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Prayer
Beacon - Banbury Corps
by Lieutenant Vanessa
Coleman
A stranger walking into our slightly damp and mouldering hall
would be unlikely to think that this extremely ordinary
small-town corps played host to extraordinary prayer. Yet
that’s exactly what God was calling us to, nearly seven years
ago, when Banbury Corps became The Salvation Army’s inaugural
Prayer Beacon. Prayer Beacons are simply ordinary corps
pursuing extraordinary prayer, aspiring to six core values -
Prayer, Mission,
Hospitality, Mercy, Creativity and
Learning – and to a
rhythm of life which draws us forward in committed prayer.
This rhythm has for a long time, however, felt more
aspirational than 3D reality, and prayer soon becomes
uninspiring hard graft. Recently though, God has been showing
us the weekly, yearly and 7-yearly spiritual rhythms he
provided for his people in Exodus 23. The concept of the
Sabbath Year in particular stood out to us:
For six years the Israelites sowed, cultivated and
harvested, but in the seventh year the land was to rest, holy
to the Lord. Our
excitement grew as we realised our seventh year as a Prayer
Beacon was approaching, and we were convicted that God was
calling us to celebrate the Sabbath Year.
But what does that look like for a Salvation Army Prayer
Beacon in the UK in 2014, in contrast to an agrarian society
in the ancient Near East?
Probably not stopping praying for a year, but just
maybe it means stopping everything but prayer.
Sabbaths interrupt our normal lives, forcing us to entrust to
God all the work left undone.
That’s hard enough for a day, but for a whole year? Yet
what if the call to a Sabbath Year means we pause our normal
corps programmes – Luncheon Club, Coffee Mornings, Parents and
Toddlers, Over-60s Club, Home League – to spend time together
sitting at Jesus’ feet?
Already this impending Sabbath Year is pushing us deeper into
prayer. We look to God for the finer details of our new life
together. Where do we draw the line between what constitutes
‘prayerful’ activity and what doesn’t?
What does Sabbath mean for our War Cry ministry and
Christmas Carolling? What
about the food bank?
We’ve asked ourselves – and the Lord – will the corps
survive if we do this?
God’s answer resounds with another question: ‘Will the
corps survive if you DON’T?’
We are continually being challenged to define our
vision as a praying people and to commit to living out
together this culture of prayer.
It tests our faith as we trust God to lead us into something
beautiful and full of new life.
It tests our faithfulness as we keep committed to the
cause even when its outworking looks different to anything
we’ve known before.
It tests our creativity as we dream about what the
vision looks like with legs on.
How the Prayer Beacon vision is embodied will inevitably
evolve as God leads us into deeper and fresher understanding
of what he wants to do in and through us. This new phase feels
increasingly like the embodiment of what God has been calling
us to as a Prayer Beacon all along; we’re in it for the long
haul. Who knows where he might lead us in the years to come.
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