Currently 1480 churches representing 830,000 people in 27 countries are standing together sharing their One Prayer for the church. This coming weekend is the official weekend we will be receiving an offering (in addition to our regular offering). Together we will support four international organizations in planting 500 new churches in Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China! The local church is the hope of the world, and these churches will be able to make a sustainable, lasting and eternal impact on these four strategic regions. The OnePrayer network explored many great causes and organizations that we could collectively support, but the vision of local churches from around the world uniting to invest in planting churches was the most synergistic with the vision of One Prayer.

100% of all funds collected for the One Prayer offering will be distributed to four international church planting organizations. These organizations will plant 500 new churches in the geographical regions of Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China.

Lots more details and resources are available at http://www.oneprayer.com/missions/.

One of the action steps of our current One Prayer series is to fast. Fasting generally means to give up eating for a specific time in order to focus more clearly upon God. We’re encouraging everyone to fast each Tuesday in June and to join hundreds of thousands in prayer for the Church.

If you’re like me, giving up an entire day’s food is a huge step. So, maybe you want to consider giving up something specific for the rest of this month. Then throughout the month when you crave whatever you gave up, you can use that as a reminder to pray. I’ve heard several people around Grace throwing out ideas for this sort of fast. Here are some ideas I’ve heard of things to fast from this month: sweets, fast food, soda, coffee, television, sex, movies, snacks, french fries.

Here’s a video with some more advice on fasting from JT Moody, the Campus Pastor at the Stillwater campus of LifeChurch.tv:

Check out our website each Tuesday morning for tips on what we can pray for as the Church. Today’s prayer topic is for salvation of people we know.

Are you joining us in this fast? Have any suggestions of things to give up this month to help you focus on prayer? Share your stories.

You are a leader. Learn to lead better where you are!

Craig Groeschel will be speaking at a huge conference in August called The Leadership Summit that will be broadcast live around the world. You can hear one of his most inspiring talks along with talks by other great leaders in the Church and Business worlds. Northwoods Community Church in Peoria will host this event, and you can attend for a deeply discounted price of $95 through June ( and $135 thereafter). The normal rates for this conference are $195-$265, so this is a great price.

For more info:

• http://www.willowcreek.com/Events/leadership/2008/
• http://www.youtube.com/user/LeadershipSummit2008

Contact info@findinggrace.com if you’re interested in attending this conference.