Churches plan forty days and nights of prayer for Lisburn

Beginning on Ash Wednesday, members of churches in the city, including Christ Church, First Lisburn Presbyterian, Lisburn Cathedral, Railway Street Presbyterian, Seymour Street Methodist, Trinity Methodist, Legacurry Presbyterian, Lisburn Christian Fellowship, Lisburn Vineyard, Lisburn City Church, St Colman’s Derryolgie, St Patrick’s, and St Paul’s, will be spending forty days and forty nights throughout Lent praying for the city.

Entitled ‘Relentless Prayer’, the event is aimed at bringing together churches from throughout Lisburn who will join in lifting up the city, praying for all aspects of the life of the city, including business, education, healthcare, youth work, and the emergency services.

Chairman of the City Centre Churches group, Christ Church Minister Rev Paul Dundas, explained that the Lisburn churches had been working more closely in recent years and this was the next step in that bond. “The Christian Against Poverty centre and the Foodbank at Lisburn City Church has involved a number of churches in Lisburn and we wanted to see how we could be even more of a part of the city,” explained Rev Dundas.

“With help from Prayer 24-7, we were inspired to say that we want to see God’s blessings for our city.”

Relentles Prayer will be officially launched at Trinity Methodist Church on Tuesday February 9 at 8pm and Trinity Methodist will be the first church to begin the forty days and nights of prayer on Ash Wednesday at 12noon,

Each church will set up a prayer room and will take on one, two or even three days and nights of prayer during the forty days of Lent.

During that time members of the church will sign up to pray for an hour or more in the prayer room and Rev Dundas is hopeful that congregations will also visit other churches to pray during the forty days.

There will also be a prayer journal kept in each of the churches. “The churches will use creative ways in which people can encounter God and ask for God’s blessings,” explained Rev Dundas.

“Every church is able to be creative in its own way, for example here at Christ Church we will be encouraging local schools and will be bringing them across to think about prayer.

“We will be keeping a number of prayer journals to listen to what God has been saying and they will form part of how we respond.”

Rev Dundas is looking forward to the launch of Relentless Prayer and is hoping as many people as possible will get involved during the forty days. “This is the first time we have done something of this nature and it is very exciting,” he added.

Find out more about Relentless Prayer on Facebook at www.facebook.com/relentlesslisburn