PREPARING FOR OUR NIGHT OF PRAYER & PRAISE

On Friday, August 19th, we will gather as one church for an all-congregational night of prayer and praise — one church, running to one Father. We do hope you’re able to come, as it will be a special opportunity for us all to be together. And while prayer gatherings are nothing new to God’s people, we realize it may be new to some of us at HHPC. And with that, we wanted to give some information ahead of time to help you better prepare for our gathering together, as this will be a highly participatory time.

PREPARE TO PRAY

Friday night’s service will take us through four seasons: Adoration, Lament/Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. We’ll engage and participate in corporate prayers that we declare with one voice, call and response prayers that are both traditional in nature and current in context, times of collective silence, sung prayers, and more. We’ll marvel at the magnificence and holiness of God, tell Him together what He already knows in confession and repentance, thank Him in all things (good and bad), and eagerly ask Him for more — more healing, more unity, more justice, more of Him.

We’ll be doing a lot of work — good work. This is what the word liturgy means: the work of (and on behalf of ) the people. We’ll work together to pray and sing our brothers and sisters forward, pointing each other to Jesus with eagerness and heralding the greatest truth we could ever know. This isn’t a style as much as it is breathing and having a conversation with the God of all creation, who hears the prayers of His people.

PREPARE TO SING

Everywhere Christianity goes, God’s people sing. Why? It’s because of and by God’s grace. John Piper has said that singing is not merely a response to God’s grace — it’s a means of grace, and a weapon against Satan. We have a sung faith as believers, and while many of you may feel that you don’t have a great voice, you do as a believer have a great song within you. We will sing our prayers together throughout the night on Friday. Not only will you get to preach the gospel to yourselves when singing these songs, but you’ll be able to preach it to those around you that night as well. Hebrews 2:12 reminds us that Jesus will sing with us, too.

Again, we hope to see you on Friday evening. We’ll start at 6p, but doors will open a bit early. We’d encourage you to arrive around 5:30p and spend some time in prayer for what the Lord will do. Prepare your minds, hearts, and voices well, and may the Lord bless and keep you until we meet again on Friday.