One Prayer: What’s Next?

We’ve been blown away by the response to One Prayer and want to thank all 1,541 churches for your enthusiastic participation. It’s amazing to think that more than 800,000 believers fasted, prayed, gave, and served together this June! We’ve seen churches coming together like never before, supporting each other, giving to each other, and serving side by side.

We’re not ready to stop. How about you? We’re already planning for a new global series like One Prayer that will take place in June 2009. Save the date and we’ll keep you posted with details as they develop.

But beyond that, we’ve seen God use One Prayer to spark conversation within churches around the world about how we can continue to work together to get even more accomplished. We’re thinking about how this can become a reality for the Church, and that’s where you come in.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned during this season, it’s that big things can happen when we join together. We’d love to hear your ideas. What’s the best way to connect churches who want to keep sharing resources? How can we combine efforts on a regular basis to be even more effective? Get creative, think big, and leave us a comment to let us know what you come up with!

Tags: one prayer

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I’m curious: What causes are you passionate about?

In Craig’s One Prayer message, he talked about the big things God could do if churches throughout the world united resources and became one: ending starvation, providing clean drinking water, etc. I’m curious…what causes are you passionate about? Assuming that we’re all solidly committed to the local church, let’s think beyond that to issues we could address as one unified body of Christ. What’s on your dream list? Please let us know where you’re from when you comment.

Tags: causes, I'm curious, one prayer

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One Prayer Churches Video

This past weekend at all of our worship experiences, we showed a video that scrolled through the names of each one of the churches that are participating in One Prayer. It was really powerful to have everyone attending visualize what 1200+ churches actually looks like when they are listed out, one by one.

The full resolution version will be available later today on the Resource Page of OnePrayer.com!

One Prayer Churches from LifeChurch.tv on Vimeo.

Tags: one prayer, Unity, video

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One Prayer Download Stats

Churches from all over the world have been reviewing and downloading One Prayer messages for the last week.  There is one week left before the series officially starts globally and I strongly encourage those of you participating to review and download the messages you are going to use now.

Some of you have asked if I have any statistics/technical details about the downloads…here are some quick stats for those of you technically inclined.

• Over 7000 One Prayer files have been downloaded in the last week.
• Over 5.2 TB (terabytes) have been downloaded in the last week
• The peak data transfer was 368 Mb/s (megabits per second) on Tuesday May 27th
• There are 432 GB (gigabytes) of One Prayer messages stored on our servers
• We have two servers hosted in Dallas, TX that are handling One Prayer traffic.
• All of the flash video previews are not included in those stats.

If you have no idea what any of that means…it means there are a whole lot people reviewing and downloading One Prayer messages :)  It’s still not too late to join.

Tags: one prayer, preaching, technology

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Messages Available on OnePrayer.com!

I hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend!

On Friday, our hard working digerati team launched the message preview/download section of OnePrayer.com! Many churches have already downloaded content and are planning their weekends.

With over 1,100 churches participating, I strongly encourage you preview and download the messages you’ll be using as quickly as possible. We want to help you make One Prayer successful in your church!

Thank you to the 62 pastors and churches who submitted video teaching. We know this is no small task, and we appreciate the extra effort everyone has put forward into making One Prayer incredible!

To begin previewing and downloading messages, click here.

Tags: one prayer, technology, Unity, video

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The Summer Slump

Most churches experience a “summer slump.”

• Attendance drops
• Giving slows
• Volunteers miss
• Interest fades

What should a leader do during down times? Although I can’t answer the question for you specifically, I would say, “DO SOMETHING INTENTIONAL!”

You might:

• Challenge the church to host summer neighborhood block parties
• Ask your small groups to take the summer off and challenge them to devote one weekend a month to an inner city mission project.
• Write devotionals for people traveling on vacation.
• Do a summer long overview of the Old Testament
• Experiment with a different style of worship
• Participate in “One Prayer” (Couldn’t resist)
• Take some extended time off
• Challenge people to devote a week of their vacation to minister on an international mission trip

Whatever you do, don’t miss this great opportunity to pray, seek God, and do something intentional! Even though many are distracted, God still wants to do something powerful through your ministry this summer!

Please share any summer ideas or ministries you are excited about.

Tags: one prayer, summer ideas, summer slump

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One Prayer Video Update

Right now, we have over 800 churches representing over 523,000 people in 17 countries signed up to participate in One Prayer!

Here is a video update from Craig about the One Prayer missions initiative and upcoming resources that will be available. You’ll want to make sure you watch the entire video so you can get ideas that you can implement which will help make One Prayer a truly impacting series.

Tags: global church, one prayer, Unity

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One Prayer: Big Announcement!

We’ve felt that One Prayer is a unique opportunity for The Church to make a lasting impact on the world. Craig announced we would be receiving a special offering for a missions initiative when he casted the vision for One Prayer. Our team began to explore, discuss and pray about what causes/organizations we could collectively support with this offering.

The effort became even more challenging as the size and scale of One Prayer quickly exceeded our expectations and imaginations. Shortly after announcing the offering, we were approached by our good friends from Granger Community Church, who asked if they could help us explore those opportunities. They selflessly invested themselves and a very ambitious vision emerged that we quickly became VERY excited about.

The One Prayer missions offering will go to support planting 500 new churches in Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China! The local church is the hope of the world, and these churches will be able to make a sustainable, lasting and eternal impact on these four strategic regions. We explored many great causes and organizations that we could collectively support, but the vision of local churches from around the world uniting to invest in planting churches was the most synergistic with the vision of One Prayer.

We hope that you will prayerfully consider participating in the One Prayer offering to plant churches and spread the gospel of Christ throughout the world. If you are unable or do not choose to participate in the One Prayer offering, we strongly encourage you take this opportunity to contribute to an international missions effort of your choice. We can have far greater impact united than we can apart, and we are excited to see what God will do!

There is a lot more detail about the opportunity, the process, and the organizations involved on OnePrayer.com. Please be sure to check it out and also let us know if you have questions.

Tags: Granger Community Church, missions, one prayer, Unity

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