY that are sinking and causing structures to collapse. This became a picture of what God is doing in the spiritual realm; We know that foundations that are man made in the church are beginning to collapse and are being rebuilt according to God's design. Jesus is God's chosen foundation -- 1 Cor. 3:11]
In the broadest sense, the Church in NYS is called to do two things at this time in order to establish the Kingdom of God throughout the state. One is to take authority in prayer to destroy every stronghold of evil. This includes putting the feet of relational ministry on our prayers. Number two is to build a wall of united concerted prayer around the entire state. This means, among other things, that when the trumpet blows [see Nehemiah 4:20] all who are able to do so from the Church of NYS need to join the part of the Church that put out the call. For instance, on March 29 a special prayer meeting has been called for the steps of city hall in NYC and on June 5 every zip code in NYC will be prayer walked as part of the "Pray New York" effort. Both of these special prayer gatherings are a trumpet call to the rest of the state. There will be other trumpet calls during 2004 and we must utilize the connections we have made to let the calls be heard.
We learned that unity is not going to the lowest common denominator by stifling certain theological distinctives. It is maintaining one's own distinctives with integrity while humbly and respectfully giving others the freedom to live out their distinctives with integrity. This requires true love, which is maturity [I Cor. 13:11]. When we visit another "tribe" that is different from our own we can abide by the rules of that tribe but when all the tribes come together in one place, there is both a need for freedom and for love to be true on the part of everyone.
This vision that served as the inspiration for the first statewide summit remains: God is calling His Church in New York State to a higher level of living in Him than we have ever experienced before. Transformational revival will imminently come to NYS if God's prayer warriors keep pursuing God's Kingdom. This revival will spread from NYS to the nation and to the nations. -- God has extended His scepter and invited us to ask Him for whatever we want for His Kingdom's sake [see Esther 5:1-3] and for His glory. In order to break the strongholds of darkness across NYS, God is calling forth faithful prayer ministry leaders, intercessors, watchmen and gatekeeper churches and "cities" that will not compete but rather link with each other using today's available technology. No longer will we pray in ignorance. No longer will we pray as islands. God is linking like-minded visionaries and leaders in prayer ministry and calling us to build relationships with each other statewide in order to pray strategically. -- Pastors who are catching this vision must be bold, give leadership and pastor other pastors. It is time to be the Church in a different way than before!
We believe God wills a second NYS PRAYER SUMMIT to take place in 2005. It will be a little shorter with fewer presentations and more time for both prayer and networking than was this year's inaugural statewide Summit. At the same time there may be some add-on options for those who desire a little more time together. The date, which has been selected for 2005, is Monday February 28 -- Wednesday March 2, starting with a noon lunch and concluding with a lunch. Add-ons may include the gathering of intercessors on Sunday at dinnertime so they can begin to get acquainted, to pray through the Summit site and then to participate in an instructional workshop on the ministry of intercession on Monday morning. -- Because there is a desire for more teaching on a variety of topics than would be possible at a three-day summit, a fourth day could be added for leaders of pastors prayer groups and other prayer ministry leaders. This would be primarily a teaching day.
God made His presence clearly known on the very first evening of this year's first statewide Prayer Summit and He continued to be the maestro of the gathering as each individual played their part according to their giftedness. We thank God for what He has begun in New York State and we thank Him for the amazing things He is yet to do!