As an expression of unity and affection, the Sojourn Network board invited me to their Spring Retreat to share my heart with the network lead pastors and wives concerning my resignation. No parameters were placed upon me for sharing; only a sincere desire that I would serve the pastors. We all know that differences resulting in ministry separations have the potential to fragment relationships and stoke offenses. May God protect us all from that. But I love the fact that these guys so quickly invited me in to honor the gift of our past partnership.
At the conclusion of conveying the privilege I felt over leading Sojourn Network and my gratitude to God for so many in the room, I read a prayer of blessing over these dear men and women—a prayer that I felt God gave me just hours before the meeting.
Would you please join me in continuing to pray this prayer over the mission and people of Sojourn Network?
A Prayer for Sojourn Network
O God of inscrutable mysteries,
You elected to place your mission in the hands of fallen creatures
Your Church under the inelegant leadership of the broken, like me.
Your Word within the weakness of clay pots
so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known throughout creation
And to magnify your irrepressible glory,…you created this dear network of Sojourners
Heavenly Father, I pray now, help these beloved souls to sojourn together for justice
To sojourn in trials, with endurance
in triumphs, with humility
in temptation, with purity
in adversity, with charity
Let them sojourn through dark valleys with unflappable unity
That their great love for one another might confirm the deep truths they treasure.
May you surprise them with grace, delight them with beauty, overwhelm them with bounty, inspire them for risk, surprise them by the sufficiency of your Word, and multiply their impact, so their children’s children will rise up and call them blessed.
And work deep within their soul, O God, that ministry might never be an end, but always remain a means of displaying the immeasurable riches of God’s grace. And when the Father calls for those inevitable transitions, help every man and woman here to open their hands and release all you have entrusted to them. More so, may they work tirelessly to see the gospel grounded in the next generation;
energized to fight with resilience,
until the Day you complete their sojourn, and summon them home.
In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.
