When Jesus told Peter “…I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it”, he launched a movement – his people, his ‘Ekklesia’ as he called it – designed to take on the gates of Hades and take ground from the enemy.
This was reflected many years earlier when the psalmist prophetically wrote, in Psalm 133:1 “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head… it is like dew…” [in other words, it’s refreshing!] “…for there the Lord commands the blessing: life forever.”
And this refreshing blessing is what we are seeing in Maidstone in this season: God’s people working together. It’s been growing over recent years as God has put it on the hearts of people praying over our town.
One of the ways we see this is with the deepening of relationships among Church leaders. A couple of weeks ago I visited a monthly Church leaders’ breakfast in Maidstone, and it was so powerful: church leaders were presenting and sharing together on tools they were using to lead people to Christ; and on practical ways they were mobilising prayer. This is a significant breakthrough, for leaders to share together with a common vision.
And through these strengthened relationships have come new initiatives, like:
- Touch Maidstone, a website that communicates all the practical community work that the whole Church is doing;
- The Maidstone Covenant – a covenant agreement among so far around 20 church congregations and ten cross-church organisations, where leaders have agreed to covenant to fellowship together, pray for each other, and work alongside each other to serve the town;
* And now, through these relationships, The Waypoint Project – a project where the Church in Maidstone works together to reach the lost and ‘point them to Jesus, the way’.
So as the body of Christ, we are taking ground from the enemy! The enemy’s territory is division, suspicion, and jealousy… these things do not look good on the bride of Christ. But the word of God tells us that every time God’s people live together in unity in our town, God commands a blessing!
I believe that one reason this blessing is at work now in this season is because people have been praying over Maidstone. And now is the time for us to pray more! To drive back the forces of darkness over our town so that Jesus can transform lives through His people, the Church, His Ekklesia.
So this is an invitation to pray! I’m working with Lesley Ludlow from Holy Cross Bearsted to head up the communication around prayer initiatives over Maidstone around the Waypoint project, and I’d like to invite you to join our Waypoint Prayer email list.
- Opportunities to pray include:
- Prayer gatherings:
- Monday mornings, 7am in Mote Park
- Monday 13th March 10am-12 Coxheath
- Quarterly prayer walks (our next: Easter Monday, 8am)
- Pray on your own or with others
- Arrange your own prayer gathering
- Adopt your street, school, business in prayer
To hear more about praying for Maidstone and receive reports and invitations to pray, sign up to the Waypoint Prayer email list.
