Re-Planting a Church

by Sep 21, 2009

liholiho

Starting October 18, Harbor Church’s Sunday services will move from 5pm in Hawaii Kai to 10:15am at Liholiho School in Kaimuki. It’s only 15 minutes down the road, but it’s a big move for us. Easily the biggest transition in our short 4-year history. It feels almost like re-planting the church.

To prepare for this major transition, our church is praying strategically together. This week, we’re praying for God to prepare us for our expanded mission by shaping us into a true biblical family. Colossians 3 is an excellent passage for us to pray through:

9 You have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

From this passage, there are some specific things we can be praying:

  • To be renewed in God’s image (v. 10)
  • To have our identity defined by Christ more than any other earthly categories (v. 11)
  • To be so shaped by the Spirit that we display all the qualities listed in verse 12 (almost identical to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5)
  • To be forgiving and forbearing (which just means forgiving in advance) toward each other (v. 13)
  • To proactively put on love (v. 14) and seek peace (v. 15)
  • To have Christ’s word living inside us, to the point of overflowing (v. 16)
  • To do everything in the name (with the character) of Jesus (v. 17)

Would you join us in prayer?