Seminar Summaries

[0:00] Our seminar was on praying for the world and praying for our city. We started by identifying that that is something many of us find very difficult. We find it a lot easier to pray for ourselves or our families or even our church.

[0:13] But the world is so vast and there is so much need, it's difficult sometimes to know where to begin. So we thought that to pray really effectively, first we need to know what is going on.

[0:24] We need to have information and there are lots of resources where we can get information about prayer needs in our city and around the world, whether books or online. But also we need to really care about it. We need to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of other people, perhaps our Christian brothers and sisters in other countries.

[0:41] We then thought about four kinds of prayer for our city and for our world. There is kingdom prayer, which is prayer for God's glory, that his kingdom may come, that his will may be done. There is compassionate prayer when we hear of situations around the world where people are living in desperate circumstances, whether because of natural disasters or because of human injustice, wars and so on.

[1:03] We thought about fellowship prayers, praying for our brothers and sisters overseas, some being persecuted, some serving the Lord Jesus. And then finally there is gospel prayers, praying that God's kingdom will come, that people will come to know the Lord Jesus.

[1:16] And praying for individuals and organisations who are seeking to present the gospel. We then spent some time praying for our world. So we split the world into the seven continents and we prayed in our small groups for them.

[1:30] But before we actually got to prayer, we discussed some of the things that have helped us in our own quiet times. Things that we've used personally that have helped us pray for the world and how to do that best. And then we prayed for different continents.

[1:43] We prayed for Africa, we prayed for Asia and we prayed for Europe. And each of those different continents has different countries in them. And each country has its own struggles and difficulties.

[1:54] But also each country has and within that continent has different signs of God's grace. And we were thinking about how we can best pray for those. So we prayed for those for a few moments.

[2:04] And then we thought about our own city, how we can be praying for our own city. But also how God might be able to use us in working out his will in our city. And that goes into every area of life from work, family and also our evangelism.

[2:20] And our work as a church and our effectiveness within the community. And then we did what everyone should be doing on a day of prayer and we prayed. Thank you.