Every January Sanctuary enters into a focused season of seeking God through prayer, worship & fasting we call First Seek.

First Seek is a 3-week window designed to recalibrate our hearts and refocus our lives on God – seeking first God’s presence. Throughout the Scriptures & Church history, one truth echoes again and again: God comes where He’s wanted.  The church has always been at its best, when it seeks Him in humble, desperate, passionate prayer – making room for the Holy Spirit. 

Ultimately the goal of First Seek is to catalyze fresh hunger and intimacy as we begin 2025. Prayer is never a last resort — it is always our first response. 

We invite you to join us in seeking God together. To stir up our longing for His presence. To pray bold prayers for His kingdom to break in, here and now. And to believe that we will see His fame and deeds renewed in our time.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts… -James 4:8

How to First Seek with us

Daily Prayer Guides

We will provide a daily prayer guide for you as we journey through First Seek. You can sign up below to have it sent to your phone and/or email.

Bible Plan

Many people considering a Bible-reading plan as they head into 2025. It is one of the most significant decision you can make for yourself, your family, and the glory and purposes of God. The two most important things I’ve learned about choosing a Bible reading plan is that reading plans are like diets.

What’s the best diet? The one you’ll do.
What’s the best Bible reading plan? The one you’ll do.

Here are two suggestions people in our church use.

Fasting

Fasting is going without food for a set amount of time to awaken our body and soul to our deep hunger and need for God. It’s one of the most powerful — and neglected — of all of Jesus’ practices. Remember Jesus only ever said, “when you fast,” not “if you fast.”

Once a week, on Wednesdays, we desire to train our bodies in self-control and dependence upon God through fasting.

[scroll to the bottom for fasting resources]

Path Group

We don’t need better friends we need better questions. The invitation to start a Path Group is quite simply an invitation to find some friends or church family to go deep with – in a simple & consistent way. The goal is to find two to four people who will regularly meet together, go beneath the surface, and help each other walk the way of Jesus.

Our hope is that these groups will help unlock the potential in your current relationships to become places of prayer and devotion.

Digital Detox

Get off social media. Set a goal for yourself.
Here are some suggestions:

• Bible before phone in the morning
• No social media after 6pm
• Buy an old school alarm clock for your bedroom and keep your phone outside your door when you sleep

*The Burn

• Read the New Testament in 27 Days (see below)
• Write down 5 things you are thankful for
• Move: 27 Push Ups / 27 Air Squats
• Detox: No social media/games after 6pm
• Invite: Pray for + invite one person to church
• Fast:
  • Adopt the base or stretch fasting practice (see above)
  • No desserts outside of sabbath
  • No alcohol outside of sabbath
• FOR 27 DAYS.

Read the whole New Testament in 27 Days?
Sounds a little much right? Reading through the 27 books of The New Testament in 27 days and watching a video from the Bible Project will require you to make time to do this. On average, it will take 1-1.5 hours a day of reading/listening, depending on your speed – well under the average amount of time an American spends on media per day. Here’s a few reasons why:

• You immerse yourself in God’s Word every day.
• You get a bird’s-eye view of God’s story.
• Key patterns and themes become easier to identify.
• It can lay a foundation for Bible reading and study for the rest of the year.

If you want to do The Burn with us sign up below. We will hold each other accountable, celebrate at the end, and send out resources & incentives.

Prayer Rooms & Worship Nights

It is in these corporate places of worship that we “break up the soil in our hearts” to prepare ourselves to encounter God.

More on First Seek

Throughout history incredible seasons of prayer and fasting have been recorded. Of course, in the eyes of those who prayed they may not have been remarkable at all. They sought God in simple and honest ways. They touched the heart of God in one way or another and changed environments, cities, nations and history itself.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. – 1 John 5:14

“History is the story of God giving away power. After entrusting the human species with the gift of free choice, God invited its representatives to act as partners, even to argue and wrestle with the One who created them. Yet, virtually everyone God picked to lead a new venture – Adam, Abraham, Moses, David – proved disappointing in part. Apparently God committed to work with human partners no matter how inept. Jesus stayed on earth barely long enough to assemble a dozen followers (no less flawed), to whom he handed the keys of the kingdom of God. Against all odds the movement took off, and the human partnership has not stopped since. We are “God’s fellow workers,” the apostle Paul said. We collaborate with God’s actions in the world. And as God’s coworkers we are encouraged to submit our requests, our desires, and our petitions in prayer.” + Yancey

What if the greater Providence area continued to be transformed by the good news of Jesus and became known as a place where people are attentive and awake to what God is up to? God placed us in one of the least churched cities in America, and through us the Holy Spirit is on the moving.

Fasting Resources 

• WHY AND HOW TO FAST 
• PRAYER AND FASTING, a sermon by Greg Johnson
  

Below we have provided a few suggestions of longer fasts:

• 14 Day Liquid Fast – Give up solid foods
• 14 Day Daniel Fast – Fruits and vegetables only
• 14 Day Media Fast – Give up media – that’s it
• Lunch Fast – Fast with us every day over lunch and take that time to pray