UniteBoston

Nurturing Relational Connections Across Boston's Christian Community

  • Home
  • Events
    • Submit Event
  • Join In
    • Worship & Pray
    • Racial Justice
    • Kingdom Conversations
    • Neighborhood Dinners
  • Serve
  • About
    • UB Staff & Volunteers
    • UB Worship Team
    • Christian Unity Canvas Prints
    • History
    • Christian Unity
    • Annual Reports
  • Forums
  • Blog
  • Give
  • Contact

Apr 22 2019

Pentecostal Tabernacle’s Honduras Benefit Concert

Join us for an evening of music as we celebrate God’s love for the world at our Honduras Benefit Concert! For the past six years, Pentecostal Tabernacle has partnered with World Resources Group (WRG), to send a missions team to Honduras to work with mentors who have devoted their lives to serving the youth in their communities. These trips have given us the opportunity to build relationships with the children, their families, and the dedicated Honduran mentors who serve them. This year, our missions team will depart for Honduras on July 28th, and proceeds from the concert will benefit their trip. Tickets are $10, and you must purchase one to attend this event.

Date: Saturday, May 4th 2019

Location: Pentecostal Tabernacle North Campus – 77 Columbia Street, Cambridge MA 02139

Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Featured Artists: Nicole Schmidt, 7th Degree, Kamva, Caleb McCoy

Tickets: Purchased online at www.ptspice.org

Written by Andrew Walker · Tagged: allston, body of christ, boston, brighton, brookline, cambridge, christian, community, concert, diversity, fundraiser, gathering, glory, jamaica plain, missions, movement, music, resources, revival, transformation, worship, worship and prayer, youth

Apr 18 2018

Filled with Laughter Comedy Benefit

Bring your friends to this fun-filled evening of comedy and entertainment to help raise $25,000 for scholarships for women served by Hagar’s Sisters, who are striving to overcome their experience of domestic abuse.

The funds raised at this event will provide women with scholarships for full access to life-giving services including safety planning, legal consultation, referral to resources, prayer, and Biblically-based education and support.
Your ticket includes access to live comedy, silent & live auctions, musical entertainment, door prizes and a delicious dessert reception!

Tickets available here: https://hagarssisters.ticketbud.com/filledwithlaughter

Written by Andrew Walker · Tagged: christian unity, christiansinboston, community, faith, hope, transformation

Sep 03 2014

Healing the Land: Strategic Prayer for Boston

Over the past six years, Christ Otto and a team from his ministry Belonging House have been doing strategic prayer in Boston. They have seen a series of dramatic answers to prayer in the South End and in the area near the Massachusetts State House.

Today’s blog post is an excerpt from Christ’s report on these prayer initiatives called “Healing the Land.” The following points are the foundation of transforming prayer in cities and regions.
1. Listen to the Lord and Do what He tells you.
Effective prayer is a dialogue, and He who knows all is your best guide for each situation. We begin with scripture. Taking time for silence, waiting on God, and journaling has been helpful. I have found that God’s simple direction is better than a thousand strategic planning meetings.

2. Teamwork is essential.
The biggest breakthroughs have happened when someone gave me an insight I never considered. No one has all the answers and working in a team has helped us all hear God more clearly. The most helpful insights have come from people who live outside of Boston. Their fresh perspective often brought the breakthrough.

3. This is a ministry of healing and reconciliation.
Most of what we have done is address the specific things that release curses on the land–the shedding of innocent blood, sexual immorality, breaking of covenants, moving of boundary stones, and the breaking of relationships. When these sins are confessed and forgiven we can then invite God to heal the brokenness. You will notice that we did not hold large “reconciliation events.” Although we often had one person who represented the parties involved, we did not focus on trying to get parties together to have an event. All of the prayer has been strategic and precise, and often in almost secret.

4. There are no magic bullets.
One interesting aspect of this ministry has been hosting groups from outside Boston to pray in the city. Many times these visitors have come with the attitude that they have the “answer” and that if we would apply their “method” things would be done “right.” Most of the gimmicks have produced little or no lasting fruit. We have found that the long, low, humble road of obedience has been the game changer.

5. Being weird is not intercession.
My ministry Belonging House and the people I work with have a supernatural worldview. Sometimes we have had to depend on the simple direction of the Holy Spirit. Because I work with many groups I have seen how some have felt they needed shofars, flags, victory shouts, swords, or complicated “rituals” while they pray. Right up front, we have done all of these things at different times, but they are not the center. Sometimes prophetic acts are part of what we are doing as an expression of what God has already done.

6. The Cross of Jesus makes everything possible.
It is the finished work of the cross and applying of the Blood of Christ to the sin of the past that real change happens. As we openly confess sin, and our current agreement with it, and apply the forgiveness of the gospel, shifts begin to happen.

7. Listen to the Land.
We pray with our eyes open. We have taken time to learn the real history of where we are– and that means going into the library and doing research. It means getting to know the streets and terrain. It means knowing where and when things happened. Some of the delays in this process were because I did not do the right research in the beginning, and I trusted local “folklore” and polemical versions of history rather than accurate sources. Listening to the land has also involved noticing things like wildlife behavior, odd topography, and the wind. For example, we have noted dramatic gusts of wind during important breakthrough moments.

8. Praise and worship are our chief weapons.
Many times we have asked those with us not to enter into “intercession.” Most of this kind of prayer only reinforces the negative beliefs and judgements about a place or a situation. Praising God shifts the atmosphere in a given place and opens up our ability to pray and hear God. Entering into praise also gets us in tune with heaven, and God’s perspective. In praise we are able to pray from a place of triumph.

9. Authority comes from honor.
God directed me to spend almost two years giving honor to the people who prayed for me to come into New England, even though neither they nor I understood this at the time. I also sought permission to be on the land from the first nations people. By honoring and receiving this blessing, I have walked in a base level of authority that many ministries lack. Rebellion is the root of witchcraft. A culture of honor breaks this.

10. A large part of this ministry has been about “going low.”
We have taken the directions of Jesus to take the lower place at the banquet seriously. In praying on Beacon Hill, we chose to not take the road of political activism, and we have chosen not to build a ministry. We have simply walked and prayed. This story is a report of the outcome.

—-
Christ Otto has recently published a book entitled An Army Arising and is also available to lead prayer tours of Boston and to share how prayer and creativity is transforming New England. Learn more about Christ’s ministry at belonginghouse.org

Written by jasonjclement · Categorized: Blog · Tagged: beacon hill, belonginghouse, jesus in boston, jesus in the city, pray new england, prayer walk, reconciliation, transformation, uniteboston10

Apr 22 2014

The Testimony of Oneness: City Transformation in Lowell

Local pastors and leaders praying for Pastors Najem and Hernandez during the 2nd Annual School of Transformation in March 2014

The last prayer that Jesus prayed in the Bible concerned unity. What beautiful departing words Jesus spoke comparing the oneness between himself and the Father, to the oneness that was now possible within and among believers. His message was clear; the testimony of a people united in the love of God speaks a compelling story of love and redemption to future generations.

Jesus prayed, “I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these. My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are—I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.“ John 17:20-23 (TLT)

In this spirit, a group of 12 pastors in the Greater Lowell, Massachusetts area gathered at the invitation of Pastor Rafael Najem of Community Christian Fellowship, and Pastor Cecilio Hernandez of Iglesia Christiana Ebenezer Asambleas de Dios, to examine the prospect of working together. The two pastors presented the concept of a citywide church, an influential, evangelical church body that would bless the city and help to fulfill God’s purpose and will for it. Pastor Najem, a longtime proponent of church unity shared his heart with the group saying, “I cannot save the city, you cannot save the city; but together we sure can make a impact for the Kingdom of God here.”

The group responded enthusiastically and the pastors began to gather monthly to pray, fellowship, and strategize. Together they host annual events including a men’s conference, youth training and outreach, a citywide Block Party, and the School of Transformation designed to train and empower Christian leaders. They call their affiliation the Citywide Church of Greater Lowell – a catalyst to ultimately transform the City of Lowell into the City of God!

The Citywide Church of Greater Lowell (Citywide) strives to unify, empower, and mobilize God’s people to love with his heart and to serve with his hands. As Jesus expressed his love through both spiritual and practical means, so too does his church. The objectives of the Citywide church are to be: 1) Salt and Light in the City, 2) Prophetic Voice for Social Justice, 3) Catalyst for Church Building and Development, and 4) Catalyst for Cross-Cultural/Ethnic Unity.

The number of churches actively participating in Citywide has almost doubled with a wonderfully enriched membership of multilingual, multi-ethnic, and multi-denominational believers. This diversity reflects the population in the city of Lowell, and the differences among them are respected and appreciated. Since no one church can meet the needs of all people; diversity broadens the access for new believers to settle in a church that suits their individual expression.

The message of God’s love and redemption is preached through various means. In the case of Citywide, God is using the marvel of oneness.“ Jesus prayed, “I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these…”

Written by Donna Dougherty
donnad@AllWeatherGod.com
www.AllWeatherGod.com

www.ebenezerag.org

Click here to listen or download the messages from the School of Transformation

To learn more about Citywide Church of Greater Lowell please visit: https://www.facebook.com/CitywideChurchOfGreaterLowell

Pastor Rafael Najem, Community Christian Fellowship, www.ccfcca.com

Pastor Cecilio Hernandez, Iglesia Christiana Ebenezer Asambleas de Dios,

Signs held by Citywide church pastors & leaders around the city of Lowell

Written by jasonjclement · Categorized: Blog · Tagged: boston, christian unity, christianity, city, jesus, lowell, testimony, transformation, uniteboston

Apr 16 2014

Which Boston is #BostonStrong?

Today, Laura Everett, president of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, shares a timely article challenging the city to the true meaning of our cry “Boston Strong.”

Originally published on her blog Reveverett.com Republished with permission.

Silence and stillness are my reminders of the Boston Marathon bombing and aftermath. From the first train in the early morning to the last train at 12:30am, I can both hear and feel the rumble of the subway line from my apartment. The slight rattle of the dishes, the hum under my feet are the regular rhythms of life in my Boston. But during the manhunt for the suspected bombers, the city was placed on “lock-down” and the trains ceased to run. The buzz of the train stopped, and the silence was punctuated by the hovering of helicopters overhead. We we told to “shelter in place,” but nothing about our sheltering felt safe. It took months for me to stop twitching at the sound of helicopters above. The rhythm of the trains has returned. But every now and then, I become aware of the trains and pause to remember when they stopped.

Boston is a divided city, like most cities. We each experienced and re-experience the Boston Marathon bombing in a different way depending on where we live and move. I was in Gloucester on vacation for the week and immediately returned to my city to start working on the interfaith response. I didn’t experience the chaos at the bombing site. My experience of the Marathon bombing was mostly in the aftermath, the lockdown, the manhunt. Something entirely different happened for those present along the route and at the finish line. But because of the scale, many people sense that we experienced something together. Yet, at some point, the cheers shifted from away from the unified claim to “One Boston” to “Boston Strong.”

This past Friday night at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church on Warren Street in Roxbury, I joined about 100 people, mostly from Boston’s predominantly black neighborhoods to pray for all those who have suffered violence in the year since the Boston Marathon bombing. We prayed hard. We sang fiercely. The collection was taken up to pay for the funeral for a young man in the neighborhood who had just been killed. A Mother asked, “Where is our One Fund? Why does his death mean less than any other death? What is my son’s life worth?”

I was convicted. I was embarrassed by my own blindness. I was heartbroken. I didn’t hear jealously, but genuine wonder and grief of a mother who lost her son. For those of us who strive to follow Jesus who says that none are forgotten in God’s sight, how do we reconcile the invisibility of some lives with Jesus’s promise that God knows even the “number of hairs on your head” (Luke 12:7)?

The sinful truth is that in my beloved Boston, some lives are invisible. Jamarhl Crawford, creator of Blackstonian, said recently “when things that happen to white people, or things that happen to ‘white places‘ where violence is not supposed to occur is seen as this affront to everything that is sacred and holy.” Crawford speaks of the “regular violence,” a violence that becomes expected in “those places, to those people.” Part of what made the Marathon bombing so communally disruptive was that we don’t expect such violence on Boylston Street as we do on Bluehill Ave. Since the Boston Marathon, 235 people have been shot in Boston, 35 people senselessly killed in “those places, to those people.” How is that “Boston Strong?” I grieve the collective trauma, suffering and senseless deaths of the Boston Marathon. Yet how is 35 dead any less senseless? When we chant or buy “Boston Strong,” which Boston are we talking about? Boston is a divided city. Which Boston is strong?

Decades of Boston racial and economic history play into these divisions. As a nation, we have grown to tolerate violence to some people in some neighborhoods. We bring no healing, we do one another no good if we turn this into “oppression Olympics” or contests of who suffers more. I believe there is no cap on the amount of empathy we can expend. Many people suffered enormously during and following the Boston Marathon bombing. Some people suffered unseen, with far less sympathy and resources. And if we dig underneath, maybe we find a embarrassing presumption that we actually expect some people to suffer more because of where they live and the color of their skin. With a regularity that rumbles along like the subway lines, we take for granted that violence will always be a fact of life in some communities. We perpetuate the insidious logic of violence in our own hearts if we divide further as our fellow Bostonians suffer.

The Boston Marathon is and can be a potent symbol of our common life: pro-participation in many forms. The Boston Marathon invites global participation on American soil. During the Boston Marathon, people run into the city, not away from it. The Boston Marathon is a world class event that’s free to view. As you stand alongside the route that leads into the city, spectators help cheer the runners along. You hold up your sign to be seen. That’s what I heard these families asking for: to be seen. They are asking to be seen in their grief, in their need, in their mourning and loss. They are asking for their dead to be seen as fully human.

On the anniversary of Tuesday April 15, and the Marathon on Monday April 22, there will be many tributes. When you pause for a moment of silence, remember all who grieve the dead in Boston. Maybe learn the names of the dead (including the 19 people killed in Boston since January) and pray for their families too. Pray that the blindness might be removed from our eyes. Commit to walking in the Mother’s Day Walk for Peace on Sunday May 11. Our divisions are deep, and the violence systemic and the work to overcome such division will probably take decades, but there is no possibility of healing if we cannot see one another.

Other Relevant Links:

Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dogs coming to Boston to help the city heal

Prayer Canvas to honor Boston Marathon bombing victims and survivors, designed to show America’s unity and humanity.

Written by jasonjclement · Categorized: Blog · Tagged: boston marathon, bostonstrong, christian, christian unity, city, heal, marathon monday, transformation, unity, violence

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2

Give to Further Christian Unity

DONATE!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · UniteBoston · Built on WordPress · Site Design: site design: red letter design