ONE BITE AT A TIME

I know it is an old joke: “how do you eat an elephant?” The answer: “One bite at a time!” That is how I think about our church-wide ministry “PRAY CHARLESTON 24/7”. This is a BIG elephant to eat. Here are the basics. There seems to be a Kingdom movement happening in the greater Charleston area. At last count there were over 100 churches representing over 16 different denominations working together to pray for Charleston 24 hours a day every day. Different churches will approach this different ways. Bottom line is that there will be Followers of Jesus that will be praying for Charleston, every day, all day! I cannot remember the last day event that called together over 100 churches from over 16 denominations. Maybe a Billy Graham Crusade but I cannot think of much else. That signals to me that this is something special, something different. It feels like and even “smells” like a Kingdom of God movement.

HOW DO YOU FIT IN? We are asking our JIBC friends and family to pick one 15 minute time slot for every month on the 10th. So, November 10 will be our “soft launching”. Then we will pray again on Tuesday, December 10. Then we will cover the next 10th, which would be Friday, January 10.

• You are asked to pray for one 15 minute time period. You do not have to pray for that entire day, the 10th. Only for the 15 minute time period you signed up for.

• You can pray for your city, the Mayor, your representatives, the homeless, First Responders, etc. We are seeking to cover our city with prayer asking God’s forgiveness and asking for His blessings.

• Of course you can pray for more that 15 minutes. And we may very well have several people praying during the same time slot, say 1:30 p.m. on every day that is the 10th. No problem is someone picks the same time as you. That is great! If my math is right, we will need to cover a total of 96 fifteen minute time periods. Those really tough hours, we are asking some of our overseas mission partners to join in for coverage. *Remember, you can pray at home. This does not need to be at the church campus. You can pray at home, on lunch break, traveling in your car. He can hear us wherever we are.

Imagine if every day of 2025 there were believers praying and seeking God’s face. Hundreds of churches, maybe thousands of believers, and over 16 denominations uniting our Holy City in prayer. Now that is a worthy goal. We are starting now in order to get our system ironed out. This Sunday will be our “soft launch”. We will be warming up in November and December. Come January, we will be in full “Go Mode”.

Two or three ways you can get on board with the mission. One, you can go to the church app; go to missions tab; tap the Pray Charleston tab, choose your time slot. There are other resources there about how to pray, what to pray, prayer topics, etc. This is a great entry point for those just starting to add prayer to their spiritual habits. It is also a challenge to those who are already on their prayer journey.

Two, there will soon be a sign up point on the main church bulletin boards by the water fountain going into the Fellowship Hall. Third way, see me or Kyle and hand us a piece of paper with your name and time preference, we will get ‘er done for you!

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you fill a 24 hour prayer vigil? One 15 minute slot at a time. See you Sunday,

Pastor Tom