Members of House of Prayer:

To begin, I want to thank you all for the wonderful warm welcome you have extended to me and to the Streeper family. We have all felt genuinely comfortable and at home here at House of Prayer. This is indeed a congregation with a big heart, and I look forward with great anticipation to the next Dean Libby pre-service poem, and to the laughter and fellowship of House of Prayer!

It is hard to believe but fall is already upon us. As I stated in last month’s Breadcaster, you have called me as your pastor to lead and vitalize youth and family ministry, paying special attention to worship, education, and biblical study. As a servant first of Christ and then of you, as Christ’s servants to the world, I hope to use the example of Christ’s ministry to build our ministry together at House of Prayer.

Christ began his ministry by calling the disciples saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Matthew 4:19). Jesus then proceeded to spend the next three years and he - Gathered Together - many disciples. They worshipped regularly together and prayed together. They traveled together, healed many together and they also learned together. Likewise, you have all been called to House of Prayer and now you have called me to serve as your pastor.

It is in this spirit of Christ’s ministry that we will spend some time - Gathering Together - to get to know one another. To discover together what it means to be a “House of Prayer for All People” (Isa 56:7). To this end I hope you will join me for a series of Cottage Meetings. My intention for these meetings is to meet and get to know all the members of House of Prayer in small groups of six to ten people. I will have three objectives for these meetings. They will be: 1) For me to get to know each of you, 2) For you to find out who I am and what I am about, and 3) For us to discover together what our strengths, areas for growth, and our dreams are for House of Prayer.

From these times of – Gathering Together – we will build a ministry that will nurture our faith together, and like Jesus did with His disciples, ready us for ministry beyond the walls of House of Prayer and what we thought possible. I look forward to this time together and for our gathering and nurturing of one another so that we can be sent to do the ministry Christ has given us to accomplish – and that is to be His hands and feet and to love God, our neighbor, and creation. – Thanks be to God!

In Christ’s love and service,
Pastor Dan Streeper