Disciplined listening: A call to prayer during Epiphany

In his devotional book, A Guide To Prayer For All Who Seek God, Bishop Ruben Job speaks of prayer as “disciplined listening.”
Discipline is a good Wesleyan word. And listening is the primary way we approach God. As good Wesleyans and United Methodists we need to recover this practice.
I want to invite the family of the Southwest Texas Conference into a time of listening to God’s leading during the season of Epiphany.
Epiphany begins Jan. 6, the day of the Magi’s visit to offer gifts to the Christ child, and it ends Ash Wednesday. The calendar dates are Jan. 6 to Feb. 20.
Epiphany is known as the season of the revelation of Christ to all the nations. It is the time when the church witnesses to the light that has shined in our hearts.
I am calling us to this season of disciplined listening in preparation for responding to God in our work of new church development and transformation. As we offer the light of Christ to all in the seven districts throughout Southwest Texas, I remind us of the prayer model of the Antioch congregation in Acts 13: 1-3. This most missionary of congregations practiced “disciplined listening” to God’s leading through worship, fasting and prayer.
The Christians of Antioch sent missionaries only after listening and responding to the leading of the Holy Spirit: “Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13: 3). That must be our pattern as we send clergy and laity into ministries of new church planting and transformation.
It is my strong conviction that our decision to launch a serious and sustained strategy of new church planting and transformation was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Hands were raised to vote yes because hearts were moved.
In the same way, new churches and transformed congregations will be “raised” only as our hearts are moved through prayerful openness to the leading of the Spirit. We are in Christ’s mission, and God will lead if we are willing and prepared to follow. The primary preparation for any ministry is praying with a listening heart.
In the coming days I will be sending a letter to all pastors, local church lay leaders, the conference cabinet, the conference staff and conference leaders with the invitation to pray during Epiphany. A prayer guide, prayer card, a fasting covenant and scripture suggestions will be included in the mailing.
The Antioch model of church is a missionary model. It is grounded in holy listening, disciplined fasting and prayerful responding to the Spirit’s leading.
It is my earnest hope that prayer teams and prayer partners throughout the Southwest Texas Conference “congregation” will join me during Epiphany in this special season of preparation for a new time of sowing the gospel throughout our region.