Organic Faith

The prayers that remain...

At the end of our Mission Trip to Chicago, Organic Faith held our own Sunday morning worship service.   During the service we each wrote an annoymous prayer. Below you'll find all of those prayers.  Reading and praying through them gives a small picture of our Chicago adventure; it reveals what we took away from the trip.  Let us pray...

 

Dear God, Dear Almighty, Dear Alpha and Omega,

I don’t know what to call you of if you are a you. But there is some understanding force that cannot be seen but somehow holds the world together. Through this force, I am able to look and live in the world without scales on my eyes. And for that I am eternally grateful.

Dear Lord,

Help me to keep what I saw and learned on this trip close to me once we leave, so that it may act as a constant reminder to how good I have it and guide me down a path with which I can look back upon with no regrets.

We pray for Vincent. That the world can learn something from him; that we are all people. We also pray for the removal of demons that stop us from being the friendly people we could be. Jesus be with us as we travel into our communities and help us to use what we learned here for the world.

Heavenly and Gracious God,

Thank you for Nate, Chris, Justin, Shelly, Andy, Jessica, and Hammy, and all of their gifts and talents.

God,

Thank you.  Sometimes I feel like I don’t “get it”. The feeling of hope that comes with helping another person always overpowers any feeling of being lost or not “getting it”. Thank you, I love you.

To continue to find ways to step out of my comfort zone, for patience

I pray for Denise and Sue and Vincent, for the needy people we met, and those we didn’t meet. I pray for my own brokenness, that I might be healed. I pray for all the people on this trip, that they might be guided by your love. I thank you for your grace, and knowing that it means that you love us for who we are, not who we could be.

Hey God,

Thank you sooo much for giving me the chance to be your hands on this trip, to help your people. I also thank you for the people sitting here in this circle, please be with them as we part ways later tonight. I hope they has as much as a great experience as I had. Please be with Vincent as well as the guys at the REST shelter, let them get their break. Thank you again for everything you’ve given me.

Gracious God,

Thanks for bringing communities together throughout history. Thanks for this community and for your presence among us throughout the entire trip. Send your Holy Spirit here. May the story we’ve all begun together be only the beginning. Keep us in loving support of each other and move us to see beyond ourselves              AMEN

 

Soul Cafe 5: Contemplation

Join us this Tuesday (8/3/10) for our 5th Soul Cafe!  The topic this month is Contemplation.  Come ready to share a reflection on contemplation in whatever way is meaningful for you: through song, poem, story, artwork, whatever!   Bring friends, bring thoughts, see you Tuesday!

Here's the Flyer (Click to Enlarge)

Prayer Team

As I mentioned in the last point about our Organic Faith Think Tank meeting we are looking into creating a greater commitment to prayer in Organic Faith.  

This is our current plan on this front.  A group of us have begun to meet as a prayer team with our current mission being to write everyone in Organic Faith a letter.  These personalized letters are going to be sent (hopefully later this week) and will include a specific prayer personally chosen or written for each individual.  The hope is to simply invite each member of our community to begin focusing on prayer a little more.  As we continue to grow as a community we believe that we will only go as far as God takes us; the same goes for our own personal lives of faith.  These letters serve as an invitation to each person to embrace this community of prayer that we are forming.  

If you’d like to join us, even if you aren’t currently a part of Organic Faith, please email <nate.preisinger@gmail.com> and we will be sure to write you a prayer letter.  

Updates from the Think Tank

Last night, Organic Faith held it’s first ever Think Tank.  This gathering was designed to create a space where a team of people could get together and dream and plan together where Organic Faith might be going.  Thanks to our Soul Cafe gatherings, we had some extra tea and coffee lying around for the Think Tank to share as we envisioned together the future of Organic Faith.

We began the evening by simply praying and listening.  We asked for the Holy Spirit to lead and then waited until one of us was struck with inspiration.  After two and a half hours of Spirit lead inspiration we had some neat ideas and new convictions moving forward with Organic Faith.  

First, we want to become a community that is more committed to prayer.  We want to pray together more often, be people who are not afraid to ask for prayer, and encourage one another by writing and sharing prayers together.  In addition to this new ideas we also hope to implement in the near future a Monday morning and Friday evening prayer gathering as a way to frame our entire work-week around conversation with God. 

Second, we are going to hold another day of generosity at Bidwell Park.  We all agreed that we hope to share the gift of community that we have with others and what better way to do this then by having a party in the middle of Buffalo.  More information on this generosity day will be coming soon. 

Finally, we hope that Organic Faith can become a community that affirms the Arts.  We believe that artwork (be it poetry, music, painting, or something more off the radar such as event planning) in all forms is to be celebrated and affirmed simply because art is a sign of life and a reminder of the Resurrection.  We hope to become a community that is consistently creating and sharing these gifts with the world.  

So, there’s your recap of Think Tank #1, please feel free to join us next month as we continue to pray and vision where God might be leading us.  Our next Organic Faith Think Tank will be June 6th.