On Corporate Prayer and Repentance

Below is a resolution passed at the 2011 SBC Annual Meeting. (Baptist Press Article about this HERE) I plan on discussing this with our church at our prayer meeting next Wednesday. Yes, this is now almost 3 years old but  I ask that you would prayerfully consider this resolutions's charge.  No doubt we are facing uncertain times as a nation and as a denomination for that matter. Let us seek His face together.  Who knows what our gracious God may do?

ON CORPORATE PRAYER AND REPENTANCE

From the SBC Annual Meeting 2011 

WHEREAS, Both the Old and New Testaments, as well as church history, attest to the reality that God works powerfully and manifests His presence among His people through authentic God-seeking prayer and repentance; and
WHEREAS, Jesus expressed deep grief and righteous anger when He came to the temple and found it to be something other than a “house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17); and WHEREAS, The book of Acts teaches through the birth of the church that what is birthed in prayer is of necessity sustained by prayer (e.g., Acts 1:14; 2:1, 42; 4:31); and
WHEREAS, The common corporate sins of many churches include, but are not limited to, prayerlessness, lukewarmness, neglect of biblical church discipline, and shallow relationships with God and with one another; and
WHEREAS, In our preoccupation with Mammon, we have too often embraced unbiblical priorities in our spending, our giving, our response to the poor, and our allocation of resources, assuming by our actions, contrary to our Lord’s explicit teaching, that our lives consist in the abundance of our possessions (Luke 12:15); and
WHEREAS, For the past fifty years wickedness and family collapse have been increasing rapidly, and at the same time we have seen that programs and strategies alone cannot revive lagging baptism rates or anemic discipleship; and
WHEREAS, The Southern Baptist Convention adopted the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report in 2010, a part of which called for pastors to lead their churches in Solemn Assemblies “for the purpose of calling Christ’s people to return to God, to repentance, and to humility in service to a renewed commitment to Christ and the Great Commission”; and

WHEREAS, The Southern Baptist Convention adopted the addition to the Convention Calendar of Activities a focused Day of Prayer for the SBC in 2011 and for the years to follow; and 

WHEREAS, God has already promised that He will not despise a “broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17); now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, June 14-15, 2011, do hereby beseech all pastors, congregations, ministry leaders, and denominational workers to seek the Lord in the manner of 2 Chronicles 7:14 and Joel 2:12-17, and to repent corporately in their various churches of all sins which God’s Spirit reveals; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we call on all Southern Baptist churches to renew their first-love devotion to Jesus Christ through full confession of and repentance from all revealed sin, and that they humbly declare their utter dependence upon, and glad surrender to, His grace; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage all Southern Baptists to pursue a life of genuine repentance, Kingdom-focused prayer times for sweeping revival and spiritual awakening, and consistent prayer for specific lost people, missions, and ministry; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we urge Southern Baptist churches to embrace corporate prayer and repentance for revival in the hope that God would be merciful to our churches, the Southern Baptist Convention, the United States of America, and the peoples of the world for the glory of His great Name.