Happy New Year, and God's grace and courage to you all for 2012.
As elders, we've felt the Lord urge us to call the whole community to a three day fast in January.
We believe that God wants to bring us all to attention, readying ourselves for what He wants to say and do.

I spoke towards the end of last year about fasting as sacrament rather than ritual.
The fast that Jesus called his disciples to was different from the fasting of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees fasted to try and impress God and people.
Jesus called his disciples to fast like a bride already chosen and
loved by the bridegroom but longing for her wedding day.
"But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them and on that day they will fast." (Mark 2:20)
God wants us to fast with anticipation and longing for Jesus' presence, voice and work in our lives, and the life of our church, cities and nation.

Fasting essentially, is denying our bodies of food so that we can feast on Jesus.
There is so much that distracts us from Him, and this is a time to come together and give Him undistracted attention.
There is something even more potent about a community that fasts together, united in faith, focus and prayer.
I believe God will do great things among us.

We will begin our fast on Wednesday January 11th,
and break it on Friday January 13th after our final meeting together.
 -We will meet each night of the fast -
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 630pm for an hour of worship and prayer around
God's presence, power, and commission for us as disciple making disciples.

There are a few options for how you may want to fast, according to your health and levels of self-control.
Either a Daniel fast which is just fruit and veggies, or a soup fast, or juice,
or even just water for the hard core among us!
We are urging each one of you to join us next week as we seek God together.

For the Team,
Alan