Abide, Grow, Bear Fruit: Abiding in Jesus Christ to grow with one another and bear fruit for the world.
This year’s Dunamis Fellowship International Annual Gathering was an exciting time for us to not only witness to how we have been fulfilling these commands (abide, grow, bear fruit), but also to see it happen before our very eyes. Seventy people, the largest group in years, gathered onsite as well as another 20-30 by internet. Relationships were developed, renewed, and celebrated as we came together.
Cindy Strickler and Hilary Clark led us through the event.
Highlights included:
- Beginning and ending with a “family meal” of Communion.
- Each morning, we would abide in His presence as Doug Chu and Marcia Bronson led us into worship and Barb Ferrier took us into Scripture.
- What a joy to be reminded of how PRMI embodies the global move of the Holy Spirit and advances the Kingdom of God during an update on the ministry.
- You could feel the excitement as architects Brewster Ward and John Yurko updated us on progress in building the Prayer House.
- Later we reviewed the “Pattern Language”, essential elements of who we are as PRMI and the DFI.
- We recognized how God is growing us as a fellowship as we heard reports and prayed for representatives of the various regional expressions of the DFI and mission efforts throughout the world. This was exemplified as members of Dunamis Fellowship Korea joined others from the DFI to commission Jay Knoblock as a PRMI missionary to Asia based in South Korea. We also heard about progress in translation of the Dunamis Project materials into Spanish and Russian – another growth spurt for bearing fruit internationally.
- We continue to see the evidence of growth in strategic partnerships. David Scott, an archbishop in the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, joined us. We have done some equipping of their chaplains and are investigating ways to equip them in intercession.
- We were also joined by Todd and Deborah Westphal from El Shaddai, a Messianic Jewish Congregation in Frederick, MD. Todd added to our understanding of the history and importance of God’s plans in Jewish/Christian relations.
- And those particularly interested in prayer ministry were helped by a panel discussion addressing the New Apostolic Reformation and their convergence and divergence points with PRMI and the implications for ministry practice.
- A team from Seattle transformed the log house at the Community of the Cross into a special place where Fellowship attenders were able to meet with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
And in between there were meetings of work groups involved in each of our vision initiatives: Prayer, Leadership Development, Growing the Church and Mission Outreach.
We networked around the dinner table, sharing experiences, challenges, burdens and victories. Koinonia, one of the 4 works of the Holy Spirit, was definitely in evidence throughout the week.
