WHEN WE ASKED WHAT WE SHOULD FOCUS ON IN 2025, GOD SAID ‘PRAY!’

Greetings, Shore Vineyard. 
When our staff team got together last November to project forward into the new year, the key area we agreed that we needed to embrace in 2025 was prayer.
We talked ministry prayer. We talked intercessory prayer. We talked Holy Spirit activity. We talked getting back to our Vineyard roots. We talked about a focus that would include the whole church, including children and youth.
Which is why I'm excited that this Sunday we are introducing a two-month prayer series, A Time to Pray.
This series will unfold in three distinct chapters:
Chapter 1: A church-wide embracing of the 24-7 Prayer Course, starting with our 10am service this Sunday and then for the next seven weeks going into our regular small groups and three new groups that are kicking off especially for this season.
Chapter 2: Ministry prayer focus, for four Sundays from May 18 to Pentecost Sunday on June 8, where we will learn and re-learn how to pray for each other and invite the powerful ministry of the Spirit.
Chapter 3: Pentecost prayer room in early June, where we transform the chapel into a 24-hour prayer space.
A Time to Pray will be an all-church event, with our children, Seek and youth all part of growing in prayer during this time as well.
We will send out information each week in this epistle, and also on our website news page, but for now the most important thing to know is that this Sunday we launch the Prayer Course in our service and then continue it in our small groups next week.
And that next Sunday, May 4, at 5pm, we are holding a ministry training workshop where we upskill and learn how to pray for people in Vineyard style. This will be a practical, hands-on gathering, so please join us (it would help if you email ministry@svc.org.nz so we know you're coming).
So whether you consider yourself a prayer expert, a novice, or anything in between, let's gather to learn, laugh and pray together, and see what God might be doing in our midst.
A reminder, too, that on Sunday we are having a family lunch after the service - where we all pitch in, fill a roll, that sort of thing. You don't need to bring anything, just come with a sense of connecting just like a family does.
And, finally and importantly, our Pastoral Recruitment Group is this week and next interviewing potential candidates for our next Senior Pastor. Another reason to pray!
Bless you all. What a privilege to do this together.

Vic Francis, Senior Pastor