During the 40 day prayer campaign we will follow the contemplative threefold path.  Our first leg on the journey: purgation.  As we pray together, let our prayers first include a confession that we are lost apart from God's leading, a desire to rediscover the depth of God's love for us in fresh and life-giving ways, and a hope for new ways that we might be faithful followers of Jesus in our generation.  Thank you for joining us on the journey.

 
O God, we know that 40 days bring great things.
I come to you in prayer today with and for my sisters and brothers across 
The United Methodist Church.
 
We enter together into this season of prayer,
expectant yet patient,
waiting yet active,
hopeful yet aware.
 
Today we confess our sins as a denomination. We confess that some of what we have done and some of what we have left undone has contributed to the mess in which we find ourselves and our denomination today. The United Methodist Church in North America has become a shell of what was once a vibrant movement spreading scriptural holiness across the land.
 
I am part of what some call a dying organization.
This hurts.
It is scary.
I ask, "What is the point?"
I protest "It's not my fault!"
I breath out my pain, fear, questions and frustration... 
 
Glorious and blessed God, You are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to Your power that is at work within us.
 
Breathe fresh life into my soul and into every fiber of your church.
 
In these days of prayer and all that follow,
enliven my faith,
draw people to You and
enable our witness in the world to draw people to faith in Jesus Christ.
 
I pray in your name - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
 
Amen. 
 
Andrew Conard is a provisional elder in the Kansas West Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church and serves as an associate pastor at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS (www.cor.org). He is passionate about spiritual revival in the state of Kansas, renewal within The United Methodist Church, and the purpose of the church where he serves.  You can read his blog at http://andrewconard.com, connect on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrewconard, or email him at andrew.conard@cor.org.