Info Evening

Over the last year SoHOP has become more of an organising committee than a praying community. There is still a lot of prayer going on, but at the core of SoHOP we are more like a committee organising a few prayer meetings.

So tonight we returned to our roots, with a refreshed vision.

Summary of the meeting

About 30 people turned up.

It was so exciting to meet new people who have a passion to pray, who heard about what we are doing and came along. Equally to be reunited with others who have been with us at some stage in the past.

There was a definite sense of the desire of all there to pray.

We spoke a bit about the history of SoHOP and in groups shared about how God called us each into prayer. Much of the history of SoHOP is on this website (history.sohop.org). 

Then Fran gave an overview of what it means to be a discernment community. (more to come). Discernment is relational - it happens as we grow together. Transforming of our mind (as in Romans 12:2) as individuals and as a group. 

We introduced the main SoHOP leaders - Richard, Sally and Jim. And also introduced Elaine and Fran who help lead. We meet to pray and plan once a month. Sarah, another leader wasn't there - she leads a small group who meet regularly to pray along the same lines as the rest of us in SoHOP, they just can't make it to our weekly meetings.

We talked about our plan - each week a different pair of leaders will prepare something. We have no programme lined out before us. Over the years we have discerned themes for prayer and words for Southampton, but it was not the plan to discuss all that tonight. By all means explore the history on this website - there is much here that is encouraging for prayer -  but over the coming months we are trusting the Holy Spirit to highlight the old and reveal the new for the season we are in now. 

After some questions about how the discernment community functions we ended with prayer.

Feedback from prayer time

The word "ignite".

Moses crossing the Red sea - this will be a miraculous journey, see below: 

When we were praying, I felt God gave me a picture of the crossing of the Red Sea (given in Exodus 14). I’ve been thinking and praying about this over the last few days and felt it would be good to share this with you.

The picture was of Moses walking down the gap between the two walls of water in the Red Sed and that God had to do a miracle in order for this to happen.

I felt God say: “are you willing to believe me for the impossible? For that is what I want to do through you and in you.” I believe “you” is the corporate House of Prayer and that He wants us to have a radical shift in our expectations - the “impossible” is what He wants to be doing in the city in these days and what we should be expecting to happen!

On re-reading the story, there are a few related points, which I think are also important:

• Moses had to act when God told him what to do (v15-16: to raise his staff and stretch his hand out over the water). We are partnering with God in His work in this city, as we pray and act.

• God would gain the glory through what would happen (v17-18: through Pharaoh and his army). Whatever miracles happen, all the glory goes to Him!

• The Eqyptians would know that the He is the Lord (v18) through this. Those around us will know that Jesus is Lord through what God is wanting to do, in and through us.

Let’s be believing God for the impossible in these days!

As always, I’m offering this for you to weigh and consider!

Future meeting dates/times

The SoHOP leaders will be on a rota to coordinate the meeting each week and they will involve others in the community in preparing our prayer activities. We plan to create a new whatsapp/signal group to help us coordinate.

The emphasis is on discerning what God wants us to do. 

We will have a shared meal at 7.00pm every week.

Sept 13 (Jim and Sally)
Sept 20 (Elaine and Richard)
Sept 27 (Fran and Jim)
Oct 4 (Fran and Richard)
Oct 11 (Elaine and Sally)

Location

We are very excited about our new venue – New Community Church Sholing (77 St Monica Road, SO19 2ES). 

It’s a good story how we arrived here. At a festival called Wildfires, Sally and Elaine bumped into Clive and Jane Wiseman who run a church called New Community Sholing, and who told them about their new building – a historic little place most recently owned by the Elim church in Sholing, but now leased to New Community. Their vision is for it to be a place of encountering God in prayer and worship. So when we later asked them if we could use it, they were really pleased.