Identity 
 

      Our world today focuses so much energy on finding an identity. Some choose to find their identity in themselves while others try to pattern their lives after high profile celebrities or successful businessmen. John wrote about the first time Simon met Jesus in his Gospel story. Simon was introduced to Jesus and immediately Jesus gave Simon a new name. The new name represented the confession Simon would make a couple years later, the confession that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the living God. Simon’s new name was petros meaning, rock or stone in Greek. This name represented the importance of his confession and the importance of Jesus being the Savior.

      Peter found his identity in Christ and embraced it and we at Shechinah believe that part of our identity in Christ is the importance of communication with God. Our most effective avenue of communication with God is prayer. Shechinah wants to make prayer the number one priority of the church. If the church is not praying then the church is not connecting to God and therefore isn’t effective. We want to make all of our ministries flow from an identity of prayer.

      We want to move beyond just doing prayer to becoming a church of prayer. There is a major difference and we are on a journey to succeed in this mission. Right now we don’t claim that we are a church of prayer, but we are aiming to grow into a church of prayer. In the next few months we plan to implement some new ideas to involve the entire church in prayer, we plan to permeate the small groups and every ministry with a new plan to prayer.  

-Derek Murphy