Message from NAC3 Team: A Prayer for May 11

The North Alabama Annual Conference will hold a called Special Session on Thursday evening, May 11 to process current requests from congregations for disaffiliation under ¶2553 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline. The NAC3 Team invites all North Alabama United Methodists to join in prayer for the special session and the continued ministries of all our congregations.
 

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.

God, You are the creator of all that is, and of all that will be. You knelt down and took a piece of creation and shaped and molded it, uniquely making each of us. You breathed Your breath into us and gave us life, forever connecting all of us through Your life-giving love. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made, and none of us are a copy of the other. We are Your children, and we humbly yearn for the guidance of Your Spirit.

God, we confess that there are times when we give too much control to our fear and anger, and we have spent too many hours in reactive living. There are too many times when we speak of “us versus them,” and too few times when we see the whole of Your transformative kingdom. Too often we have lost sight of Your kingdom, a kingdom where we replace fear with love, vindictiveness with openhearted kindness, envy with supportive affection, withering judgment with extravagant tenderness, and divisive tribalism with radical kinship. It is Your kingdom we seek.

Today, God, as we prepare to acknowledge our choices of differing paths, may we also acknowledge that which will forever bind us. In the midst of our separation, may we also be cognizant of the common foundation of Christ that will forever connect us. May we show each other the grace and love that You demonstrate to us through Christ. May our lives, whether through thought or deed, exemplify Your kingdom on earth forevermore.

We pray for blessings, today and always, for every church. May it be Your spirit that reigns in all that we do, and may the vision of Your kingdom be our vision of our future.

We pray all this in the holy and sacred name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.