One of the joys of working at WPC is to hear wonderful testimonies from across the world. We have so many examples of God on the move. Nowhere more so than in the remarkable work God is doing enabling unity across our cities. I have shown some testimonies below. Jesus prayed for the church – “That they might come into complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me.” John 17:22 As one person put it – “We have invested too much time in building our church, instead of God’s Kingdom.”

Movement Day in Methodist Central Hall, London in early October brought 1000 people together from across England, and many other nations. There were four key elements:

Prophetic teaching – Roger Sutton opened the event. He said God’s plan for transformation starts with personal transformation – changing our attitudes and deepening our commitment to each other, it creates a transformed church and leads to a transformed city. God so loved the world that He sent His son, and declares His ownership in every place where we plant our feet. World Vision shared how Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and continues to weep over cities today. God told people to pray for Babylon even though it was their oppressor. There is a prophetic grieving over the poor. The speaker said “Unless we grieve we just do projects.” He challenged church to take the presence of God to the poor so they know they are not abandoned.

Powerful prayer – there was a strong prayer foundation to the conference; Roger’s final comment when he closed the event was to thank the intercessors and prayer people. The prayer culminated in 1000 people including most of the main denominational leaders praying together in Parliament Square. A number of people had had prophetic visions of this event and there was a strong sense of excitement and awe as we praised and declared together. I had the privilege of praying with the leaders before and I would like to honour their humility and unity. It was particularly important to have Cardinal Nichols with us, again a lovely humble man who joined us to proclaim and praise Jesus. We prayed for three key things – unity in the church, for the church to bless the nation and for the United Kingdom to rediscover its call to take the gospel to the nations. Is it a tipping point in the nation? We shall see, but many believe this was a very significant time.

Extraordinary testimony – we have so many testimonies of God moving powerfully and graciously in cities. Here are some examples:

Toowoomba – Australia - city of 120,000 has seen churches work together to change the spiritual atmosphere. They have done a remarkable work with women, ministering to the hurts men have inflicted on them and releasing them into who Jesus wants them to be. To date 30,000 women have been heavily impacted by this. This led to a concern about domestic violence and the church challenged the city to look at porn. 1 in 3 girls in their city had been sexually abused. 81% of porn shows violence to women. Porn leads to marriage and family breakdown and abusive behaviour in men. The city recognised the huge damage porn was doing and the Mayor has declared his commitment to making Toowoomba a porn free city. Many in the audience wept as we heard the stories of church tackling tough subjects to see their city released.

Portland in Oregon - a city where churches and the city council were at odds. It was a liberal administration with an openly gay leader who was very wary of the church. The church wanted to break the antagonism and offered to give 15,000 man days over the year to serve the city in whatever way Portland wanted. They cleaned the streets, tidied parks and offered to serve a school that was in freefall with appalling results and a fast declining population. The turnaround was so remarkable the churches gained great credibility. Now churches across Portland and linked with every school in the city. The barriers are broken and the city recognises that the church is serving and blessing them.

Bristol -  worked hard to bring church and city leaders together. Prayer lies at the heart of all they do and they have the vision to pray for influence in every aspect of Bristol from its politics to its health, from its media to its schools. The newly elected mayor is a committed Christian who was with us at Movement day and Bristol has seen significant change and church growth.

Pretoria, South Affrica - Doxa Deo church commissions church members to minster in their place of calling whether it be the workplace, health, schools or serving the poor. They say “the churches programme is all about people – mobilising them to take Jesus into the city” They celebrate what God is doing in the hospitals, in the schools, with the homeless, in the police. Their church is a sending place.

A call to pray
Movement Day finished with a challenge from Pastor Agu as the Redeemed Church finished a 75 day commitment to pray for our nation following the “If my people” prayer. He called leaders to put prayer at the centre. He referred to Nehemiah’s call to transform and rebuild his city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah loves his city and he stops and weeps over its state. This leads to prayer and action. He challenged us to pray for breakthrough and to take on humanism, gangs, fundamentalist Islam and other issues in prayer. He said we must wrestle in prayer if we want to fuel revival. We should not let go until we see God move. We are at war for our cities and the weapons of our warfare transform mindsets and strongholds (2 Cor. 10). He said this is a time of freshness in the church as Jesus prepares to come for his bride.

Source: Steve Botham, World Prayer Centre