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Would You Like Prayer with That?

This story is taken from an inspiring article posted in Hope Infusion a few months ago, a story of how one business got a “kingdom boost” from a willing manager with a desire to impact the customers who frequented her store.

Rosalynd Martinez, General Manager of a Jamba Juice store, knew she wanted to impact people on the job.  After attending a conference where she heard of an “ice cream lady” who began to pray daily from her ice cream cart in front of the Governor’s palace in Thailand, which then led to a process that ended in the Provincial Governor coming to Christ!

The “boost” Rosalynd started offering her customers all began with prayer.  She started praying during her 30 minute commute to work, and pretty soon her quiet store became a “hot zone” as all sorts of things started to surface in her employees, from cash-handling discrepancies to insubordination issues.  She kept praying.

God then began to open doors, with many of Rosalyn’s employees coming for counsel about everyday life situations, and she responded by talking to them naturally, but with kingdom-oriented advice.  Very soon, her whole team and the entire spiritual climate of the store shifted.  Before long, she spoke to her district manager, other managers, and even owners, about God’s role in management and what it means to welcome in Jesus personally…and corporately!

Rosalynd’s store became more profitable, she received bonuses every quarter, and the morale of her team was exceptionally high.  And…her store was in the process of becoming a training center for other manager hires to come to learn how to run a successful Jamba Juice!

Rosalynd states she is just a “regular person” who loves God and loves people, one who embraces a lifestyle of prayer evangelism.  It’s amazing what the prayer of one can do.  Imagine what the prayers of a city will do!

Campus House of Prayer (CHOP)

By Elaine Lloyd

“What starts here changes the world.”  This has become a powerful branding statement for The University of Texas at Austin.  According to UT’s website, “The people of The University of Texas at Austin have had and continue to have a major impact around the world in all walks of life.”  Although these statements officially refer to the academic and professional achievements of the global UT community, they should be true of all Christ followers.  They are definitely true of a small subset of people within the on-campus UT community.

This is the second story in our series about the houses of prayer in the Greater Austin area.  This time the focus is on the Campus House of Prayer (CHOP) near the heart of the UT campus.  CHOP is part of Campus Renewal Ministries, a national campus ministry on six campuses in the US.  But CHOP is really much bigger than just one ministry.  According to Justin Christopher, Director of the UT Campus Renewal Ministry, CHOP is part of a large campus-wide movement.  “The Body of Christ at UT is working together in a united missions movement to plant missional communities in every UT people group and in a united prayer movement.  It’s part of a campus-wide strategy to reach the campus together.”  With about 300 students from 30 different churches and ministries participating in prayer gatherings each week, CHOP offers a place for all campus ministries to unite in prayer for the UT campus and the world.  “We’d like CHOP to be full of missional communities praying for their people group one after another from 6:00am to midnight Monday-Friday. We want these students to see themselves as missionaries to their part of the campus (dorm, academic major, club, sports team, fraternity, etc),” Christopher said.  “We are not trying to develop our own praying community, but to create a place for all campus ministries to unite in prayer.”

Since 2006 CHOP has been the main prayer mobilization strategy for the Christian community at UT. After five years of unsuccessful planning and strategizing about how to start a CHOP, Christopher said God asked him to prayer walk the campus every day for the 40 days of Lent 2006 and to simply ask Him to establish a CHOP.  At the end of the 40 days God provided a building perfectly located at 2421 San Antonio, right off UT’s main drag; a unanimous agreement of campus ministers that the time was right to start CHOP; and a core group of students who were committed to pray for an hour every week at their chosen time.  Now, in 2012, many of the 60 campus ministries at UT have their weekly prayer time in the CHOP, but most of the 5:00am-midnight prayer slots are filled by student missional communities praying for the groups where God has placed them to live out and share their faith.

“What excites us most is that CHOP is not just a random place of prayer but a strategic place that builds unity and fuels the united mission,” Christopher said. “Prayer is always the place to start. It is the place where God changes us, the place where the spiritual battle is won, and the place where vision is birthed so that strategies are not man-made.”

For more information, click here. http://texasunited.org/

Job Seekers

In a recent survey, the results show that over 50% of people are not satisfied with their jobs, according to Craig Foster, Director of Job Seekers Network.  There are also folks receiving unemployment benefits, people who are no longer looking for jobs, those who work part-time, some who are misemployed, etc. So what?  How do these facts affect the Church?

Many churches are beginning to address this current job situation in our city by developing training, networking, and encouragement groups for people with work-related issues.  The leaders of free job search groups in Central Texas have a website that shows names and locations of free job search groups on a Google map http://www.centraltexasjobclubs.org.   Pastors are invited to include this link in their church bulletins to help job seekers find what they need, a group that is convenient in both time and place.

One particular group, sponsored by Hill Country Bible NW, is called Job Seekers Network www.hcbc.com/jobseekers and meets on Mondays 9:00a – 11:00a.  Over 100 job seekers each week are showing up!  There are often guest speakers, a devotion, and time for these job seekers to obtain help with resumes, interviewing, LinkedIn, and Networking.  There are also classes held for those looking for a change in careers…or a calling.

There are all kinds of “seekers” in our city, and seeking a job is a real need that the Church can fulfill.  Loving our neighbor might just mean leading them to a connection in the workplace, establishing their home with a good income, and showing them the love of Christ by doing so.

Want to know more?
www.centraltexasjobclubs.org/
www.hcbc.com/job-seekers/

Austin Student Pastors Coalition

By Marcy Lytle

What if youth pastors and workers from all over churches in the Austin area were invited to meet together for prayer, collaboration, and equipping of one another?  The Austin Student Pastors Coalition provides a meeting place for just that purpose, with the intent of reaching this generation in our city.

Joe Elliott, Youth Pastor at Northwest Fellowship, states that four years ago he felt God wanted him to tithe a significant portion of his time to the city.  He started reaching out beyond his own church walls and asking fellow student pastors to meet together, to share with them this vision of reaching Austin youth.

Each meeting starts with testimonies of what God is saying and doing in their lives, and they also share ideas on working together in areas that will benefit the students.  After that, a roundtable discussion takes place on a specific critical topic.  Special guests are invited in who are strong in areas such as fundraising, outreach, teaching, counseling, etc., and then equipping, sharing, and more takes place.  Joe says, “This is a great time for veteran youth workers to encourage those newer to the ministry and also inspire one another with new ideas.  It’s like going to a mini youth ministry conference every month except more tailored to our local ministries. It’s awesome!”

Elliott says that these gatherings are slowly “shifting the culture of youth ministry in our

Joe Elliott

city in a very powerful way.”  There are about 200 youth pastors and 120,000 teens in the Austin area. If pastors can come alongside one other and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, plan together and reach students by sharing resources and experiences, and inspire each other, Elliott declares, “To me that sounds like a gathering of pastors that Hell should be afraid of!”

Convincing pastors to make this gathering a priority is challenging, for sure.  However, Elliott states those who gather have experienced much fruit and are realizing they cannot afford NOT to get together. God is raising up a small (but growing) group of student pastors from Central Baptist in Round Rock, Milwood Baptist, Greater Mount Zion , and other churches who are making the time to reach out and build relationships, realizing that our city gains by them doing so.  They see the opportunity to focus on the benefits of relationship and the potential for expanded reach as each person/ministry brings their strength to the table.

“If we keep doing what we’ve always done…we will have failed this generation,” states Elliott.  The importance of this shift in thinking is to transition from building student ministries to reaching the next generation of leaders.  Elliott encourages pastors of all tenure to commit to serving other youth ministers in the city. “Your experience, gifts and passions will compliment and strengthen the rest of us!”

The Austin Student Pastors Coalition meets every first Thursday at Christ Community Church at 11:30.  If that time and/or location doesn’t work, Elliott encourages other student pastors to start up their own gathering in their area.

We all want the same thing: connections with others that strengthen relationships.  Once it happens with local student pastors, the branches that extend will be heavy with fruit, ripe and ready to be picked!

For more information, email youthpastor@abbaconnect.net or call Joe at 512-736-7059.

Hey Austin! Did You Know?

Did you know that Austin and Travis County is one of the top places in the nation to live – a vibrant, educated, culturally diverse community?  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2000 to 2010, Austin was the fastest growing metro in Texas and the 8th fastest growing metro in the United States.

Did you know that “The two bookends of our demographic growth trends are a large and fast‐growing Hispanic child population and the fastest growing pre‐senior (45 – 64 year old) population in the nation?”  Did you know that the Asian population is the fastest growing population in Travis County? Did you know that for the first time, the low-income population in Austin exceeds that of Travis County and the state of Texas?

This information and more is available from the Community Action Network’s (CAN) Dashboard Report.   CAN is a collaboration of organizations and individuals in Central Texas who are working together to build a community of equity and opportunity.   The CAN Community Dashboard is an annual report that provides an overview of the social health and well-being of Austin and Travis County.  To see the entire report, visit CANCommunityDashboard.org