Hope City Presbyterian Church

Stephen Murray who has preached with us a few times is looking for our continued prayer support at this time as they prepare to launch Hope City.

Stanley Hauerwas once said, “Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require, like all of us, nurturance by a people who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to learn the story of God.”

The time has come for our little church to attempt to provide, by God's grace, that community that teaches and imbibes the story of God. On the 19th of May, 2013, we will begin our public worship services at Hope City Presbyterian Church. There is a weird mix of extreme excitement and near-crippling fear boiling up in my stomach as I think about what we're about to do. The only truth that tempers my excitement and eases my fear is that God is the architect and builder of his church - we just have to follow the instructions. And so slowly a peace is rising out of that maelstrom as our launch date draws nearer. It's not lost on me that 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the very first Presbyterian service in Cape Town. I'm not arrogant enough to believe that our little work is the revival of historic Presbyterianism in our city but I do feel strangely comforted that God might be playing with the numbers here in a significant way.

This is a big deal for us, and we hope it's going to end up being a big deal in the lives of people who will come to find Jesus here, so won't you please join us in fervent prayer for our launch service.

If you are in the area you are more than welcome to come and celebrate with us on the evening and invite friends/contacts/colleagues. The service starts at 5:30pm and will be held at the Gereformeerde Kerk on the corner of Hof and Orange Streets in Gardens.

Prayer Requests

Please uphold the following things in prayer with us:

• Continued growth both numerically and in terms of the depth of gospel understanding in our church.
• Pray that God might grant us fruit through the many relationships that have been built over the last few months.
• Pray for many new relationships with non-Christians in the coming weeks.
• Pray that visitors will join us on the evening of the 19th.
• Pray that we will work hard at our follow up and community building so as to provide new people with a genuine connection to the church.
• Pray that I will preach the gospel clearly and appropriately at the service.
• Pray for all the technical logistics involved in our launch service (music, promotion, tech, etc.)

Thank you again for this partnership in the gospel. We'd love to hear from you so feel free to respond to this email and share your news with us. Please also feel free to refer this prayer list to friends or other folk who might want to pray for us. There are options to forward this email below. Make use the social media links below to keep in contact with us through other media.

God's richest blessings.

Stephen, Robin, Genevieve and the rest of the Hope City crew.