Increase
INCREASE PRAYER, TRANSFORM A NATION
An invitation to hope…
What could it be like if we gathered together to encounter God in worship, to seek his face in prayer, to hear his word and listen to his voice more often across the Nation?
God’s word reminds us in Zechariah 4:6 that it’s “Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord” and Jesus also reiterates that when he says in John 15: “Apart from me you can do nothing”.
This is a crucial time for us as disciples to come together and increase prayer for the church and the nation.
So our vision is to create opportunities to gather people from a group of churches in a town/city/region to pray together for Increase. There are various ways we would invite you to get involved:
- Regional Gatherings
- National Prayer Intensive 21- 23 March (for church leaders and leadership teams)
- National Online Prayer Gathering, 22 March at 8pm (for everyone)
We are launching a new opportunity for prayer in partnership with SMBF – we are calling it our INCREASE PRAYER INTENSIVE and it’s occurring from 21- 23 March 2023.
We would love you to join on Zoom for these times of prayer as we trust that God will honour his word in 2 Chron 7:14:
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land”.
Maximising the benefits of online connections for prayer we are creating an opportunity over 3 days for ministers, chaplains and those in staff leadership teams, to connect together twice each day at 8am and 1pm, to pray together.
We will have one Zoom link for all daytime sessions, which you can request by emailing katy@scottishbaptist.org.uk.
On the Wednesday evening (22 March at 8pm) there will be an online National Prayer Gathering to which everyone from our churches and BUS network is invited – we will have a different zoom link for this which you will find here nearer the time.
All the details for the Increase Regional Gatherings can be found here. Hundreds of you have already gathered in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ayrshire and we have more coming up in Inverness and the Moray coast.
We are creating space for 4 key aspects to each evening:
- Encounter & Expectation
- Encouragement
- Attentiveness, & creative ways to help people do this
- Intercession
We already have a number of areas signed up to host a regional prayer gathering – meeting together for refreshments, being led in worship, inspired and encouraged by God’s word and stories of what he is doing and of course praying together – with a focus on being attentive to what the Lord is saying to us as well as seeking his face and interceding for our local and global concerns.
Friends from the locations will be leading worship and getting creative with prayer stations and cake! And members of the National BUS team will be coming along too to share what we sense God is doing and saying amongst our churches.
We would love to be known as a family of churches who pray together regularly and with fervency and expectation.
How Can I Get Involved?
Scottish Baptist Regional Gatherings launched on 1st December 2022 and are taking place across the whole of 2023!
When |
Where |
Host Venue |
Time |
1st December 2022 |
Aberdeenshire |
Sheddocksley Baptist Church, Aberdeen |
19:00 refreshments, 19:30 start |
4th December |
Ayrshire |
South Beach Baptist Church, Saltcoats |
19:00 refreshments, 19:30 start |
2023 |
|||
22 January |
Edinburgh |
Portobello Baptist Church |
18:00 |
5 February |
Glasgow |
Easterhouse Baptist Church |
19:00 |
12 March |
Inverness |
Culduthel Christian Centre |
18:00 |
15 March |
Moray Coast |
Lossiemouth Baptist Church |
19:30 |
21 May |
Lanarkshire |
East Mains Baptist Church |
18:30 |
May |
Shetland |
tbc |
tbc |
… |
More dates and venues will be shared here as they are added…
Host churches will be looking for volunteers to support the event, so please do consider getting involved!
For more details on any of the above, please contact Lisa Holmes, Deeper Church Lead: lisa@scottishbaptist.org.uk
We would love to gather together as many of us as possible, and look forward with expectancy and excitement for all God has in store.
