Analysis...continued

Before I go further, let me say what I probably should have already said. Simply, my purpose here is not to criticize or blame people, but to help bring clarity to the current state of the church of which I am a part. In the process, I hope to gain a better understanding of who we are, how we got to where we are and where we want to go. My hope is that this series of postings will encourage dialogue, especially from those of FCOBSC who may be reading. Of course, I also welcome comments from others who may have thoughts or insights as I believe the general topic of discussion is universal in nature as far as the church at large is concerned.

In continuing with the analysis, I would like to make mention of some of the other things the church has done over the years.

In early 2008 our pastor shared a vision for encompassing the community in prayer. In the following months we spent time on Sunday afternoons (weather permitting) prayerwalking the neighborhoods closest to the church with a small group of people. We covered quite a bit of territory, but found that walking every neighborhood of a city 42 square miles in size would take a long time. The pastor therefore suggested we concentrate on surrounding the city in prayer, basically by prayerwalking its perimeter as best we could, a few blocks at a time. Our prayers ranged from salvation and spiritual growth, to the blessing of marriages and the protection of children. We prayed that hearts would be softened and that people would hear the Lord's voice speaking to them. We prayed for people to have a hunger and thirst for Almighty God and that they would be unsatisfied until those needs were met by Him alone. We've yet to complete this mission, largely due to other church functions on Sundays, but we did manage to cover sizeable areas in Torrington's west and south ends.

As a part of our weekly bible study group we've done a few studies over the years with the use of books and other resources, including a "What We Believe" course put out by Open Bible Churches, "The Purpose-Driven Life" by Rick Warren and "Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyer. We also watched a DVD series- "Way of the Master" with Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron, in which they help viewers to share the gospel with others.

We'll continue in the next post as I share some observations.