The theme is to slow down enough to experience God. 

We do this by teaching and then practicing:

• Emmanuel Prayer
  • Since the Name Emmanuel means “God with us,” and since Jesus said He would be with us until the end of the age, we pray to experience Jesus’ presence now.
  • “’Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:23).
  • And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. . . . I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).

• Centering Prayer
  • One main point of Jesus’ death and resurrection was to give everyone access to God.
  • And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. (Matthew 27:50-51a).
  • In Centering Prayer, we practice sitting quietly with God. As our brain works in the background resolving many issues for us, we keep bringing it back to our time with God.

One participating pastor said, “I came here thinking I need to learn how to do this so I can teach our church. Now I realize I need to put these practices into my daily life. This is for me personally.”

We hope that as people experience God, they will become lights to attract their people to God.