Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem!  Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting.Gather all the people– the elders, the children, and even the babies.  Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room.Let the priests, who minister in the Lord’s presence,  stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar.  Let them pray, “Spare your people, Lord!  Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery.  Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say,  ‘Has the God of Israel left them?Joel 2 : 15 – 17

 A number of us within The Warehouse have been experiencing God breaking our hearts more and more about the condition of our city, our nation and our churches – Jesus has been confronting any belief that we may in anything other than him to change these things.  In keeping with the last few years I believe (as do the Trustees) that God is calling us to a period of fasting, prayer and reflection, allowing God to search our hearts, to show us the things hindering his work amongst us and calling us to a greater and deeper hope in him. I want to propose the following for the time:  1.  Each of us ask the Lord if and how He would have us fast through this the month.2.  We individually work through the “Preparing for Renewal” document during the month.  It is a document that was prepared for the Tacoma gang but I think will work well for us.  When it raises stuff for you (and it willJ) please make sure you ask others to pray with you – chat to Elizabeth or I to coordinate this.3.  We shift our corporate prayer times to the end of the day from 4pm to 6pm to enable others to join us.  We will use these times as God leads us but they will in all likelihood include times of worship, listening, intercession, repentance and possibly action.4.  We make the hour from 8am to 9am a “Quiet Time” at The Warehouse where people can spend time with the Lord if they want to.  The “work” day will start at 9am with a short corporate gathering to read a Psalm or something similar.

I believe that the Lord is calling us to spend time revisiting our mission statement and the “six stones” from 2005, so I am suggesting the following as a framework which may change as we move through the month. 

• Week 1 : 9 – 13 October 2006 : “Serving”
• Week 2 : 16 – 20 October 2006 : “The Church”
• Week 3 : 23 – 28 October 2006 : “Its response to poverty and injustice”
• Week 4 : 30 October to 3 November 2006 : Open at present

 We will hold each of the six stones in front of us for this time, that every time we pass them we are reminded of what the Lord has done - Exodus 4 : 21 – 24.  The six stones are : 

• Serving the Church
• The Wetton Lansdowne Philippi Corridor / The Eastern Suburbs
• The Warehouse as a community rather than an organisation
• Prayer as a foundation
• How we do what we do.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.
• Reconciliation

Craig StewartOctober 2006