Yes, the Church of the Nazarene is a church that prays! In 2022, starting in January and ending on Pentecost Sunday, the Church of the Nazarene in Canada and the United States came together in prayer like no other time in our history. A half-million Nazarenes were mobilized to pray for the protection, direction, and revelation of the church. We called this initiative the Half-Million Mobilization.
From May 1 to Pentecost Sunday in 2022, churches from across the United States and Canada followed along in a prayer journal with daily devotional reflections. When the pictures began to come in, they included pastors and congregations from churches large and small, gathering in prayer for their people and for the Church of the Nazarene. There has been a great move of the Spirit unifying the church in its most basic function—to pray.
In addition to the call to prayer, there was a call to speak, an opportunity for clergy and laypeople to fill in a prayer response survey and communicate what the Spirit was telling them regarding their time in prayer. Those prayer responses contained a remarkable consistency from the very first group of senior leaders praying in January to the laity praying through Pentecost. There emerged four imperatives for the Nazarene church in the USA/Canada Region:
- The importance of “mobilizing all Nazarenes in unity” in the midst of a polarized world.
- The calling of our churches to engage in “blessing our communities;” to get out from behind our walls to be salt and light in our culture.
- A passion for “bringing people to Jesus,” especially younger generations.
- A longing for the transformation of the whole person, “becoming Christlike disciples” mobilized to make a holy, positive impact in our world.
As the work of discovering the future mission, vision, and strategies for the Church of the Nazarene in the USA/Canada Region continues, all of the work will be grounded in prayer. John Wesley wrote, “God does nothing but by prayer, and everything with it.” This idea is what guides this year’s Half-Million Mobilization Prayer Journal.
The vision statement for the Church of the Nazarene’s USA/Canada Region is as follows:
Mobilizing all Nazarenes in unity
Blessing our communities
Bringing people to Jesus
Becoming Christlike disciples
This prayer journal contains weekly themes related to the mission of the church and the elements of this vision statement. We will pray From Mission to Vision to Mobilization from Easter to Pentecost.
Come and join in! Read and pray daily following this Prayer Journal.
—Jeff Alexander Director of Strategy, USA/Canada Region
