2020 is over! How does that make you feel? For many, this has been a year of tremendous pain, heartache and tension. From racially related riots to Covid, to a presidential election that certainly has been unique, 2020 has been by the far the most interesting year I’ve ever experienced in terms of the state of the world.
While many feel a lot of pain related to 2020, I personally am full of gratitude. On June 1st, I finally moved back to the Washington, D.C. area to work in DC. I have wanted to move back ever since I stepped down from full time staff in August 2017. 3 years later, I did! I rejoined my favorite ministry in the world, David’s Tent DC (davidstentdc.org) which is a ministry of the missions organization called Youth With a Mission (YWAM). We host 24/7 public praise and worship in a tent on the National Mall in our Capital. The tent is currently 4 blocks west of the Supreme Court and 12 blocks east of the White House. It’s literally in the middle of our National Capital!!! Woohoo!!!
This year I’ve gotten to fill a few different roles. My primary role is to staff the tent and help keep the 24/7 worship actually happen 24/7. The longer I’ve been here the longer I realize how many moving parts there are to what we do. It’s so much more than being at the tent a certain time. It requires taking care of vehicles, resolving miscommunications and relational tension and so much more. I almost never feel like I have even one full day off every week. But would I ever trade this job for anything else? Absolutely not! Every time I remember who God is and what Jesus has done in His saving work (not to mention the significance of being in our capital during this time!), I feel the dignity and honor of joining in with the song that literally never ends!
In particular, it was such an honor to be able to lead worship the night of Wednesday January 6th. That was the day that there was much chaos in DC in relation to the outcome of the Presidential elections. I streamed my worship set via Facebook Live and had over 1,200 views. Wow! My prayer is that any attention that we get at David’s Tent can be used to point people back to Jesus. I hope to stream worship from the tent more often so please feel free to join with me. People have been telling me that I’m a gifted worship leader so I’m thankful to have that gift from God. As people like you pray for me and partner financially I’ll be even more equipped to help people cultivate their own musical conversation with God through praise and worship.
Lately I’ve been given a new role as a church liaison. One of our goals is to host 1 local church at the tent every single evening during “prime time” (5pm-11pm). This is the time when the tent has the most visitors on most days because of people’s work schedules. Many churches will have a Sunday morning service and then a midweek prayer meeting, so we want them to have their “extra” service at the tent! My job as church liaison is to be there (almost) every time the local church is there to help them in any way possible. Plus it’s just such an honor to be there while they’re at the tent! I told people that my job is basically to smile a lot and help local churches feel loved and welcome at the tent, and many have said it’s the perfect job for me! I’m so thankful that I get to use my friendliness and smile to be a welcoming presence for local churches :D It really gives me vision for what we want David’s Tent to be: a place to host other worship leaders and their teams in our space. We are America’s Tent of Meeting in our capital city. Right now we have 4 of the 7 nights led by local churches and we’re praying that every night would be led by local churches.
In addition to hosting local churches and worship teams, we also want to host worship teams from every state. There are 52 weeks in a year and 50 states, so we’ve made a schedule assigning each state to take one week out of the year. Currently Arkansas is the state that’s assigned to cover the week at David’s Tent.
You’re invited to come and represent your state! People are welcome to lead worship leader at the tent anytime throughout the year (email worship@davidstentdc.org to start the process). In addition, we particularly want states to take their place in DC according to our state schedule. If state teams come to stay on our missions base, we ask that they drive their own cars because of Covid so they can avoid public transportation (buses, trains or planes). For state teams we provide the food and housing for only $132/person for the week! It’s such a good deal and such an amazing experience! The email for state teams is: stateweeks@davidstentdc.org.
We find that visiting teams come and receive an impartation of what God has given us. They leave refreshed and renewed in their relationships with God. They are sent back to their homes, their families, local churches, prayer rooms, college campuses, workplaces (or anywhere that God has assigned them!) with a fresh fire to love God and love people.
We really believe that one of the main strategies God has given us for seeing revival, awakening and reformation is to do what David did: raise the tents, praise the King and get everyone to sing!!!
Since David’s Tent goes year-round, that means we go through the winter! In the past month or so we have closed the walls of the tent and cranked up the heater so that we can sustain the worship without our hands falling off. Regardless of the temperature or weather outside, we keep singing! While the cold weather is a particular difficulty in the winter, it is also a particular opportunity to worship God in an even greater way through our sacrifice. We get to bring Him a sacrifice of praise and say from our Capital city, “we want You central in our lives and central in our nation!”
I’m so thankful for everyone that partnered with me this year as I’ve made a very significant and rewarding transition in my life.
At the moment I don’t plan on doing anything with my life vocationally besides serving David’s Tent DC and helping it multiply elsewhere in the world. I’ve wrestled with the thought of raising support for the rest of my life as I’m currently a volunteer for David’s Tent that raises my own support and relies on the generosity of others. As people partner with me in their prayers and finances, they are saying, “I don’t think you have to do something else with your life! Keep serving in Washington DC!” I’m really asking God for partners in prayer and finances so that I can do this with confidence the rest of my life! So thank you to each one of you that has partnered with me!
Speaking of partnership in prayer, here are my 4 main prayer requests:
Thank you all so much for your partnership, and I look forward to connecting more with you soon!!!
*I am now starting to post more stuff on Facebook, including live streams of leading worship at the tent. Feel free to check out my Facebook profile page at: https://www.facebook.com/nuttley1/
At the moment I don’t plan on doing anything with my life vocationally besides serving David’s Tent DC and helping it multiply elsewhere in the world. I’ve wrestled with the thought of raising support for the rest of my life as I’m currently a volunteer for David’s Tent that raises my own support and relies on the generosity of others. As people partner with me in their prayers and finances, they are saying, “I don’t think you have to do something else with your life! Keep serving in Washington DC!” I’m really asking God for partners in prayer and finances so that I can do this with confidence the rest of my life! So thank you to each one of you that has partnered with me!
Speaking of partnership in prayer, here are my 4 main prayer requests:
- Pray for my relationship with God. I want to know Him and be rooted and grounded in His love. When I’m walking closely with my Father I’m that much more able to serve and love others.
- Pray for our long term staff and visiting teams. We want to be unified just as the Father, Son and Spirit are unified. We also want more people to join us who are committed to David’s Tent long-term and full time. Pray for the local visitors and visiting teams from other states. We would love to be at a place where our full time David’s Tent staff get to focus fully on hosting visiting teams because there are so many people scheduled to lead worship!
- Pray for the lost to come to the tent and encounter Jesus in a personal way. Since we are a public prayer and praise tent, by nature we are evangelistic. I’m so excited to see God bring many people to Himself as we provide the spiritual atmosphere for an encounter with God
- Pray for God to send me the right partners at the right time. My goal is to have a host of intercessors praying for me and David’s Tent. Also I believe God told me to raise at least $2,000/month in financial partnership and I’m at about $700/month at the moment. Could you be someone that God would invite to partner with me financially?
Thank you all so much for your partnership, and I look forward to connecting more with you soon!!!
*I am now starting to post more stuff on Facebook, including live streams of leading worship at the tent. Feel free to check out my Facebook profile page at: https://www.facebook.com/nuttley1/
