Our mission:

• To see each street or area where we live come alive with love, praise and prayer.
• To care for, be friendly to and pray for every household, being ready to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them when they "ask us to give the reason for the hope that we have".
• To work towards a more neighbourly church in the city, connecting with Christians who are local.

We have had several things impressed upon us as we've been praying for the initiative, which have helped us nurture it more carefully:

The first one was along the lines of the parable of Jesus:
"He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." we believe our task is to plant the small seed in our street and pray over it; as Paul said: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow".

The second one was a story of a visitor who came to Lords cricket ground. He was amazed at the quality of the grass - so flat, so even in colour - and asked: "How did you get it so perfect?"
"Well, the groundsman said, we just sowed the seed, watered it and it grew. Then we mowed and rolled it, mowed and rolled, mowed and rolled."
"Yes, but you must have done something special"
"Well yes, we did it for 40 years!" was the patient reply.

The third was an analogy of DNA. As a new born baby has potential to have a family and that family to grow into a larger one, we believe streetprayer has the potential within its make-up to spread throughout the city and to the nation beyond. But our focus should be on our own street, developing praise, prayer, love for one another and caring for those around us. Then with time we will mature and have someting worth propogating further afield.

The fourth picture is of bustling streets, filled with joy and life. When the early church was formed, there was no word to describe the dynamic zest for life and presence of God they felt. So the New Testament writers coined a new word: "homothumadon". Homothumadon is a compound of two words primarily meaning "to rush along" and "in unison". The image is of a bustling street - a street come alive!

In summary, we believe that our streets will come alive as we meet together to pray, praise and fellowship. Our attitude must be one of great patience and perserverance, allowing God to work. May God be merciful to us and hear our prayers.

PARTNERSHIPS
Streetprayer is in partnership with Love Oxford and the Oxford Prayer Room