25 Days of Prayer

Oasis is kicking off 2024 with 25 days of prayer with fasting — committing the time from 7th-31st January to drawing close to God and encountering Him as a community. There will be a number of different aspects to this, which the rest of this blog article breaks down into different sections to provide a handy guide for the 25 days!

Booklet

Over the past few weeks, booklets have been available at South Street which provide a framework for prayer over the 25 days. There’s a structure of five themed blocks, each lasting for five days, covering Dedication, Thankfulness, Renewal in Oasis, Renewal in the City and Renewal in the Nations. Each day, there’s a page in the booklet with an image to reflect on, a short passage to read, a brief reflection to consider, some prayer points to kick-start your prayers, and then space to add your own notes.

If you haven’t been able to pick up a copy so far, they will be available again on Sunday 7th January, or there is an online version accessible by clicking here and downloading to print at home.

To complement this, there is also a ‘Padlet’ — a shared online mood board — where you can add in your reflections, prayers and encouragements so that others can enjoy them and benefit from them during the 25 days. Simply click here to find that, and follow the instructions on the page.

Gatherings & Prayer Room

The Bible says that whenever two or three gather in Jesus’ name, there he will be amongst them (Matthew 18:20). With that in mind, there will be a number of opportunities throughout the 25 days to gather with others to pray, seek God, and encounter Him together.

Gatherings will take place every Wednesday and Sunday evening from 7:30pm at South Street from 7th-31st January. Please note that these replace the ‘regular’ evening services and Wednesday night gatherings during January. There are two exceptions to that:

• On Wednesday 17th January, the gathering will be at St John’s Church as we join with other Harborne churches to pray for the local area.
• On Sunday 21st January the gathering will be at 4:30pm rather than 7:30pm and will take the form of a family-friendly, interactive, all-age prayer meeting.

Alongside this will be a dedicated drop-in prayer space at South Street, open from 10am-4pm Tuesday-Friday, from 9th-31st January. You can now book one hour sessions in the prayer room by clicking here.

Fasting

Fasting is a privilege that believers are invited into which helps them to focus on God, to develop a hunger for Him and for breakthrough in the situations they are praying for, which provides a way to illuminate different areas of life, and which also comes with some mystery as God moves in unexpected ways!

To read more about how to adopt a posture of fasting during the 25 days, along with practical suggestions for four different ways to fast, click here and take a look at the linked blog article and video.

If you have any other questions about the 25 days of prayer, do get in touch with me via richard@theoasischurch.com and I’ll be happy to chat to you!