Awakening: 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting

Brad Lomenick sits down with Stovall Weems, Lead Pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, FL. Celebration has started a collaborative fasting initiative, Awakening, that seeks to unite churches across the Body of Christ.

Talk about the Awakening initiative and why you feel it was important to launch?
As a church and within our staff and key leadership, we’ve experienced such tremendous momentum from doing this each year. We just know the results first hand from praying, fasting and seeking God like this at the onset of the year. From this has come our passion to inspire other pastors, churches and ministries to experience this for themselves and establish a culture of prayer and fasting in their own churches and ministries.

This is the second year of Awakening. What are some stories you’ve heard of the impact in churches over the last year?
Probably the most consistent feedback we’ve received from several churches has been that they’ve experienced a tremendous increase in salvations and baptisms as well as an increased level of participation in small groups, serving and giving. The spiritual awareness of the church just goes to the next level. Some have shared that their plans and goals for the upcoming year became so clear and sharp. Many new churches attributed prayer and fasting to a successful launch of their church and because they were so in tune with God, things took off quickly and their ministries thrived. Others have talked about the alignment that resulted in their staff and leadership teams. Shifts were needing to take place, and they got clear direction to make this happen. I could go on and on. Once you experience this as a staff, leadership and within your church, there’s just no going back.

There are over 1000 churches participating alongside you and Celebration Church. There seems to be a continual sense of collaboration with a number of initiatives over the past couple of years, including One Prayer, Hillsong United’s i-heart campaign, Healing Place Church’s Servolution Project, etc. Why is that?
There’s a great sense of unity coming to the body of Christ as a whole, and instead of looking at each other’s differences, we’re seeing a great passion to build up the local church. Many churches are pioneering new initiatives, and with today’s technology, it’s just smart to share those resources with each other. It’s an efficient, and effective way to advance the kingdom.

How can churches and leaders still get involved in Awakening this year?
Awakening is a season of prayer and fasting and it’s intentionally designed to be flexible. While we establish some specific dates, the goal is that we come together at the beginning of the year and set aside some time to pray, fast and seek God. Many churches are still joining in and will be fasting with us once a week, or twice a week and then ending with us in a 3 day fast. Some will be fasting the entire last week. www.awake21.org has several tools, tips and resources for pastors and ministry leaders available for free, so it’s really easy to put this into place or simply add it to what you’re already doing. There’s still time to be a part of this incredible experience and if you’re reading this right now, we invite you to register online at www.awake21.org.

We’d love for you to join us and the several hundreds of other pastors, churches and ministries as we start this year off praying and fasting together. Register today!

2 Comments »

1. This is our second year joining with this network of Churches in the Awakening season of prayer and fasting. We totally underestimated the potential impact these type of experiences could have in our lives on a personal level, as a group, and in our community at large.

   Comment by Chris Peck - Jan 19, 2010 @ 04:34 PM

2. Dear beloved in Christ

   Greetings from Mrs Usha Rao

   I love to visit your website and good thoughts how your work is going on.
   Please send me any information regarding special meetings so that we can
   see and enjoy your programms.  I stay in India at Bombay.  I love to do ministry.
   We are praying for you all.  Please pray for us.  Thank you and god bless you.

   With lots of love and prayers

   Mrs Usha Rao
   Mumbai Metro Region
   16 Maratha Mandir Marg
   Mumbai 400 008
   India

   Comment by Mrs Usha Rao - Feb 09, 2010 @ 11:22 PM

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