Phase 1 Prayer Requests
1. Prayer – that God would gather in our prayer meetings and continually move people to ask God to guide us, move among us, build his church, and pour out his Spirit upon our neighborhood. O Lord, teach us to pray! Help us to be humbly, joyfully, and confidently dependent upon you throughout this building process.
2. People deciding whether to join (potential Seed Community members) – for clarity in the process, the ability to weigh different factors with wisdom and sound judgment, for joy in Jesus, love for others, passion for God’s mission, that God would tug on the hearts of people from Grace DC and others in the city, giving them a sense of “calling” to this plant.
3. Duke & Paula – daily renewal in God’s grace, time management, health sense of ‘limits,’ faith to say “no” and let go of things, especially as Duke juggles responsibilities for both the downtown congregation and the church plant, prayerfulness, joy, health in their our marriage.
4. The “Launch Team” – that God would help Duke to identify and gather a team of 15-25 individuals who will be specially devoted to laying down the foundations of the community and helping with the launch of the Worship Service.
5. Development of vision and strategies – that God would slowly unfold His plans and intentions and vision for this community to us (what He wants this new community to be, what He wants us to focus on, how He wants us to build this community) and that we would be faithful, courageous, and unified as He reveals it to us.
6. Gospel-centricity in the community – that Jesus would be everything to us, that we’d believe that the gospel of grace has the power to change everything—our broken lives, neighborhoods, and city.
7. Authentic relationships in the new community – a place full of messy, but real, people.
8. Spiritual protection – from relational strife and conflict, discouragement, “spiritual warfare,” and prayerless self-reliance.
9. Love for our neighbors and our neighborhoods — a desire to love them, serve them, know them; opened eyes to notice things and people we’ve never noticed—and give us a longing for God’s kingdom to come.
10. Ministries of mercy and justice – both creative, homegrown initiatives, as well as partnerships with existing organizations that serve the poor in the neighborhood. That God would begin opening the doors for potential mercy/justice ministry partnerships with healthy, effective organizations.
11. Racial healing and reconciliation to the neighborhood – the neighborhood is diverse but also highly stratified; would God somehow give us grace and wisdom to be a part of that transformational process.
12. Forces of gentrification, especially in Columbia Heights – justice for the “least of these,” learning how we can steward the resources and opportunities our community may have (educationally, vocationally, relationally, financially).
13. Latino immigrant community – which tends to be lower-income, politically disenfranchised, and with family split between DC and home countries.
14. For neighborhood leaders and public servants – police officers (PSA 301, 302, 303), schools (teachers and administrators), ANC meetings and commissioners (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D), city councilmember Jim Graham (Ward 1).
15. Healthy relationships with other churches – including churches which are new to the area, older churches that have been in the neighborhood for years/decades (esp. African-American), and other religious communities that may not put their hope in Jesus but whom we want to have a friendship with.