'To the Uknown Warrior', an article by Simon Carpenter

Published: May 4th, 2007

Radical? Definitely. Daft? Probably. But I think that every believing Christian community should have a plaque, or something similar, prominently displayed for everyone to see commemorating those who have gone before them. Those who have believed and prayed and suffered for their neighbourhoods.  When we see answers to prayer, when we see breakthroughs, it is at least partly down to those faceless heroes, known only to God, and not as we so often think, down to our last minute prayers or our special favour with the King of Kings.

‘To the Unknown Warrior'. It has a sort of ring to it.  And as well as going against our generation’s obsession with self, it always goes against our lack of appreciation of our place in God’s bigger picture and our place in it as links in the chain. We are here to play our part, and then humbly hand over to the next generation to carry on the work of the Kingdom.

A few years ago I thought about writing a prayer history of my city, Gloucester (UK), but gave up in the planning stages because it quickly became apparent that it would be too involved and complex. Yes, we have that many prayer heroes in these parts, from the Romans who first brought our great faith to this neighbourhood, through the medieval monks (we had no fewer than six monasteries here – top that anyone!), the reforming Lollards, the Puritans, and in the 18th century George Whitefield and Robert Raikes and their followers, the 19th century associates of Moody & Sankey, the 1904 – 05 Welsh revivalists … and so on.  Several have also been martyred for their faith here. We should be walking on air, yet more often than not we can see no further forward or back than the issues currently facing us.

Yet the Bible tells us that all our prayers, answered and unanswered, are stored up by God as bowls of incense before his throne (Ps. 141:2, Rev. 5:8). Wouldn’t it be good to have a visible reminder of our heritage as we come to worship? As it says in Hebrews, “Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in.” (Hebrews 12:1-2, The Message).

Simon Carpenter has been married for over 20 years, and is a father of two teenagers. Having spent his formative years in Guildford, since marriage he has lived in Gloucester, where he is a member of Gloucester Community Church. He is actively involved in encouraging prayer initiatives in his church and across the city, and is also heavily involved in running Alpha courses at his workplace.

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