The United Methodist Church’s General Board of Discipleship (GBOD) has some good resources on its website for celebrating the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) which is this coming Sunday, November 10.
Despite some liberal resistance, since 2000 the United Methodist church has had an official resolution endorsing this global effort of evangelical Christians, in a clear break from more “mainline” church bodies that have refused to do likewise.
In response, the GBOD has neither ignored nor given bare-minimum acknowledgement to the resolution.
Instead, the GBOD website currently touts a very extensive, adaptable outline for a prayer service to be offered for this year’s IDOP, consisting of relevant Scripture readings interspersed with suggested selections from United Methodist hymnals and brief historical and modern accounts of anti-Christian persecution around the world. GBOD even links to the World Evangelical Alliance’s IDOP website.
Those who were not already planning to do so may not have time to have their congregation arrange such a full-length service on the actual IDOP this Sunday, November 10. However, any church could easily add to this Sunday’s worship service a briefer mention and prayer of this important day, perhaps using this brief corporate prayer for persecuted Christians, also from the GBOD website.
Or since the UMC resolution (#6026: International Day of Prayer) broadly “encourage[s] United Methodist congregations to observe in November an International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church,” without specifying a specific day, you can talk to your pastor about having a more extensive time of prayer for persecuted Christians sometime later this month.
Comment by David R. Lash on November 8, 2013 at 10:47 am
If we don’t stand together in this movement, we will surely stand together at the Last Judgement with the unbelievers.