📦 FREE shipping on orders over $30!
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an author? What is it that drives somebody to take an idea and run with it all the way to a printed book on sale in the local bookshop? In reality, it’s probably different for everyone. But what follows is a glimpse into one author’s story. Helen recently co-wrote 5 Things to Pray for Your City, and we asked her to tell us a bit about herself and the passion that motivated her to write.
Fresh prayer ideas for 21 aspects of city life, all drawn from Scripture
I’m Helen Thorne and, whilst at one stage I enjoyed working at The Good Book Company, I now have the privilege of working as the Director of Training and Mentoring at London City Mission. It’s a wide and varied role which on any given week can see me speaking at conferences, writing books, teaching people to be missionaries, equipping local churches to reach out to their area or quietly mentoring a younger woman who is taking her first steps into the wonderful world of urban mission. I’m also a trustee of Biblical Counselling UK and that means I have a particular passion for those in our cities who are struggling on the margins.
I’ve been enjoying the 5 Things to Pray series for some time. I remember them when they were only blog posts and not books! I love the simple, biblical way each of the products encourages people to pray in strategic yet heart-felt ways. And it was one evening when I was reading through part of 5 Things to Pray for your Church that it occurred to me that it would be great to have a book that equips people to pray for their local city.
As Christians, we’re often really good at praying for our congregation and the few blocks that surround our church building—and frequently we’re good at praying for far flung places, too—but many of us struggle to do what Paul did so naturally in thinking about the saints in Rome or Colossae as a whole. We often don’t pray for the local very effectively. And that seemed a good thing to address.
At London City Mission, we have a real passion for encouraging people to pray for the least reached communities of London so writing on this topic felt like a natural thing to do but it also seemed like a good opportunity to partner with another city-based organisation that works with some of the communities we don’t—a few emails and a couple of meetings later, the three-way writing-partnership between The Good Book Company, City to City and London City Mission was born.
All people are important to God—whether they live in cities or not—so it’s probably important to say up front that I’m really keen to see people praying for smaller towns and rural areas too. But most of us live in or near a city—and all of us are influenced by what goes on in a city (whether that’s our capital city or simply an urban area nearby)—so there are good practical reasons for all of us to pray about what goes on there.
It’s more than that though. In Scripture, we find that cities are often the places where we see the excesses of humanity’s fallenness and the places where we see God’s rescue plan progressed despite that brokenness. From the first city in Genesis 4 to the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation, God’s big story largely plays out on the streets of cities. One day, of course, those who are in Christ are going to enjoy the New Jerusalem—that’s where we are ultimately headed. It seems that God is passionate about cities—and it’s good for us to reflect his passion in our prayer life whether we live there, work there or simply visit cities from time to time.
The answer to that has got to be: to see people praying more about the multi-layered needs of their local city. Whether it’s interceding for the government, pleading for the homeless, praising our Lord for the work of missionaries or church-planters or quietly talking to God about the salvation of teachers, firefighters or musicians nearby—I long to encourage people to drop to their knees and ask God to build his Kingdom.
I don’t take these things for granted. I know what it’s like: we can all so easily buy a book on prayer, flick through its pages, get excited and then not pray. I know our prayer lives can so quickly become dominated by the urgent matters closest to our heart. But there are so many people in our cities who are yet to come to Christ and grow in Christ—millions going through life without a clue that Jesus is who they need most and the one who deserves their all—my hope and prayer is that this little resource will galvanise us all to broaden our prayer lives, for the salvation of souls and the glory of Jesus.
5 Things to Pray for Your City by Pete Nicholas and Helen Thorne, has been developed in partnership with London City Mission and Redeemer City to City. Whatever your urban context, use it to fuel powerful Biblical prayers for your city. Buy it here.
Peter is our International Sales and Marketing Manager. He's based in Northern Virginia and attends a local church plant. Peter loves tea and enjoys visiting friends all round the globe.
