Making prayer practical

This month’s Update provides insights to how one local Mahabba group is working, and also highlights more resources available on-line. In case you missed it, you can find previous Network updates here.

Update #13 for July from the Mahabba Network

This was some of the feedback from the first ‘virtual’ Mahabba Regional Gathering last month. Further events are planned in other regions - watch this space!

A number of on-line equipping sessions are in the pipeline. Requested topics so far include: discovery studies/scriptural reasoning, envisioning churches, engaging with mosques, keeping prayer alive, common Muslim objections, exploring resources, discipling. Click the link below to note subjects you would most want addressed.  

You are invited to join an on-line prayer breakfast via Zoom, Sat 11th July, 9am. Richard Cook will look back on the beginnings of local prayer and ministry. As a vicar it was his desire to see the diverse community he served come to know Jesus. Sign up by getting in touch below to hear and learn from the story and join the discussion.    

Do check out the Resources area of the website: https://www.mahabbanetwork.com/resources. New resources are being added each week. This month’s featured resource provides four short videos to help envision others with God’s big picture and purpose.  Do please suggest other resources that you have found helpful or resource needs you have, via the contact us link below. 

Last month’s Update included an encouraging summary from a local group - how prayer started for them and where it has led in ministry to refugees. Here is a report from another group describing how things work in practice for them:    

The shape of our Mahabba group

In our city we say everyone’s diary is so busy that we need to meet every week! If someone can’t make it, it’s only two weeks before they are together with us again.

We don’t want to be event planners, but to become a community devoted to prayer and to real overcoming of spiritual strongholds. We have two groups in fact, one meeting Thursday mornings and one Thursday evenings.

During the pandemic the morning group has continued to meet using Zoom and the evening group has been using WhatsApp to text prayers, worship videos, and requests that evening and they worship and pray there and then.

What else we do together

In addition to our weekly prayer times, we meet as a larger group one Monday evening every two months to grapple with an issue currently relevant to Muslim ministry in our city. Sometimes a speaker is brought in for the core content and may help to guide the discussion as we consider its implications for local context and ministry. 

How our prayer times are organised

For the first 15 minutes people share situations, observations, or themes we would like to pray into. We then settle ourselves with a minute of stillness followed by a prayer, Scripture, or poem that ushers us into the prayers that day. 

We believe that worship is a key element. We become present to God’s authority and curate His presence in our spoken praise. We invite His presence in the neighbourhoods of our city. Sometimes, as a prophetic act, we worship Jesus vicariously on behalf of the Muslims in our city.

Then we begin to pray into the things God has put on our hearts that day.

The scope of our prayers

Of course, Mahabba groups pray in two directions, one for Muslims, and the other for the Body of Christ to partner with God in reaching, welcoming, and discipling people well. 

We also pray with our ‘finger on the zoom’ button’, from micro to macro, from specifics to the big picture.

Specifics - we pray with care for specific people, relationships, and situations and what God may want to be and do for them in that situation. 

Big picture - we pray for the city, region, nation, and the ends of the earth. We ask God, “What do you want your kingdom to look like when real breakthrough comes? How would that be expressed in our city amongst Muslim communities and in churches? What are the spiritual strongholds that we need to pray into, and the social needs amongst Muslims and new believers that we need to lovingly intercede for?”                                                            

We want to pray with vision, faith, knowledge, and insight as we move naturally from topic to topic, between specifics and big picture, often with a few people expanding on each other’s prayers, and seeking to listen for how God’s Spirit is moving and taking up that prayer.

Part Two following soon - how the group is seeking to envision and equip local churches and Christians. 

Would you share a short summary of how Mahabba works locally for you?

This is a great means to encourage and share ideas with the wider network. E-mail the summary here (location can be kept anonymous).

N.B. requires account to sign on - see here for more details

From Phil Goodchild for the national Team