From Sunday 26th April until Sunday 3rd May we have 24 UK church interns descending on Dublin with one simple aim: to bring God’s love to the city. Jono Rice will be leading the whole week from our end supported valiantly by our two interns Hilary and Ola, and also Dalton and Shannen. However we’d love for all of Christ City Church to be involved, particularly in the Banquet on Sunday 2nd May.
Here are four prayers I have going into the week.
(1) We’d love God
All mission must start with our love for God. If not we’ll be doing it out of pride (to prove ourselves) or guilt (to appease God). If this is the case our mission will be full of striving and tension, we’ll have fights internally and we won’t model the love that we are trying to share. This is how the Apostle Paul put it…without love, we are nothing and we gain nothing:
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
So let’s pray that our love for God spills over into everything else we do. May it be our foundation and motivation.
(2) We’d love one another (the team and wider church)
Not only do we have to love God to be effective in our mission this week, but we have to learn to love one another. And the intensity of a Mission Week will put that to the test I am sure. It’s often the case that missionaries first need to understand their own hearts and learn how to love more deeply in the day-to-day in order to be able to tell others about God’s love. Just think of Jonah, as he went on mission, all the hatred and racism in his heart was revealed. And so it will be with everyone involved this week; we’ll learn more about our own hearts and our lack of love. Jesus famously said:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
So let’s pray we’d love one another and God would teach us more about our hearts.
(3) We’d love the poor
It seems clear through all of the scriptures, and in the ministry of Jesus himself, that the poor have the special attention of the church. And it’s the poor who have more time (they don’t have jobs), an open-ness (they are not so stuck in their ways) and a need (life isn’t satisfying them and they long for help. They are more ready to admit their need for a rescuer!). Many of our activities in the week and much of our question-airing will bring us into contact with the poor so let’s be ready to adapt, eat with them, talk with them, meet their needs, involve them and empower them. Jesus himself said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” (Luke 6:20-21)
So let’s pray we’d love those who are poor by not only meeting their needs but empowering them and showing that in Christ they are equals and rich beyond their wildest dreams.
(4) We’d love Dublin
The last verses of the book of Jonah, in which God sends a hard hearted man to preach to a foreign city, God says:
“Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:9-10)
God loves the city of Dublin, the people of Dublin and the commerce in Dublin (animals!). Let’s pray that we gain a heart like God for the city and it’s people. May we have great concern for the 1000s who currently don’t know God’s love, that they may come to discover it and be transformed by it.
Here is the timetable of what is going to be happening. Do come and join in.
Mission Trip Timetable 2015 – True Love