This week we began by singing along to You are My Joy, by Will Reagan. 

As we get nearer to being open for business there is much to do and think about. And also we know the enemy would like to distract or discourage us. So Richard reminded us to prioritize our own daily prayers. Draw your strength from the Lord and put on the full armour that He gives us.

We prayed for each other in pairs and also for all the members of the group who couldn't be with us tonight.

Charism - our gift to others

As we are getting ever nearer to launching the House of Prayer, we spent some time focusing on our call.

This can be thought of as our 'charism'. By this we mean a gift of the Holy Spirit given to us as a group to build up the Kingdom of God. 

Charism means:

• A gift to do something (for others). 

• A particular assignment.

• Our unique contribution to the work of God. (but don't get over-responsible, we are not delivering the entire work of God!)

Our charism will help us discern between the “good ideas” and the “God ideas”. In identifying our charism, think...

• What is the burning “yes” that helps you say “no” to lesser things?

Assignment

So here, in it's simplest form, is our assignment at this time:

Our invitation

So if our assignment is to invite others, what is the invitation? Here it is, in its simplest form:

The invitation

• Come and use the house of prayer.

• Spend more time with God.

• Pray for Southampton. 

• Come and pray with others (for Southampton and beyond)

• [and if you are really keen] Come and join the community serving the house of prayer. Host, welcome, set up, be creative...

Status update

Yesterday we had a meeting with Billy Kennedy, a local church leader (with national roles) and he encouraged us to focus on starting. Sounds obvious, but it is very helpful. We won't have everything done before we launch, but we need to focus on what we need to do to start with.

We shared the latest news about our website (sohop.org), social media, and connections being made with local students. 

Focus on starting

In order to share out the work of preparing for starting, we split into working groups to pray about specific things, identify jobs and make preparations.

• prayer - rhythm, order, suggestions

• venue - paint a picture - what are we looking for?

• online info - website, fb, flyer (the invitation)

• network and invitations - 'guest list' and who can invite each person/organisation on the list.

• being safe - what procedures and policies do we need to have in place?

This week we mostly prayed about these things. Next week we will gather jobs and make other preparations.

Next week - All Saints, Millbrook

Finally we checked the location of our meeting next week, which is All Saints Church, Sedbergh Road, Southampton SO16 9HJ (off Kendal Avenue, near the Saints pub).