We’re back to normal this week at 26a Railway Road, Coleraine.
As you may know our current ‘model’ is a couple of hours of devotional worship followed by 2 hours of more structured intercessory worship (a fusion of prayer and worship).
I read the following excerpt and thought it summed up well the reason for spending time during the devotional sessions.
1. a vivid awareness of the beauty, majesty, mystery, and holiness of the triune God
Worship cultivates our knowledge and imagination about who God is and what God has done. Worship gives us a profound awareness of the glory, beauty, and holiness of God…
As some of you will already be aware Engage has been invited to the University of Ulster in Coleraine this week.
It has been a while since we have been on tour (OK it’s not quite ‘on tour’ but out of our normal habitat!). A few years ago we regularly held Engage 24hr events in various host churches around our community and often we would hear reports afterwards that there seemed to be a real ‘residual’ sense of the presence of God.
I won’t try to theologically explain that. God is, after all, omnipresent but as Ps22:3 says He does in habit the praises of His people when we worship and seek Him.
The place to be on Friday from 8-11pm is the Octagon Balcony, University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine.
We’re back ‘in harness’ after last week’s break for Good Friday.
Here is the link to the Harp & Bowl Training Notes that Ian used last time around. If you haven’t had the chance to catch one of these very practical sessions together then don’t miss out on the next one.
We’ll keep you posted when that’s happening.
In the meantime we have this week’s session back to normal service
Things at Engage are slightly different this week. We’ll be running from 8-10pm kicking off with some worship followed by guest speakers Martie and Gerrit Nel.
If you’ve been to our sessions lately you’ll know that each week we focus at least some of our attention on following the biblical mandate of praying for Israel.
Now, I must confess that, personally, I’m not that clued up on of many of the issues around this subject yet I understand that there’s something important to be explored here.
Martie and Gerrit are originally from South Africa but now live and work in Israel and we’ve asked that they educate us on the significance of including Israel and Jerusalem in our intercessions.
I just read this great definition of what Intercessory Worship (Engage) is about from Integrity Music. Integrity Music
Intercessory worship? What in the world is that? It’s a brand-new, cutting-edge concept that first hit the music industry, oh, about 3,000 years ago - right around the time of King David. Worshiper and prayer warrior, David came up with the radical notion of combining prayer and worship. 1 Chronicles chapters 15 and 16 describe how he built a special tabernacle to house the Ark of the Covenant, positioning both musicians and intercessors around it to combine forces and minister to the Lord.
So when we meet again this Friday (and every other Friday for that matter) we’re just carrying on from a legacy that began a long time ago.
I met Don Potter last year and he mentioned something that I hadn’t seen before about David’s model of intercessory worship.
He pointed out that the ‘Tabernacle of David’, where all the intercessory worship went on, continued night and day for 33 years - the exact period of time that God incarnate in Jesus walked on the earth. The intercessory worship then shaped the history of Israel and ultimately the whole world.
At Engage we know that the prayers of the people are shaping the history of our community and greater things are to come.
It has been encouraging to see the number of young folks, particularly in last week’s session, catching this heart in this generation.
We’re adding another dimension to what we do here in Coleraine. We are going to be advertising for prayer requests and doing a specific community prayer watch each month. The ad in the personal column of the local paper will look something like this:
Desperate to see Change? Sickness, debt, relationship breakdown, depression? Everything else failed? Engage24 Prayer team will pray for your needs. Leave your prayer requests on our 24 hr private prayer line. Privacy guaranteed. 08450093540
Anyways, as ever we look forward to seeing you this Friday. The sessions look like this:
Occasionally we get asked about how Engage works financially - well, here’s the low down on that.
As you probably know Engage is run by a team of volunteers. It has been a lean, low cost operation due to the generousity of folks donating time, PA gear and other needs that arise from time to time.
In 2008 we have made the decision to change to a neutral, non-church based venue. This has proved to be a good move for us.
However, it does mean that we incur the cost of rent, insurance and advertising (we’re launching a community prayer-line) etc.
If you’d like to invest in the Engage vision to have a regular and growing intercessory worship presence in our community (and beyond) then we’d like to help you do that!
You can donate financially in the following ways:
1. Standing Order. Simply download a monthly standing order form here (Engage Standing Order Form). Print, complete it for an amount of your choice and return to the address on the form
2. Cheque. Send a cheque for any amount, payable to ‘Engage’, to S. McGookin, 8 Kings Road, Coleraine, BT51 3LN
3. Credit Card/PayPal. Simply click on the donate button below - It’s secure (your details are not transmitted to us) and you don’t even need to have a PayPal account.
Thanks for your support - a little goes a long way.
1. We’re so thankful to God for a smooth transition into the new room. it’s a great size and out first Engage session last Friday was really good. We’re excited about where the future might take us, but would value everyone’s prayers as look at how Engage will develop.
In our first session of the year it seems that the themes that God was ‘breathing on’ were praying for the young and often fatherless generation that is growing up in our communities. There was a real sense of God’s compassion and His hope for the youth of this generation. And also there was an urgency in the room when we began praying specifically for folks who are sick. Perhaps these are themes that will emerge more and more. This week’s schedule looks like this
2. WE NEED YOU.. Whether you’re a singer, musician or are committed to praying for our community - we’re looking for more people to help cover the sessions. If you would like to get involved - please get in touch.
Please go on and join the group, and the you’ll be able to comment there and also see who else is connected to Engage. (You’ll need to open a Facebook account first though).
I just wanted to drop you a line to say thanks for your support over the past year in relation to Engage. It’s not easy coming out on a Friday night - there’s such a temptation to stay home and eat take out food!! But thank you for sticking with us and helping to establish a consistent prayer and worship watch in COLERAINE. I truly believe this is on God’s heart for our community, and we’re looking forward to what God will do in 2008.
For 2008 we have a new venue - 26A Railway Road, Coleraine (opposite the Leisure Centre - see below).
We are incredibly grateful to St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland for the use of their property over the last number of years but for some time we have wanted to meet in a neutral venue.
So we’re excited to have use of 26A Railway Road and we hope to see several new watches established alongside the regular Friday night gathering.
2008 kicks off again on Friday January 11th.
Until then, on behalf of the team, I pray you’ll have a great Christmas and very peaceful new Year.
We’re working through a mountain of video clips from our worship mission trip to Pattaya Praise in Thailand.
One of the highlights, if that’s the right word, were the mercy ministry trips to serve the folks who live on some of the 20 slums in the city of Pattaya.
Here are a couple of videos of what went on.
And here’s our Irish ‘Salsa Band’ leading worship outdoors at the Big C centre in Pattaya city
