Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
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I'm looking for feedback on Prayer Gardens messaging
The Church has strayed far from the path Christ directed it towards when He ascended to heaven. We went from well-connected and interconnected churches to disparate denominations and inter-church fighting over doctrine and dogma. Now, more than ever, it has become apparent that the church must begin to take a more active role in the culture and society. Not just in the United States, but worldwide.
We are directed to be the Salt and Light of the world, to defend the faith against satanic-occupied bastions. We have the word, which is sharper than a two edge sword. We have been given a shield, which is faith. We have been given all the armor and weapons we need to vanquish Satan, but we became complacent.
This is largely due to our decadent and free lifestyle. Our freedoms are guaranteed, right? Right? Not anymore! While the Church mired in doctrinal and dogmatic battles, they were slowly restricted by the worldly doctrine of seperation of church and state. This neutered the Church's options to be politically active, and has resulted in the systematic destruction of our heritage and values. When Christians aren't fighting, the devil can just walk in and occupy.
This needs to end. The internet has given us a powerful tool to transcend denominational boundaries and strengthen the bulwarks against the enemy, so we can push back out and retake the world for Christ! We are not restricted anymore by distance from like-believing churches. We can connect, instantly, over the internet.
Over media such as Discord. Discord is highly useful and applicable for connecting Churches because it caters to the newest generations and can be easily learned. Pastors and youth alike can easily join and share their testimonies with a worldwide network of Believers. Prayer requests can be submitted and instantly, congregations all over the world can pray together about it. If two people gathered in the name of Jesus can affect the world, how much more so can millions?
Let us escape the stresses of the world and come together as children of God, and enter the Garden to pray. Pray for our lives, pray for our jobs, our kids, our communities, and our world. Pray for our soldiers and politicians. Pray for our farmers and doctors. Pray for our friends and our enemies. Pray and watch for the impending coming of Christ. Our work is far from over. The fields are overwhelmingly white with the ripest harvest of souls we can imagine. We must engage the enemy and drive them out! Drive them out of our churches, our schools, our government buildings. Drive satan out of the Earth and back to Hell where he came from!
What is our mission, then? We have 7 tasks God gave us.
Someday we wanna create our own app so we don't have to use discord. However until then, the way discord functions fits the purpose. Communities.win will always play a role in Prayer Garden 😁😊🙏
So what you’re saying is you would like to see people come together digitally, and collectively to share in the love of Christ? To work together as churches, instead of against one another?
What would be the top three topics or principles of Christianity that you think would bring churches/Christian’s together? Also, in that respect, what would be several topics that are gray areas in the Bible that would cause division between churches?
My Top Three Would Be
“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” Matthew 22:37
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34
“Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
Philippians 4:5-8
If we as Christians could practice the above three things together, I think it would allow people to cross over denominations, into the freedom that we have a christ. Loving God first, loving one another, and then taking our concerns to the Lord in prayer. Also meditating on positive thoughts, with Thanksgiving, which is something many Christians miss out on.
Likewise, what would three topics be that would cause division amongst churches?
Works unto salvation Baptism unto salvation Tithing Etc…
Each topic above is mentioned in the Bible, but many of them have been twisted to support the idea that our salvation is in our works, or in our baptism, or how much we tithe. Yes, the Lord wants us to serve him, he would like us to be baptized, and he wants us to tithe. But each one of those things is managed in our personal walk with the Lord. None of them have anything to do with our salvation.
Those three topics right there, could cause a lot of division in trying to bring churches together. So how do you rectify avoiding these topics, and having people get over themselves, and allowing others to make their own decisions, regarding what works they do for the Lord, if they choose to be baptized, and if they choose to tithe and how much.
I guess my question is… what is the trajectory of your vision, and do you have a baseline for what you want to do? I think it’s a lofty goal, but a necessary one for the future generations of the church and Christianity and us moving forward in furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that God give you a clear vision, and that you are successful in this endeavor.!
This verse is not in Matt 22:37, but it is in Mark 12:30-31 and Luke 10:27.
Great questions. So we want each church to still be independent so they can have there own separate server(someday gonna make an app) the main server and communities are only gonna focus on essentials.we will probably use Nicene creed or apostles Creed as our baseline. Stuff like tithing and stuff is what falls under non essential..each church can continue how they want with those topics. Prayer Garden will not have a doctrine on those. Only on the essentials..I believe c/Christianity can be used to talk about those type of things(non essentials). We aren't seeking to be unified in every single issue. Rather coming together on core issues. I believe in time Jesus will sort out those type of other issues.
This is fantastic info. It sounds like you have already come up with a baseline for the movement! Well done! I will be praying for your continued guidance and success.
Thanks sis yes please keep me and prayer garden in your prayers. There is a vision however I'm always open to people's thoughts so if anything comes to mind please feel free to share with me. God bless u. Love you sis
I read or watch many testimonies of "why I came to faith" and "why I lost faith/left my church." These aren't all from or about Christians... everyone has the same kinds of needs and doubts. The most anti-faith problem seems to be that churches make things too hard: too many rules, too dogmatic, over organized, lack of personal connection. That's a human error creeping in and taking over God's message. And it let's all other human errors in like reinterpreting virtue.
This is a good guide: 2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Christianity has a very simple basis, we are sinners, we owe God, Christ paid the debt, trust Him and follow His example in life. How simple is that? But look at the churches, tangled in politics and bureaucracy, waving sticks of damnation and carrots of merit through works. This is where perversion and discouragement start, and where we can ask ourselves, is this promoting simplicity or adding a burden to believers.
VERY well put!
I believe the church needs to play a more active role in helping create a positive future they became reactive rather then forward thinking. They have members yet only a select feel they have purpose. Prayer Garden wants to utilize technology and create almost a parallel network in which people can connect and be part of the church. I believe that connection will lead to more people seeking to return to the church as well as discovering new purpose for those that felt left out before. I believe we need to learn to have discussions more and that no topic should be left out. The church almost became timid and it's time we change that. We seek to organize but not in that over the top way rather a way that lifts all the body up. Yes there is a simplicity in Christ however that simplicity also begins to unlock all sorts of things that seemed complex before, such as the power of the mind, power of words and sounds and other things
I'm all in favor of multiple means of communicating. The "personal connection" feeling is what makes a community, not to mention that when living in a world where there are active organizations trying to take you out, e.g. the FBI against the Catholic Church, it helps with situational awareness. Feeling a personal connection with God is often mentioned as a draw to those who convert to Christianity, not other religions so much. How to turn online camaraderie into a personal connection with God is the step that I can't comment on, as I think that comes from grace. But it seems like a good goal in itself to have a place where people can feel accepted, even the unhappy ones.
Good stuff I agree with you fren. Thanks for your input I truly appreciate it. God bless.