PRAYER UNITED ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL CHURCHES

PRAYER UNITED

ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL CHURCHES                                                    

30 July 2012

Dear Church Leaders, Pastors and Friends,

            Warmest greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

We are happy to respectfully inform you that on 5 July 2012, in a historic moment for the Protestant churches in Malaysia, nineteen (19) church and prayer leaders met at the office of the Methodist Church in Malaysia, Petaling Jaya.  They came from all over the country, representing most of the major prayer networks in the country, including those of NECF and CCM, and also denominational and regional Pastors’/Ministers’ Fellowships. All came at short notice but with prepared hearts and minds, as each had been burdened with an urgent sense of the Lord’s call for united prayer for the church and nation.

During the dialogue, various participants shared their concerns. There was general agreement that the country is facing many critical issues and the Malaysian Church needs to come together in prayer. And it was noted that, if the Church is to play a significant role in national transformation, we must take seriously the call to live as a holy people, to strive for genuine unity, and to pour our hearts out in prayer for our nation!

The meeting was marked by a great sense of unity and hope, as well as much joy in every heart over the common desire for a united prayer initiative to bring the whole church together to seek God’s blessing for our country. We believe that through such an expression of unity and love for one another (Ephesians 4:1-6) Christ would be truly glorified. We praise and thank God for giving us this unity of the Spirit in the first place!

We therefore would like humbly to invite all the churches and Christians in this country to join with us in a common prayer platform for the nation. We do this in response to God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (NIV):

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

This united platform will be called PRAYER UNITED and its terms of reference are:

THE VISION

·               All Christians, churches and prayer networks in Malaysia coming together to pray for the church and our nation.

THE PURPOSE

·               The first purpose is to set up a united prayer movement for the whole church to coordinate prayer and to enhance unity among Christians.

·               The second purpose is to challenge the whole church to pray together for the transformation of society and nation. In particular, the focus will be on the two up-coming key national events, namely, the National Jubilee Celebration, beginning on 16 Sept, 2012, the upcoming General Elections, GE13.

THE OBJECTIVES

The following are the objectives of PRAYER UNITED:

·            To identify key strategic issues for prayer, and to communicate these clearly and quickly to all prayer networks and churches.

·                   To serve as a link for all those involved in prayer in our churches, including both those in NECF and CCM, and to coordinate our efforts to ensure that our prayers are united in purpose and focus.

·               To challenge the church to pray for God’s special blessings upon our nation in the Jubilee Year (Lev 25: 10-12), the 50^th Year of the formation of our nation, so that it will usher in a new season of peace, prosperity, freedom and justice for our land.

·               To call on the church to pray that the up-coming General Election, GE13, will be carried out peacefully and with integrity, and that those elected will be honest and able men and women, who sincerely have the country’s true and long-term interest in their hearts.

THE WAY FORWARD

1.              The work of PRAYER UNITED will be coordinated for the moment by an Interim Committee, with representations from all major prayer networks present at the meeting on 5 July, 2012. This committee will function until after the Jubilee Celebrations and GE13, when the present set up will then be reviewed.

2.              All communications from PRAYER UNITED will be coordinated by the two Joint-Secretaries, Ms Chrisanne Chin and Rev Andy Chi, who are respectively in charge of the prayer ministries of CCM and NECF.

3.              All communication released would be made available in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese and Tamil for dissemination to churches.

We look to you to join us in this spiritual venture of prayer so that all of us will see the Lord’s blessings poured out upon our nation, bringing about a powerful transformation for the good and well-being of all citizens in our land. May our prayers and our lives serve to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, even as we pray: ‘Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!’  Let us humbly seek God together to ask Him to reveal His glory in Malaysia in our day. Let us also ask Him for grace that we may fulfil His purpose for His church and nation in our generation. May His name be praised and glorified exceedingly in every way!

Blessings in Christ,

The Interim Committee, PRAYER UNITED,

1.     Bishop Hwa Yung (Chairman; Methodist)

2.     Rev Andy Chi (Joint-Secretary; NECF)

3.     Chrisanne Chin (Joint-Secretary; CCM & 24-7 Prayer)

4.     Ps Steven Choon (Kota Kinabalu Pastors’ Fellowship)

5.     Rev Ann Low (MNPN)

6.     Rev Teo Kwee Keng (Assemblies of God)

7.     Dr Wong Tik Wah (Methodist)

8.     Nelson Kee (Sarawak Ministers’ Fellowship)

9.     Ps Ng Teng Huat (Temporary Rep., Penang Ministers’ Fellowship)