Sometimes, living as a creative minority means that our principles and beliefs will come in direct opposition to the way of life of the age. We see this happen in the book of Daniel in several occasions, where Daniel and his friends are condemned to death because of their faithfulness to God. How do we respond in those situations? And what does it look like to trust God with our very lives? 

One of the main elements of being a creative minority is that we are called to engage the culture around us through redemptive participation. On Daniel Chapter 2, we see an example of Daniel using his gifts to serve the king of Babylon. This act lead to many lives being saved, and to the King of Babylon to glorify God and place Daniel and his friends in positions of influence.

Imagine a foreign empire destroying your city and then taking you and your friends away into exile to serve the emperor who just conquered you. How do you react? How do you learn to live in this new reality and at the same time stay true to your faith and your convictions?

What does it mean to leave like a Christian in today’s world? As our society becomes more and more secularized, it seems increasingly difficult to engage the culture around us. However, this is not the first time this has happened. When the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon, God gave them a blueprint of how to live there. 

Have you ever experienced something that changed your life? What about something that changed everything? For the first followers of Jesus, this is what the first Easter was, a moment in time that changed everything for them, and it has the power to change everything for us as well.

When Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray, the first thing He tells them ask for is not for forgiveness, or provision, but for God’s Kingdom to come. It was that important to Him. What does it mean for us today to pray for God’s Kingdom to come? What would it look like if God’s will would be done in DC as it is in Heaven?

As we’ve been learning, prayer is a multifaceted discipline. There are different ways in which we can engage prayer. We put a lot of emphasis on the ways in which we can pray individually, but one of the most important and least talked about ways in which we should pray is Corporate Prayer. There is something special that happens when the people of God come together to pray.

This week during our prayer series we focused on the “how” of prayer. Through the use of ancient tools and Biblical principals we experienced how to engage the presence of the Lord in the practice of prayer to gain an everlasting peace that comes through a deep, meaningful connection with him.