Prayer Summit 2017 Opens with a Call for Unity

March 29, 2017 — With a theme of praying for a hurting and divided world, the Christian Reformed Church’s Prayer Summit 2017 opened on Monday at Ttokamsa Mission Church in Los Angeles, Calif.

Some 150 people, representing a range of nationalities and ethnic groups from across North America and beyond, filled much of the church’s sanctuary for opening remarks from Colin Watson, Sr., the CRC’s director of ministries and administration.

Watson remembered that his first day on the job in his current position took place at the previous Prayer Summit, held in 2015 at All Nations CRC in Lake View Terrace just north of L.A.

He then called people to begin nearly three days of prayer, emphasizing that it is important to pray in gratitude for all that the Lord has provided—and especially for loving us his people.

“We remember that God calls us to live in unity. . . . We pray to be people of unity.”

Looking ahead to the speakers and presenters set to appear at the summit, Moses Chung, director of Christian Reformed Home Missions, noted that these people would offer important insights into prayer.

But especially, said Chung, the goal for them will be “to inspire us to pray to God and expand our horizons. We are here to seek God’s face and to hear from him.”

“Have an open mind and an open heart, make yourself vulnerable before God. We need a Pentecost blessing for what God wants to communicate to us.”

Lively praise music, interspersed with familiar hymns, punctuated the day, as did opportunities for people to gather in small groups to pray over a number of topics spanning from the personal to the public.

The first speaker of the afternoon was Kevin Adams, founding pastor of Granite Springs CRC in Lincoln, Calf., who is also an author and seminary teacher.

His topic was praying the Psalms, and he told of occasions in which he has relied on these time-tested prayers of joy, anger, suffering, and lament in his ministry.

For example, there was a time right after Christmas when, bone-weary from hectic activity, he was asked to visit a grandmother and her daughter whose child had just died at the age of three months,

“What devotional do you turn to when you are faced with this?” he asked.

He turned to Psalm 23, which he recited at the summit, highlighting the powerful phrases that speak of  being led “beside still waters” and walking with God “through the valley of the shadow of death” and how God is with us “all the days of our lives.”

He also spoke of praying this psalm along with a man named Jimmy, who had suffered in the aftermath of a severe stroke for years before nearing the end of his life.

Although Jimmy usually had a hard time carrying on a conversation, he said the psalm right along with Adams in the final moments of his life.

“Somehow Jesus is formed in us when we speak the psalms,” said Adams. “In the psalms Jesus speaks our agony, and we speak God’s glory.”

During the evening session, a panel of church leaders from Spirit and Truth Fellowship in Philadelphia, Pa., a CRC congregation that has spun off five church plants and other assorted ministries, spoke about the recent passing of their founding pastor, Manny Ortiz, who had been scheduled to talk at the summit.

The leaders discussed how Ortiz was a humble man who was always seeking to find, train, and send out new pastors to spread the gospel, whether it be in their Philadelphia neighborhood or elsewhere.

Mario Pagan, an elder at one of the church plants, said he had been lost in the drug world until he encountered Ortiz and Spirit and Truth.

“Here I am because of him. I was saved and lifted up,” he said.

Matt Lin, now the pastor of a church plant meeting in a house, said Ortiz saw something in him before he saw it himself. “He took an interest in me when I wasn’t sure what God’s will was for my life,” he said.

Michelle Kool, pastor at Covenant CRC in Edmonton, Alta., then spoke about how the idea of holding regional prayer summits has taken hold in Alberta over the past few years, and of how the most recent regional summit there took place on the same day in CRC congregations across the province.

“We have seen the ministry of prayer built up in all of the churches,” she said. “Churches are praying more intentionally for other people.”

The final speaker of the night was Reggie Smith, the newly named director for the offices of Race Relations and Social Justice for the CRC.

His focus was on unity, based on Psalm 133, which says, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe.”

“David is trying to give us a picture of what it is like for brothers and sisters to walk together and go to worship,” said Smith. “David is showing a picture of how good it is for brothers and sisters to live in unity.”

In our world today, we face great division. Racial violence is evident, wars are going on, political and social strife is rampant, and even brothers and sisters in churches aren’t necessarily getting along, said Smith.

In the midst of this, many of us try to find ways to change the world. We take on causes; we fight for what we see as right. We want to be saviors; we want to be in control of all of the chaos, he said.

But, said Smith, like David, we are called to submit to the will of God. David knew he couldn’t save himself.

“We need to give up trying to control. We need to stop trying to be saviors,” he said. “God is taking us somewhere, but we can’t tell God where we should go.”

Even though we are living in a time of division and uncertainty, we need to remember it is God’s grace “that falls like rain on us.” It is his grace, coming without any of us deserving it, that matters, said Smith.

“We need to remember, despite how hard things are, that we are a miracle,” said Smith.

As miracles, we ought to take pleasure in the journey we are on.

“Why don’t we adopt a pilgrim’s mentality of traveling with God where he leads us and acting like we are contagious miracles—and spread that around?

“Maybe in order to bring unity, it is not about activism, but about submitting. Only God can make a community. You and I cannot do this on our own.”