The Back Story
WHY A PRAYER SUMMIT?
At the core of the Regional Leaders Prayer Summit is an invitation to downshift from the busyness of life, making time and space to encounter God in deepening intimacy. Citywide retreats are designed for leaders to unplug from frenetic schedules to tabernacle together in God’s presence, worshiping and praying together, deepening friendships, and collaborating for united mission.
Prayer summits for Spokane-area pastors were convened annually for many years, but concluded in early 2005. Many in the faith community are feeling a call to come together as “the church” for a meeting with God to unify the body and focus on hearing God’s heart speak to us about spiritual and cultural transformation in our communities.
Dear Spokane Christian Leaders,
Have you been hearing Holy Spirit say that it is time to “re-ignite” Prayer Summits in Spokane? Some area pastors and ministry leaders were present at the very first 4-day Spokane Pastors Prayer Summit in May 1991 or later summits and 2-day retreats. Each one was a real meeting with God as we worshiped, experienced God’s presence, prayed, read scriptures and received prayer ministry from each other. There is a growing sense of the need to come away into the Lord’s presence for prayer that is drawing us.
Here is what happened to four of us from Spokane that has us writing you about your possible participation in re-ignited prayer summits here. We were led to attend a Pacific Northwest Community Impact Roundtable (now City Advance) in Beaverton Oregon, December 2-3, 2013. These gatherings of city teams were born out of the prayer summits. It was a good year to be there among 130+ attendees. Most of the City Gospel teams were from the Portland-Vancouver and Seattle metroplexes along the I-5 corridor.
The testimonies from the various teams were electrifying. Cities throughout the Northwest are seeing the church come together in unprecedented numbers to bring good changes to their communities. The results are impressive. In Portland, for example, 242 public schools have formal partnership agreements with churches. More than 25,000 people, almost entirely from the Church, now turn out annually on a Saturday in June to beautify the city. When churches organized anti-crime foot patrols in one neighborhood, crime went down 36%. The Portland story is told here http://cityservepdx.org/. You can learn more about city gospel movements here http://gospelmovements.org/
The “movement” is maturing. We four from Spokane were much encouraged both by what we were hearing and because the Lord had four of us there at the same time that year.
Near the end of that two day NW CIR, we were asked to invest 45 minutes as city teams to ask Holy Spirit for his direction on the one thing we were to do next in our own city. We four from Spokane sensed Holy Spirit directing a re-igniting of prayer summits in our area. That’s why we ask, “Are you hearing the same thing?”
We are writing now to invite you to the third year of this re-ignition. There is much more the Lord wants to do and so many more leaders the Lord wants to be involved than just those who already are. We do not believe it will be the prayer summit Holy Spirit directed without broad buy-in and participation that we hope will include you.
Three fathers of the prayer summit movement were leaders at the NW CIR: Tom White – Frontline Ministries in Corvallis OR, Dennis Fuqua – International Renewal Ministries in Vancouver WA and Monte Ralstin – Discovery Church in Boise ID along with Kevin Palau – Luis Palau Association in Beaverton OR. Tom White facilitated the 2014 re-ignition summit and Dennis Fuqua in 2015. This year we have asked Gary Schmitz, a father in the Kansas City prayer movement, to be the facilitator as we again follow the Holy Spirit’s lead.
In the overall context of what the Lord is doing in cities, Spokane is, of course, a unique city with its unique cadre of people assigned to it. We are not looking to copy what is happening elsewhere, but to be informed by others’ experiences as we hear our own instructions from King Jesus for his work in this city.
We anticipate that re-ignited summits will be broader in participation than the summits of previous years and even more catalytic for our “city gospel movements.” Pastors, ministry, marketplace, civic/government and prayer leaders are invited to this Spokane Regional Leaders Prayer Summit.
October 5-7, 2020 at Ross Point in Post Falls has been confirmed for this fall’s Prayer Summit. Registrations are now open.
This is not about four of us who were at the 2013 NW CIR. It’s about what Holy Spirit is saying to the Church of Spokane, what all of us are hearing, what the Father is doing and the obedience of all of us to the Lord’s leadership here.
We are your servants,
Jerry Foster, RAIN, (509) 270-1457 – jfos@comcast.net
Ron Hauenstein, Hauenstein and Associates, (509) 999-3522 – ronhauenstein@gmail.com
Chris Rodgers, CRU, (509) 979-2804 – Chris.Rodgers@cru.org
Daniel Grether, Free Indeed Ministries Int’l, (509) 951-1308 – dgrether@gmail.com
Click on The Story tab to see the list of some of the Christian leaders who attended the first five re-ignited prayer summits in October 2014-2018. We are extending our invitation and encouragement for you to attend this year’s summit.
