I have writer’s cramp. Two of my Sharpies have run out of ink. And that’s a good thing. I have enjoyed writing notes on the inside cover of the book to friends and strangers. Memories are really cool things and you all have provided me a lifetime of memories over the last ten years.
WE have made over $5,000 for the church building in the first couple weeks. The graphic designer for the book, Katie Kassel, came up with this little slogan:
Buy a book. Build a church. Be a blessing.
All fifteen dollars of the purchase price will be donated to our From the Ground Up campaign so that our new facility will be better resourced and so that WE will carry less debt.
Here are a few ideas on how to use the book:
- Give copies away as Christmas gifts. One woman bought twenty-one of them. Another couple bought twenty.
- Give it to a friend or co-worker or classmate or neighbor and then invite them to worship with us.
- Give it to a person going through a tough time and offer to pray for them and with them.
- Use the book as a family. All the prayers can be prayed individually, but many are best prayed together. One of my favorite prayers in the book is titled: “Mealtime Prayer.”
- Use the book to grow in your own prayer life and journey with God. The first prayer is “New Year’s Day.” The prayers travel through the calendar year and church year covering days like Epiphany, Easter, Graduation, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, All Saint’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Other prayers are scattered throughout the book: acceptance, forgiveness, grace, finances, addictions, and rest. You can park on a prayer for a few days or a few weeks. This book was written and created to be a launching pad for a meaningful, growing, and vital prayer life. Here is one way to pray:
- Pray one of the prayers in the book.
- Inform your remaining prayer time by reading and reflecting on a short passage of Scripture.
- Practice gratitude and give thanks to God.
- Confess. Discover who you are, Whose you are, and who you can become.
- Pray for others.
- Ask God where He is leading you.
- Sit in silence. Listen to God. Take notes.
As WE prepare to move into our new building in a year or so, the biggest win will not be because WE made tens of thousands of dollars from this book. Our biggest win as a church will be because WE greatly deepened our individual and collective prayer lives so that WE are hearing God and courageously following where He leads us.
