Every week pray for our Church Officers, Elders, all who lead worship, those who provide and show the PowerPoint and work the camera and microphones, those who provide music during times of worship, those who prepare the flowers and those who provide welcome and hospitality.

Prayer for Growth: God of Mission,  who alone brings growth to your church,  send your Holy Spirit to give vision to our planning, wisdom to our actions,  joy to our worship  and power to our witness.  Help our church to grow in numbers  and in spiritual commitment to you  and in service to our local community.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

To ponder: Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. (1 Thessalonians 2:7b-8, NIV)

• Give thanks for those who show the love of God in their work with the young and the old.
• Pray for Messy Church that takes place on Monday, 26th – for each of the families who attend and all the leaders and helpers.
• Lord, thank you for children, for their trust and dependence; for their sense of wonder; for their insight into truth which has escaped us; for their sheer enjoyment of living.

To ponder: To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7, NRSV)

• Give thanks for your fellow church goers. 
• Pray for everything that we can achieve working together that we could not do on our own.
• Living God, as nothing can divide us from your love in Jesus, so grant that nothing may divide your people from one another.

To ponder: They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig-tree, and no one will make them afraid (Micah 4:3b-4a, NIV)

• Gracious God when we remember past and present conflicts, we pray for the divided peoples of the world, that leaders, governments and each one of us may use our resources, our opportunities and our lives in the service of reconciliation for the sake of future generations.

To ponder: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2, NIV)

• Give thanks for all who work to promote safe practices in our churches and communities.
• Pray for our Safeguarding Coordinator, her deputy and the other members of the Safeguarding team in our church.
• God of protection, our place of safety and refuge, may your Church be a place where: power is used to serve, people find belonging, and love is made real in what we say and do. Teach us to love as you love, with love that protects, always. Amen

To ponder: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:31-32, NIV)

• Give thanks for all who serve the people in this community.
• Pray that you may see the needs of people around you and respond to them.
• Loving God, continue to shock us and challenge us through your living word.

To ponder: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13, NIV)

Prayer from Christian Aid

God of abounding hope, We watch and wait for you. Come to us to light our way. We pray for all those who hold on to hope in the most difficult of circumstances. We pray especially for our neighbours in Ethiopia, who have lost homes, farms and food to flooding. Kindly in us hope for a just world, your Kingdom come. Amen