At our vision day a few weeks back now, my little congregation decided our prayer life needed an overhaul. Our pre-service prayer meeting had bitten the dust and the take-up on the two alternatives was very limited. Two people undertook to do something about it - one to set up a phone-based prayer network and another to get some study guides on prayer. Both have been done but the uptake is still virtually nil. So it falls to me - stalwart supporter of all the endeavours they come up with - to do a bit of preaching on prayer over the summer. It's one of those themes I seem to have to return to at least once a year, and what I'd love to do - to set aside six weeks to epxerience different styles of prayer - would not be deeemd appropriate for Sunday worship. Instead, I'm trying to think up some new avenues to explore and some new ways of doing so within the broadly familiar framework of Dibley sensibilities.
So far, aside from the usual themes (such as praise, confession, intercession etc) I have come up with one avenue to explore which is the whole area of private and corporate prayer. How does one balance Matthew 6:5ff (go into your room and shut the door) with various bits of Acts where the believers are met together praying? Given that most of the open prayer times in deacons' meeting are filled with embarassed silence, never mind any such endeavours at church (though I can usually get a few spontaneous thank you prayers), should I also be picking up spoken and silent prayer as a theme?
Answers on a postcard to the usual address!
Comments
We decided before Lent that I needed to preach on prayer. Aaaaaargh! definitely the wrong man for the job, but once I'd discovered myself to be a man of straw and admitted to being as much of a learner as anyone else I've actually found the process very helpful.
An initial totally unscientific survey at a Lent supper (like Ramadan, but less frugal!) suggested that most people felt more comfortable praying on their own or with a small group (so that explains the empty prayer meetings!). Also that everyone needed different stimuli ranging from complete and unattainable silence and time, to other people, to ironing.
Three weeks preaching just gave everyomne something to disagree with. Then a series of three housgroups talking about Richard Foster's three directions in prayer: moving inwards, upwards and outwards. Revealed the differences between even the usual suspects who attend thses things, split between just about every personality type in the book. from tidy orderly prayer at a set time and place to sprawling prayer on the run or deep contemplative prayer. How does God ever cope with this lot?
Useful resources have been Richard Foster's 'Prayer' - a bit exhaustive! Margaret Silf's 'Growing Deeper in Prayer' - very practical, particularly her explanation of lectio divina as 'finding the chocolate' and 'packed lunch prayer' to carry through the day. Mark Stibbe's 'Temple Model of Prayer' - can't remember the title offhand - looked initially promising, but we'd already found out too much about our differing approaches without adding further patterns to complicate things.
We'll meet again soon (core group of about 6) to see if we can suggest any ways of weaving this learning into the church's corporate prayer life, but I suspect we may end up with lots of little bits rather than one big centralised meeting (with two people attending as ever).
In the meantime I've started going away for spiritual accompaniment every 4 to 6 weeks myself and finding it valuable, but I only tell you that to make myself sound holier.
What you've described before about your lunchtime soup sessions sounds sort of prayery. I guess it all depends on what we expect corporate prayer to look like and to contain.
P.S. Churches Together in England and Other Places linked to some Radio 4 lent services about different streams of prayer and worship -might have been this year. I printed some of it off for a rainy day and could probably find the details if you wanted to have a look at those too.
Lunchtime soup sessions are indeed sort of prayery and were the springboard for the monthly ones. Alas asking people to bring and share rather than the minister supplying all their needs seems to put people off. Still, only 5 months til Advent...!
We have 3 prayer events per year that usually last 4 hours and operate on come for as much or as little as you want. Each hour is very different, some silent, some interactive (YP led), Prayer stations, prayer walking, extempore and even liturgical. But they are not well attended even though we asked what would get you to the prayer night! I even wrote a long article for the church mag about what to expect if they did come. www.cottroad.org.uk/site/documents/JUNE2008A5.pdf
I have preached on prayer, led and written bible studies on it for house group. Yet the congregation still struggle with the whole concept of gathering for prayer. I used Celebration of Discipline as a starting point. I looked at spoken prayer, silent prayer, prayers in the bible, retreats of Jesus and the language of prayer.
When I asked an older member, she told me that the church had never in it's history been expected to pray before, and she should know she started on the day it opened!
The best open prayer I ever get is when I put pictures on the screen play some music and suggest that they come an light candles - in a Baptist Church. Instead of the usual embarrassed silence I get at least a 1/3 of the congregation to join in and they usually say what the candle is lit for.
Keep Praying
Richard
PS Thanks for your comment earlier – you are right 5 year blues.
In the interests of accuracy, I have to report that the title of the excellent book on prayer by Margaret Silf (one of several, I understand) is:
'Close to the Heart - a Practical Approach to Personal Prayer' (Loyola press, 1999).
I wasn't even close!