Grove City Alliance eNewsletter :: Reflections from Your Pastor

A Praying Church
What a wonderful Savior is Jesus our Lord! It is exciting to serve the Lord with you. I want to express my thanks and appreciation to all of you who have sent cards, notes, and e-mail expressions of kindness and love to us over the past year. We count it a privilege to serve the Lord with you in the Grove City Alliance Church. God is blessing in fantastic ways. I delight in our three services and especially in the wonderful blessing of praying with you at the altar in our communion and anointing services. Nothing delights me more than to pray with you. We as pastors at GCAC are committed to prayer. It is our highest goal and deepest desire to get alone with God on a regular basis, in order to keep our hearts pure and our passion for Christ alive. We want lives that model prayer and passion for Jesus. We want to cultivate a "Mary's heart," who found her greatest fulfillment was to sit at Jesus' feet to worship and learn. We want to invite you to enter into this life of prayer. Once you experience the Presence of God in your personal life you will never want to go back to the old "Martha" driven lifestyle. Jesus invites all of us to "Come away with me into a solitary place and rest awhile." We have many opportunities for prayer. We have been intentional about leading prayer retreats and concerts of prayer in the congregation. I hope you can join in on those exciting events. There are several other exciting prayer initiatives that are quietly going on behind the scenes that perhaps you are not aware of - and why should you be? They are not programs; they are people passionate about their relationship to Jesus. Children Pray: One is our children's worship time at the close of Sunday School. For more than a year now they have been gathering in an assembly to learn to pray and praise as part of their offering to God. My wife, Marilyn, and Cindy Stewart have been leading this worship-based prayer initiative. They report wonderful experiences with children reaching out to the Lord in childlike prayers that would move your heart to tears. Prayer Partners: Another prayer initiative is prayer partnerships. All around the congregation there are prayer partners agreeing together and meeting for prayer for at least a half hour each week. I have counted over 40 prayer partnerships that I know of. Youth Pray: Did you know our youth are being moved by God to seek His face privately without being asked to? That is right. Some of our teens have obtained permission to take a religious break from school and go to a park to do their own personal prayer retreat! Isn't that exciting! Pastor Paul has been leading them in quiet days of prayer whenever there is a break in their schedules. Worship Warriors Pray: Other people are praying behind the scenes - literally! Each Sunday morning there are people who quietly retreat to the area behind the platform to pray during the morning for the worship services. There are a growing number of worship warriors hiding in the Secret of the Most High, interceding for our services. It has come to my attention that three men quietly meet for prayer in closets (again literally) somewhere in our building during the 8:00 am service. Is it any wonder God is blessing our services with His Presence!!! Pastors Pray: In addition to endeavoring to maintain a vibrant personal prayer and devotional time with God, each of your pastors is required to spend a day away each month seeking the Lord. This is not a day of play or a day of working on church ministry projects. It is a day alone with God nurturing our love relationship with Jesus Christ. We also try to do a two or three day prayer retreat every quarter. Is it any wonder God is blessing our church so much? This Fall we are averaging well over 700 in our three worship services. Many of you have expressed to me your joy at going to church each Sunday. Multiple times people have spoken to me, e-mailed, sent cards, or phone calls to express their sense of awe at the Presence of God in our services. I am especially impressed when college parents visit for the first time and take the time and effort to pursue me after the service, in order to thank me (us) in tears for providing such a place where their son or daughter can worship. Trusting Christ Alone, Senior Pastor

Quiet Prayer Retreat
Don't miss the opportunity to learn the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude on our offer of a private prayer retreat.