Congregations across Scotland have taken part in a Day of Prayer held by the Free Church of Scotland.
Every year the Free Church sets aside a day to pray for our nation and the work of the denomination in sharing the gospel. This year prayer points focussed on the Church’s vision for “A Healthy Gospel Church for every community in Scotland”. Topics included the revitalisation of churches, planting new churches, recruiting, training, evangelism and making disciples.
Each congregation was encouraged to arrange time for prayer, with many churches holding prayer meetings at different times of the day.
For the first time ever, a Zoom prayer meeting was organised for the whole denomination at lunchtime, with 100 people attending online. The central prayer time was led by Free Church Moderator, Rev Iver Martin. He gave a short devotional about the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6, highlighting that God is our Father in heaven, he is holy, he is our King and our provider.
He spoke about the Day of Prayer saying: “I hope that we find this an encouragement. We believe that God is doing amazing things. We are dependent on him and his Spirit. As the word is preached, we pray that those around us will come to know him.”
One attendee, Ann Macrae, from Inverness, said: “It really has been an encouragement to be praying together.”
Andrew Giffen, CEO of the Free Church of Scotland, said: “This vision for a healthy church is about all of us working together to see God’s church become increasingly healthy right across Scotland and beyond. It’s an invitation for every congregation, leader, and member to re-commit themselves to grow in health in their own Christian lives and in their life together as a church.
“We know that’s not something that can simply be fulfilled through our own efforts. It requires the work of the Holy Spirit among us if we are to truly grow in spiritual health. We ask God for that through prayer.”
He invited people to gather in prayer to ask God to work among us and to seek his leading for how we better bring gospel blessing to the communities around us.
For more details about the vision, go to: freechurch.org/healthy-gospel-church