Day of Prayer at State Street BSG

At StateStreet we are blessed to have a Bible Study Employee Network Group and are allowed to meet in conference rooms, promote events, and even use company resources and all-employee emails to promote participation in our group!

The idea is to be employee-focused to improve "retention" and foster "mentoring" and "inclusion" and a lot of other buzz words you hear in corporate America. There are many other network groups for every "affinity" under the sun. Ours is centered around studying the Bible and encouraging believers and seekers through prayer and studying God's Word. Each of these network groups is allowed one "signature event" each year. Our group’s event is the National Day of Prayer.

Thursday we put on a video-conference NDoP event during lunch and invited the entire company through mass emails and posters. We were one of three sites participating, the others being Boston (corporate headquarters) and Sacramento.

Looking at this picture makes me wish we went with one of the rooms with the big-screen tv's. Man, that TV looks small!

Boston kicked things off at 11 CDT. They gave an introduction about the Day of Prayer and gave some background information about the Bible Study Group (BSG), which started in Boston a decade ago. Boston had several guest speakers, preachers that were influential in the life of Phillip, the point man in Boston. Phil is a dear brother in the Lord and was elated to have his preachers there. His joy was contagious, as was the fervency of their prayers.

Our guest speaker in Kansas City was Pastor Mike Summers of Countryside in Olathe, KS. Mike preached a powerful message from 2 Chron 20 to a packed conference room (we had almost 40 in attendance), many of which were new to the BSG!

It was truly an honor to have Pastor Mike there since he has been so influential in my spiritual life. It was surreal to be sitting next to him when he preached. Took me back to when Aimee and I stood before him during our wedding and he preached on the 5 P’s of marriage.

Pastor Mike and I watch the Boston group finish up the first hour

I got a lot of feedback from those who came, thanking me for having Mike speak, and that they were encouraged and inspired.

We gave away a lot of resources: 32 ESV Outreach Bibles, 36 Jim Elliff books (Pursuing God and Wasted Faith), and almost thirty CD's that Pastor Mike brought to give out (our church put this fantastic CD together which features a 5-6 minute presentation of the Good News of Jesus Christ!)

Here is me peddling Jim Elliff's book Wasted Faith. We are going through this book in the weekly study.

California followed our hour and Jim, the facilitator in Sacramento, led a more casual small-group type discussion on the subject of prayer in the work place. This laid back time was a perfect balance to the more formal preaching being done in the other groups, and since their office is much smaller it made much more sense.

Today (Friday) our audio/video guy emailed me the URL links to the video of all three sessions. After some editing, we will be making these available to everyone in our BSG via the corporate intranet sight early next week. So everyone in our group will be notified, and anyone looking into network groups will be able to find these. We have over 20,000 employees worldwide.

God truly granted our desire to honor Him with this event! For that, I gave thanks as I drove home Thursday. I still can't believe what God is doing at StateStreet! I can't wait to see the impact this will have on many souls!

For your edification, I will close with the outline for Mike's talk, that he sent me earlier this week to preview what he'd be speaking on ...

WHEN YOUR BACK IS AGAINST THE WALL
What to do when you don’t know what to do

This will be taken from 2 Chronicles 20:1-23 in the Bible. Most people have been in situations where their back was against the wall, there was no way out, and they were completely out of options. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, God’s people suddenly found themselves in a crisis. Their backs were against the wall and they were trapped.

My talk will examine the question: “What do you do when you don’t know what to do?” From 2 Chronicles chapter 20 I will discuss three critical responses that people should have when they face the impossible.

I. You should position your heart to seek God. (3-13)

This point in the talk will deal with the purpose of prayer and will discuss how people are to seek God when they don’t know what to do.

Some of the themes that will be highlighted are:

Prayer acknowledges the impotence of man and the omnipotence of God
Prayer acknowledges the ignorance of man and the omniscience of God
Prayer acknowledges the dependence of man and the sovereignty of God.

II. You should discipline your mind to wait on God. (14-17)

This point in the talk deals with the priority of patience and will discuss how people are to wait on God to work out His purpose.

Some of the themes that will be highlighted are:

Worrying about the unknown is a useless pursuit
Waiting on God is a difficult pursuit
Watching God work is a glorious pursuit

III. You should direct your life to worship God. (18-30)

This point in the talk will deal with the power of praise and will discuss how people are to practically follow God through life’s obstacles.

Some of the themes that will be highlighted are:

The worship of God is a corporate thing
The worship of God is a joyful thing
The worship of God is a powerful thing