Bethany Community Church

Things have changed quickly over the past few days, as we’ve gone from sleeping on top of the sheets with the windows up, to closing up the house and tossing a down comforter on the bed! Just as quickly, it seems, we who are on staff are looking back at what was already a very busy summer as a time of relative leisure, compared with the pace of things at Bethany right now. New services, new locations, lots of new volunteers, and new students returning all mark the beginning of a mission-critical ministry year for Bethany.

I’m praying for several things, and I’m happy that you’ll be praying with me for each matter:

1. Staff transitions. We’ll be welcoming our Director of Small Groups later this month (an announcement will be made this Sunday regarding the “who” of this position), and we are continuing to look for a Director of Missions. Both of these matters fall under the category of staffing, and I ask that you’ll be praying with me for the transition of our new staff member, and that God will guide us to the right staff member for Missions.

2. Along these lines, I’d like to emphasize how important it will be for Bethany’s future for us to grow in our intentionality to be like Jesus, “the Word becoming flesh” in neighborhoods, including the Aurora corridor, if we’re to be effective in building a community that testifies of Jesus’ power to knock down walls of division. Pray that God will pour out His spirit on our church so that we might be captured more fully by God’s heart for our neighbors and city.

3. Pray for the many ministries that are beginning this month, such as MOPS and College Student Ministries, as well as those that began during the second half of September and are still in their early stages, such as the Alpha Course. Pray that the many classes that are occurring would collectively be used by God to shape us as a community and that individual lives will be challenged and equipped.

4. Pray for Nancy Eckardt and me as we begin planning winter events related to creating a rule of life community within Bethany: a group committed to the disciplines of Bible reading, prayer, service, and generosity.

5. There are many in our community continuing to feel the effects of the difficult economy. Pray that people will find work, and that, equally important, all of us will be teachable regarding how best to steward our resources according to God’s purposes.

6. As always, pray for marriages, knowing that there are couples who are being robbed of genuine intimacy through wrong choices and roadblocks. Ask that God would bring them the help they need.

7. We’re praying for leaders, as we ponder who it is that God would want to be the ministry leader for our new work in West Seattle. Pray that God would give us clarity regarding this matter.

Finally, in these very opportune and challenging times, it’s vital that we who are shepherding the church be people who are serving out from intimacy and rest in Christ, rather than compulsion, ambition, fear, or longings for human approval. The habits that nurture intimacy are often, when things get busy, the first to go. May our Lord keep us near to Him in the midst of all that is unfolding.

Thanks for standing with me in prayer.

Richard Dahlstrom