Bishop calls for prayer during Epiphany

UMs to seek guidance
from God on starting
new congregations

Bishop Joel N. Martinez called Southwest Texas United Methodists last week to a time of prayer and fasting during Epiphany.
The Jan. 6 to Feb. 20 prayer effort is to help church members and leaders discern how God is calling them to start new congregations and transform existing ones.
“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,” Martinez said. “Hands were raised to vote yes (at the 2006 annual conference session) because hearts were moved.
“In the same way, new churches will be ‘raised’ only as our hearts are moved through prayerful openness to the leading of the spirit.”
Martinez said he would send letters about the prayer time to clergy and laity leaders throughout the Southwest Texas Conference. Those letters would include prayer guides, a fasting covenant and suggested scriptural passages to consider. (Epiphany Prayer Card)
Martinez characterized the six-week prayer effort as a time of “disciplined listening.” Disciplined listening: A call to prayer during Epiphany
“Discipline is a good Wesleyan word,” he noted. “And listening is the primary way we approach God.”
Epiphany provides an opportune time for discernment, Martinez said. The liturgical season, which follows the 12 days of Christmas, is a time of revelation of Christ to the world. Epiphany begins Jan. 6 with the Magi’s visit to the Christ child and ends the day before Ash Wednesday.