| God Is Moving At Relevant |
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Three years ago, Pastor Nelson Foster went to Ankeny, Iowa, just
outside of Des Moines. For a year, he used the Chapel on the
nearby Military Base in planting his new church. The security
measures at the base presented problems for visitors, so growth
was slow.
After the church had grown to about fifty in attendance, Pastor
Nelson noted that his somewhat traditional congregation was
going through the motions, faithfully showing up for church three
times a week, but not emotionally or spiritual engaged.
How It Began
Just before the General Assembly last year, he showed the first
three segments of the "Transforming Your Church into a House of
Prayer" DVD series put out by Alive Ministries: PROJECT PRAY. He
recalls, "Something happened. The people began to see prayer in
a new way."
Then in January of 2009, he announced that he was changing the
format of the Sunday night service from a preaching service to a
prayer service. He met with some opposition at first, but he
persisted. On that first evening, at the 5 pm prayer time, he
showed the bonus segment out of the "Prayer - the Heartbeat of
the Church" DVD series on the birth of the Church of God. He
challenged his church to give themselves to prayer. It was as if
some fountain opened up. Indifferent prayer became passionate.
The first prayer service lasted two-and-a-half hours. Some prayer
services are now lasting four hours, not by design, but by
demand. "The people at times, refuse to leave. They are basking
in the quiet presence of God."
How It is Progressing
Following the prayer times, members have been making their way
to Pastor Nelson and confessing their sins. Brokenness before God
is occurring. A new sensitivity to His holiness is taking place.
Following the confessions, the pastor is noticing a new freedom in
worship. And not only that, miracles and answers to prayer are
now abounding. Before prayer requests were plentiful and answers
seemed rare.
A widow, the mother of one of the elders tested positive to breast
cancer. She did not attend the church, but the church interceded
for her. Pastor Nelson recalled, "We prayed for her after the
general prayer time on Sunday evening as we gathered around the
altar and mentioned needs. It was between 6:30 and 7:00 pm,
well into the prayer meeting. Simultaneously, she was sitting at
home. She reported to her family later that night that she had a
strange and very physical experience, as if someone reached
inside her body and began to rotate the golf-ball sized malignant
tumor. And then it was as if the tumor began to unravel like a ball
of string, like it was being pulled out of her." She is now cancer
free!
More than 100 prayer cloths have been carried away from the
prayer meetings to people in the community, and answers to
prayer are multiplying. Pastor Nelson exclaimed, "I have never
seen anything like this!" On one evening, the Holy Spirit spoke to
the congregation and declared, "I am here because you want me
to be here!" God is working in the lives to people and things the
pastor had attempting to get people motivated to do are
happening naturally now. Some are carrying food to the poor. Two
ladies out of the women's ministry have started a ministry at the
YWCA. Ministries are being birthed spontaneously, out of these
prayer experiences.
Pastor Foster says, without any desire to be bizarre, that the
small bottle of oil used for anointing cloths and people should
have run dry weeks ago, but every week there appears to be a bit
more oil in the vial - a sign?
The Impact
A visitor showed up last week just to report that four prayer
clothes she had received from people in the church had resulted in
answered prayer. She is not the only visitor. The small church is
beginning to experience a steady stream of visitors. Five teens
have been saved. One has parents who are not saved. The mother
of that teen announced to her daughter in the last few weeks,
that she and the teen's dad were going to stop drinking. The teen
came home and found her Bible missing. When she located it, her
Mom had been reading it. One of the fathers in the church family
needed a job. They prayed. Two days later, he had the job.
Another man, not a Pentecostal, had been diagnosed as
terminally ill, with six months to live. The church prayed and sent
him a prayer cloth. He didn't completely understand. Soon
thereafter, he ended up in the Emergency Room. The doctors
found both his liver and pancreas to be clear - a miracle. They
treated his blood pressure and sugar, and released him. He is
claiming a miracle. One woman, who had complications as a result
of a previous surgery found herself in unbearable pain. She was
deathly sick. She was nauseous, her body reacting violently,
without a remedy. Her husband said her illness persisted for
almost five hours. He cried out to God and that is when he heard -
by the spirit - another woman, an intercessor in the church,
praying in the spirit. The sick spell was immediately broken.
Pastor Foster says, "People get lost in the Spirit. Much of the
prayer time is simply music playing softly. Some walk. Some
kneel. Some lay before the Lord. Some pray aloud, some softly.
There is no rush." The whole congregation seems to be moving
from "having church services" to "experiencing God." Indeed, the
pastor reports that the prayer service is now affecting all other
services. Teens are attending along with children. "I don't want
our children to be entertained. I want them to experience God -
and that is happening." Pastor Foster's own daughter had a
powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit.
The Prayer Service Format
As people gather for the prayer times, Pastor Foster calls them to
order. He shares briefly, including any emergency needs or
offering a focus for prayer. There is no long litany of typical prayer
requests. Then, the people are released to pray. Most stay in the
sanctuary. Some may fan out to an annex or Sunday School
rooms. Praise music plays softly. Then Pastor Foster, after an hour
or so of prayer, calls the people back together. They pray for
specific needs. They anoint with oil. They pray over prayer cloths.
Recently, some prayer times have gone for four hours. "The
people don't want to leave. They are hungry for the presence of
God. Prayer has changed them. It has changed our church." At the
close of every gathering, Pastor Foster quotes Hebrews 13:20-21
(nlt), "Now may the God of peace who brought up from the dead
our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an
eternal covenant with His blood, May he equip you with all you
need for doing His will. May He produce in you, through the power
of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All glory
to Him forever and ever! Amen."
Pastor Foster says that the prayer gathering has changed him as
well. He drives a School Bus. And that is no longer a job, it is a
mission. He admits, "At times I have to fight to control myself to
keep from breaking out in prayer for these kids and their families,
or even weeping for them." The church is praying over the city of
Des Moines, asking for a city-wide revival.
There could be something to this thing called prayer!
To contact Pastor Foster, use the following email:
nelsonfoster@ymail.com
outside of Des Moines. For a year, he used the Chapel on the
nearby Military Base in planting his new church. The security
measures at the base presented problems for visitors, so growth
was slow.
After the church had grown to about fifty in attendance, Pastor
Nelson noted that his somewhat traditional congregation was
going through the motions, faithfully showing up for church three
times a week, but not emotionally or spiritual engaged.
How It Began
Just before the General Assembly last year, he showed the first
three segments of the "Transforming Your Church into a House of
Prayer" DVD series put out by Alive Ministries: PROJECT PRAY. He
recalls, "Something happened. The people began to see prayer in
a new way."
Then in January of 2009, he announced that he was changing the
format of the Sunday night service from a preaching service to a
prayer service. He met with some opposition at first, but he
persisted. On that first evening, at the 5 pm prayer time, he
showed the bonus segment out of the "Prayer - the Heartbeat of
the Church" DVD series on the birth of the Church of God. He
challenged his church to give themselves to prayer. It was as if
some fountain opened up. Indifferent prayer became passionate.
The first prayer service lasted two-and-a-half hours. Some prayer
services are now lasting four hours, not by design, but by
demand. "The people at times, refuse to leave. They are basking
in the quiet presence of God."
How It is Progressing
Following the prayer times, members have been making their way
to Pastor Nelson and confessing their sins. Brokenness before God
is occurring. A new sensitivity to His holiness is taking place.
Following the confessions, the pastor is noticing a new freedom in
worship. And not only that, miracles and answers to prayer are
now abounding. Before prayer requests were plentiful and answers
seemed rare.
A widow, the mother of one of the elders tested positive to breast
cancer. She did not attend the church, but the church interceded
for her. Pastor Nelson recalled, "We prayed for her after the
general prayer time on Sunday evening as we gathered around the
altar and mentioned needs. It was between 6:30 and 7:00 pm,
well into the prayer meeting. Simultaneously, she was sitting at
home. She reported to her family later that night that she had a
strange and very physical experience, as if someone reached
inside her body and began to rotate the golf-ball sized malignant
tumor. And then it was as if the tumor began to unravel like a ball
of string, like it was being pulled out of her." She is now cancer
free!
More than 100 prayer cloths have been carried away from the
prayer meetings to people in the community, and answers to
prayer are multiplying. Pastor Nelson exclaimed, "I have never
seen anything like this!" On one evening, the Holy Spirit spoke to
the congregation and declared, "I am here because you want me
to be here!" God is working in the lives to people and things the
pastor had attempting to get people motivated to do are
happening naturally now. Some are carrying food to the poor. Two
ladies out of the women's ministry have started a ministry at the
YWCA. Ministries are being birthed spontaneously, out of these
prayer experiences.
Pastor Foster says, without any desire to be bizarre, that the
small bottle of oil used for anointing cloths and people should
have run dry weeks ago, but every week there appears to be a bit
more oil in the vial - a sign?
The Impact
A visitor showed up last week just to report that four prayer
clothes she had received from people in the church had resulted in
answered prayer. She is not the only visitor. The small church is
beginning to experience a steady stream of visitors. Five teens
have been saved. One has parents who are not saved. The mother
of that teen announced to her daughter in the last few weeks,
that she and the teen's dad were going to stop drinking. The teen
came home and found her Bible missing. When she located it, her
Mom had been reading it. One of the fathers in the church family
needed a job. They prayed. Two days later, he had the job.
Another man, not a Pentecostal, had been diagnosed as
terminally ill, with six months to live. The church prayed and sent
him a prayer cloth. He didn't completely understand. Soon
thereafter, he ended up in the Emergency Room. The doctors
found both his liver and pancreas to be clear - a miracle. They
treated his blood pressure and sugar, and released him. He is
claiming a miracle. One woman, who had complications as a result
of a previous surgery found herself in unbearable pain. She was
deathly sick. She was nauseous, her body reacting violently,
without a remedy. Her husband said her illness persisted for
almost five hours. He cried out to God and that is when he heard -
by the spirit - another woman, an intercessor in the church,
praying in the spirit. The sick spell was immediately broken.
Pastor Foster says, "People get lost in the Spirit. Much of the
prayer time is simply music playing softly. Some walk. Some
kneel. Some lay before the Lord. Some pray aloud, some softly.
There is no rush." The whole congregation seems to be moving
from "having church services" to "experiencing God." Indeed, the
pastor reports that the prayer service is now affecting all other
services. Teens are attending along with children. "I don't want
our children to be entertained. I want them to experience God -
and that is happening." Pastor Foster's own daughter had a
powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit.
The Prayer Service Format
As people gather for the prayer times, Pastor Foster calls them to
order. He shares briefly, including any emergency needs or
offering a focus for prayer. There is no long litany of typical prayer
requests. Then, the people are released to pray. Most stay in the
sanctuary. Some may fan out to an annex or Sunday School
rooms. Praise music plays softly. Then Pastor Foster, after an hour
or so of prayer, calls the people back together. They pray for
specific needs. They anoint with oil. They pray over prayer cloths.
Recently, some prayer times have gone for four hours. "The
people don't want to leave. They are hungry for the presence of
God. Prayer has changed them. It has changed our church." At the
close of every gathering, Pastor Foster quotes Hebrews 13:20-21
(nlt), "Now may the God of peace who brought up from the dead
our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an
eternal covenant with His blood, May he equip you with all you
need for doing His will. May He produce in you, through the power
of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All glory
to Him forever and ever! Amen."
Pastor Foster says that the prayer gathering has changed him as
well. He drives a School Bus. And that is no longer a job, it is a
mission. He admits, "At times I have to fight to control myself to
keep from breaking out in prayer for these kids and their families,
or even weeping for them." The church is praying over the city of
Des Moines, asking for a city-wide revival.
There could be something to this thing called prayer!
To contact Pastor Foster, use the following email:
nelsonfoster@ymail.com