Pastor Kurt's Blog » Prayer

Da-da! Help!

PastorKurt — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:49:51 +0000

During a time of prayer in one of our recent Life Groups, a young woman who had recently become a Christian shared, “I don’t really know how to pray. I don’t know what to say.”

Have you ever felt like that?

God doesn’t need us to speak to Him in fancy words. He loves it when we call out to Him.

My 6 month old daughter started saying “Da-da” recently. Let me tell, it melted this daddy’s heart. I didn’t correct her pronunciation, or rebuke her for not being eloquent enough. No, I was thrilled. Those two little syllables got my attention because they came from my precious daughter! One word from her, and I’ll give her anything she needs!

John Wimber used to say that one of his favorite prayers was, “HELP!” Been there, done that.

If it comes from the heart, our heavenly Father hears. A few simple words touch His heart. He’s a proud Papa, who loves us dearly. He understands our weaknesses.

As we grow in our relationship with God, we’ll probably start sounding a little more “grown-up” when we pray. Just know that wherever we are in our walk with God, it delights Him whenever open our hearts to Him in prayer.

Wanted: Laborers for the Harvest

PastorKurt — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:37:15 +0000

Renaissance Church is a new church plant in Charlotte, NC.

We are looking for teammates – like-minded people who are ready for an adventure of eternal significance.

God is doing something so exciting – changing hearts and transforming lives of people who have been far from God.

But we need teammates to help us. We especially need Christians (families or singles) who want to roll up your sleeves and help us in this work. Looking for an outlet to serve and make a real difference? Please keep reading.

[ Note: if you are happily serving in another church, please stay right where you are. But if you are between churches, or desiring something different, please keep reading and prayerfully consider joining us in this God-ordained mission. ]

Here are a few things that make us unique:
(lots more info on our website)

We are a cell church. We value meeting in both large Sunday celebrations and weekly home-based small group meetings.

We are multi-ethnic and multi-cultural.

We are outward focused.

We are Spirit-filled and Spirit-led.

We are Biblically grounded.

We greatly value worship and prayer.

We believe in training and empowering leaders.

(more on Who We Are and our Core Values)

We are located in south Charlotte. The areas we are reaching include the South Blvd. and I-77 corridor, Pineville, Ballantyne, etc.

Interested? Call me (Pastor Kurt) at (704) 341-4688 with any questions. I’d love to hear from you.

We are currently meeting on Sunday mornings at 11:00 am for training and as a “pilot” cell group.

Why pray ALL NIGHT?

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:46:15 +0000

It’s that time of the month again! Time for all-night prayer.

Renaissance Church is fueled by prayer. Why?
– Because we are interested in what GOD can do, not what we can do in our own strength.
– Because we believe God wants to work though us, so we need to be intimate with Him and fully yielded to Him.
– Because we minister out of the overflow of what God is doing in our own lives.
– Because God answers prayer!
– Because we can’t think of a better way to spend 7 hours than in God’s presence, helping to change the world for the better.
– Because this world is hungry for the Real Love, Real Power, and Real Change – that only God can provide.

Report from camp – signs of God’s grace

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:43:37 +0000

The fun and excitement of our first Mega Sports Camp is over. What a week! God’s love touched 45 children and their parents. Several made decisions to follow Jesus Christ. And everyone had a lot of fun!

We received so much great feedback from the children and parents. This was just the beginning of what God wants to do in our neighborhoods in south Charlotte.

Thanks again to our wonderful friends at the Vietnamese Christian Assembly of God who helped us so much. And to our wonderful volunteers – Katie, Rod, Cindy, Chuck, and Gloria. This camp simply would not have happened without all of you.

Notice the double rainbow in the picture above? It seems almost every day of camp, the skies threatened rain. People would call every evening asking, “Are we having camp? It looks like it’s going to rain.” We were determine to have camp, even if it poured. But it never did. A couple of nights it sprinkled briefly, but each time we prayed that God would hold back the rain – at least over Archdale park. And every night camp went off without a hitch. The double rainbow seems like a visual confirmation of God’s blessing on our efforts. After all, Jesus told us, “Whoever welcomes a little child in my name, welcomes me.”

Click the link below to see all the photos from camp on our Renaissance Church facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=91017415714&view=user#/photo_search.php?oid=91017415714&view=all

All-night prayer tonight!

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:15:16 +0000

We’re looking forward to our monthly all-night prayer meeting tonight. We’re going to have some youth from the Vietnamese Christian Assembly of God visiting tonight. They are partnering with Renaissance to do a sports-themed VBS in August as an outreach to the community.

We’re going to pray for the VBS, and then Saturday, the youth will help us spread the word for the VBS by passing out fliers in strategic neighborhoods.

Post-prayer pensées

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:48:00 +0000

We had a great all-night prayer meeting last weekend. Attendance was
good, but most importantly, God showed up. Man, long prayer meetings
are like torture if God isn’t there! But this one was just the
opposite. People were worshipping and praying passionately. Those of
us who stayed to the very end (4am) finished strong, thanking God for
allowing us to partner with Him to change the world.

Seeing the Scripture through new eyes

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:31:00 +0000

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 14:11-14

When we approach the Bible, we usually see it through a particular lens. Our lens is a certain way of seeing the world (and Scripture). Our lens is influenced by our past experiences, and things we have been taught by others. Sometimes that lens can get in the way of the truth.

What if we read the above Scripture without our lens?

What if we let Scripture inform our experience rather than letting our experience interpret Scripture?

What do you think Jesus meant when He said those words?

What are you going to do about it?

Faith like a child

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Isn’t this a great picture? My boys are interceding over a shower curtain. Well it IS a shower curtain, but it’s got a map of the world on it. My boys have a heart for the nations of the world, and they pray for them daily.

Over a year ago, Bryan adopted Brazil as “his” country. He kept talking about wanting to go preach in Brazil. As parents, Marla and I thought it was just a passing interest. But he wouldn’t let it go. He had to preach in Brazil.

We tested his sincerity by arranging for Portuguese lessons. He loved them. He worked hard towards his goal of being able to stand on a stage (“there has to be a stage, daddy!”) and tell people in Brazil about Jesus. There was only one problem – we didn’t know a soul in Brazil. But this was clearly God, so we figured He would make a way.

And He did. Doors opened, and last summer we went to Brazil. Bryan and Steven both preached about Jesus in some short Portuguese phrases – from the stage. And, wow, did God move!

If you want to see the report from our trip in pdf form, click here.

Living with courage

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:31:00 +0000

I was reading Acts 4 yesterday. Or perhaps I should say it was reading me. It’s one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, so I read it a lot. But it always challenges me to the core.

Here’s the situation. Peter and John were boldly preaching the Word of God. And God was moving. People were repenting and getting saved. Some were getting healed, including a man crippled from birth. It was awesome. Lives were being changed, and the Church was growing.

Not everyone was happy, however. A group of people including the priests and the Sadducees were most definitely not happy. They were “greatly disturbed” (Acts 4:2). They interrupted Peter and John while they were speaking to a crowd of people, and carted them off to jail. The next morning, the apostles were brought before a politically powerful assembly called the Sanhedrin, a group of people determined to put a stop to what Peter and John were doing.

Pretty intimidating stuff. These guys had the power to send Peter and John right back to that prison – for good. They had the power to inflict a rather vicious beating, if they felt like it. Peter and John remembered what had happened to Jesus just a few weeks ago. Now these powers-that-be were throwing angry questions at them. If Peter and John had any doubt as to the assembly’s disposition towards them, that night in jail made it abundantly clear.

So how did Peter and John respond? Did they backpedal? Try to “preserve unity”. Try to save their own behinds? No, they preached. Boldly. They stood for the truth that God had commanded them to proclaim.

I love the Sanhedrin’s reaction in verse 13: ”When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 NIV) That is so cool. There should be something different about a Christian. Being with Jesus changes us. It makes us… stand out. People notice. That’s when we get to smile and say, “It’s Jesus!”

The guys in the Sanhedrin were heard-headed, however. They said “Absolutely no more of this Jesus stuff – or else! Now get out!” (my paraphrase). So they let them go, but not without some serious threats.

If I’m Peter and John, this is where I would be tempted to go home, call an emergency team meeting, and start planning a significantly different strategy. Oh sure, we’d call it “progress” and put pretty language on it – “adapting to the culture” or something like that. We’d justify it. Someone would find a Scripture that we could take out of context to support our new plan. But the bottom line would be this: ”Gentleman, we are about to get significantly less bold. May I share with you again what that night in prison was like, or the looks on those Sadducees’ faces?!? They mean business. So we are going to have to keep this Jesus stuff on the down-low from now on.”

Only Peter and John didn’t do anything of the sort.

They called a team meeting all right, but here’s what they prayed. “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:29-30)

Great boldness?!? Boldness is what got them in trouble in the first place! They want more? Really?

God liked the prayer so much the building shook and they all got blasted by the Holy Spirit all over again… “and spoke the word of God boldly” (v.31)

I want to live with that kind of courage. I have received the same commission to preach the Gospel that Peter and John did. (And so have you.) God’s commission must be the driving force in my life. Not the reaction of other people.

If we are living like Jesus, John Wimber used to say, “You’ll either make ‘em glad or mad!” He’s exactly right. Jesus had this effect on people. Most people loved Him. But some hated him.

If we live with the love, passion, and holiness of Jesus – people are going to notice. Many will be positively influenced. They are your opportunity. But some will persecute you. Don’t blame me. Jesus told you first.

Acts 4 is a reality check for me. Am I causing a stir everywhere I go because Jesus is shining through? If not, it’s a good bet that at some point, when faced with that backlash that Jesus warned us about, I chose something other than courage.

God, enable your servants to live with great boldness and courage.