This post is my Executive Director’s column in the latest issue of reNEWS, the PFR quarterly newsletter.

One of the things I most value about PFR is that our movement recognizes
that all renewal comes by the power of the Holy Spirit and is rooted in prayer.
Yet sometimes all of us need reminders!

Recently, while I was planning workshops for a Presbyterian
conference, I was trying to figure out what topics to cover. I had one workshop
planned on the report of the P.U.P. Task Force and another on PFR’s new video
on sexuality, Speaking A Mystery. While trying to figure out a third workshop,
my own pastor suggested I set aside 90 minutes for prayer for the PC(USA). I
was embarrassed that I hadn’t seriously considered that! You know what happened
at the conference? Tons of people showed up for the other two workshops, and
that was great, but only three people showed up for the time set aside for
prayer. Surely this is a sign of an illness!

Just as I needed to be reminded to keep prayer at the center of all that we do,
so too do I want to remind you to pray for the PC(USA), both for grassroots
spiritual renewal and for the renewal of our polity and theology, all of which
PFR’s ministries are striving for. We absolutely must be shaped by and grounded
in prayer.

As I ponder the future of our ministries and consider the future of our
movement in light of the upcoming General Assembly, I am reminded of the words
of John Calvin, who once wrote: “Whenever a controversy over religion arises
which ought to be settled by either a synod or an ecclesiastical court, whenever
any difficult matter of great importance is to be discussed, it is appropriate
that pastors urge the people to public fasting and extraordinary prayers.”
(Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.12.14)

And so I urge you to extraordinary prayer and public fasting—beseeching God to
be merciful to the PC(USA), granting us a time of renewal. Along with numerous
others, I commit to praying each day and joining prayer with fasting one day a
week. Please join us! Let us know if you are able and willing to commit to this
endeavor, and please send us your thoughts and prayers, by sending an email to
prayer@pfrenewal.org. And check my “Reflections For Renewal” section at
www.pfrenewal.org for updated prayer suggestions. Without prayer our movement
will be stagnant. With prayer and faith we can move mountains.