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August 3, 2014 4:00 pm

6 ways to avoid doing the intercessions

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by    in Liturgy,Prayer

Church services usually include times of prayer, where someone will come to the front and make a few petitions. In liturgical settings, there will be a call and response such as “Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer”; in more charismatic settings, there will simply be shouts of “Amen!” coming from the congregation.

These prayers of thanksgiving and of petition for the world can be more formulaic than liturgy. Some churches recommend that they follow a pattern: pray for the world, for the church, for potential mission partners, for the Queen, for local leaders, etc. While such guidance is useful, it can lead to intercessions becoming a checklist.

intercessions

Background photo: Ben Harris, reused under CC license

When it turns into something that has to be “done”, it also turns, for the congregation, as something that has to be gone through. The perverse effect can be that, on top of making intercessory prayer something deeply unattractive, “doing” the intercessions will mean, for some in the congregation and maybe even for the person doing them, that chore is done for the week ahead.

I believe intercessory prayer is something deeply personal, because it must come from the heart.

So, should we stop having a time for intercessions at church? By no means! But rather than “doing” intercessions, whoever’s in charge should lead the congregation into intercessory prayer. This means:

  • being aware of this. When you’re leading the intercessions, you’re not in charge of interceding on behalf of the whole church. If there are bits you forget, then it’s not the end of the world.
  • slowing down. Prayer is not an exercise in wordiness (nor is it one in brevity). But by slowing down, you are giving the congregation the opportunity to take in the prayer and make it their own.
  • not being afraid of silence. In pauses, people can think of specific situations or people that they wish to pray for personally.
  • being explicit about the congregation’s role. This can be done through more or less explicit instructions (“As we call to mind …”), through the use of call and response, etc.
  • prayerful preparation. We do not know how to pray as we ought – that’s a given. And rambling prayers are good prayers, but they’re unlikely to lead others into prayer.
  • realising that there is a movement in intercessory prayer. Particularly, if intercessory prayer is an alignment of our will with God’s will, then contemplating God at the start explicitly can help.

If you’re not called to lead intercession (and if you are, too!), I’d also like to encourage you to re-read these points: when the leader should give opportunities, you should take them. Maybe, even if someone is doing the intercessions rather than leading you into them, you can then still participate.

Stop doing the intercessions. Start leading people into intercession.

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February 9, 2014 10:19 pm

How the Lord’s prayer is more than one line long

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by    in Prayer

“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven”

Matthew 6:10

This line of the Lord’s prayer is generally taken one of two ways:

  • it can be discarded as an introduction, much in the same way that the introductory verses to the Epistles are often left alone. That attitude is likely to lead to a “vending machine” approach to prayer.
  • it can be signposted all over our prayers: “we ask for this, but only if that’s in your plans”. When we do so, we are hedging our bets, and refusing to believe in the power of our prayer, or even that it would be accepted without that addendum.

will

The second attitude leads to another issue, however: it restricts what we pray for. I have been to many prayer meetings where all the prayers were either for specific people to come to Christ or for conditions in which people can come to Christ. Something like this:

“Dear Lord, help my brother to just, Lord, get back on his feet and, Lord, just have the strength to keep on sharing your word, Father, Amen”.

Admittedly, the trait is a bit forced. But these prayers sound to me like we’re trying to justify to God why he should listen to our prayers, because after all it’s in his benefit. Hardly the sign of a contrite heart. Worse, if it is done as part of corporate prayer, it can be a case of holier-than-thou prayeritis: “I don’t know about you, but I‘ve got the advancement of the Kingdom as my number one priority, so that’s all I’m going to pray for”. Hardly appropriate, especially given the context in which the Lord’s prayer was given to us.

But of course, corporate prayer develops its own culture. So individuals can hardly be blamed for such prayers if they are the norm. Equally, though, this highlights another issue with placing our prayers firmly within God’s will: it will stop others from praying for health, peace, or other things which appear unrelated with holy purposes.

It’s like a child who, having worked out that their parents wanted good education for him, would only ever ask for textbooks, and when fancying a bit of chocolate, would say “Please can I have some chocolate so I have magnesium to help my study”, or not say it at all. Ridiculous.

Naturally, aligning our own wills with God’s is a good thing to do. Discerning, and wanting His purpose is good – there is no doubt about that. And there is good reason to pray for people to come to faith – but no good reason for such prayers to be the only prayers said in meetings, or even for them to dominate them.

Ultimately, this line of the Lord’s prayer as a framing statement, a way to express our submission to our heavenly Father. As such, it tints every subsequent prayer – and rightly so. But not in terms of what we pray for – rather, in terms of the attitude with which we approach the throne.

So help your brothers and sisters to realise that everything can be prayed for. Next time, deliberately pray for things which aren’t directly related to people coming to Christ.

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June 23, 2013 4:25 pm

Size doesn’t matter

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by    in Prayer

Seriously. At least in terms of prayer.

size

Photo: Scott Akerman, re-used under CC license.

Long prayers are not more powerful than short ones.

I’ve heard prayers that sound like an auction, with as much as possible crammed into them. Tons of words, no breathing space, and oh so much mumbling. I don’t think that’s what Paul had in mind when he talked about groanings.

If you’re trying to make your prayer longer, you will be likely to repeat yourself, to forget who you’re praying to and therefore repeat it every other second. Worse, you are likely to switch who you’re praying to, from a simple “Father” at the start of your prayer to a “Lord Jesus” in the middle, to finish with  a hesitation between “In Your name” and “In the name of Your Son”.

Remember: whether to the Son or to the Father you are praying to a God who knows you intimately and who does not need you to justify your prayers. Being thorough in your prayers is not necessary.

Short prayers are not better than long prayers

Being concise is neither a sign of holiness, nor a sign of a Spirit-inspired prayer.

God is alive. The Spirit is alive. If you’re afraid that your prayers will go on for too long, and deny the Spirit a breathing space (pun intended), you may not allow yourself to be transformed by prayer. You may end up simply going through the motions of liturgical prayer without meaning any of it, because these prayers have been crafted through the ages and better than anything you could produce. Or you may end up not praying at all, because prayer becomes a perilous exercise in brevity and precision.

Remember: God is eternal. He has all the  time to hear and listen to your prayers, so don’t rush it!

Silence is okay, too

Prayer meetings have a tendency to bring pressure onto individuals to pray out loud. If in a meeting there’s, say, five prayer topics, and by the end of the fourth round, all I’ve said is “Amen”, it feels like I ought to say something.

But if I say something for the sake of saying something; if, to phrase it differently, my spoken prayer is directed to the people around me rather than to God, I might as well not say anything.

Remember: We are instructed to be slow to speak and quick to listen.

So what’s the score?

Long or short or silent/contemplative, all prayer is good, and no type is better than the other! If you’re praying long prayers to look holy, stop! If you’re praying short prayers to look intellectual enough to make them concise, stop! For your own sake.

But. If everyone in your prayer meeting tends to pray long prayers, it is likely that your short prayers will stand out. The converse also holds. If your prayers stand out, it is likely (though by no means automatic) that you are continuing to do them out of misplaced pride; and it is likely (though again by no means automatic) that it disrupts your friends’ prayer by being surprising.

So… adapt. For their sake. And maybe for your own, as you may find you like a new approach to prayer. But not out of a misplaced notion that one type of prayer is more effective than the other.

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June 16, 2013 9:57 pm

Punctures and the Spirit: 10 lessons

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by    in Lists

Sometimes, we feel deflated; like the Spirit (1) has left us; and it feels a bit like riding a bike with a flat tyre. In more ways than one, the simile is helpful:

puncturePhoto: SamuraiGhost, re-used under CC License

1. You can avoid punctures easily, by very carefully checking where you ride. The thing is, if you do, you might as well be walking, you’d be quicker.
There is a famous apocryphal story of a person who would engage in contemplative prayer before any decision, including getting out of bed. That sort of behaviour is safe, but not quite commendable.

2. Even without a puncture, tyres go flat. They’re porous. Therefore, they need regular top-ups. Just the same with our spiritual life: being baptised, or giving your life to Jesus, or whatever you did at the start of your Christian journey is still there. But on its own, it gets weak. Get praying.

3. A puncture needs repairing. You can try to bike on a flat tyre. It will be exhausting, especially uphill; and you won’t go quite as fast. Don’t rely on your own steam to get stuff done; make sure that you are relying on the Spirit. If you don’t, you may still get it done – but it will be far less pleasant.

4. Repairing does not need to be immediate. Especially if you have it in the middle of oncoming traffic. In order to carry out the relevant repairs, you need to stop and take the time to do it properly… and you can’t always do that in the middle of our busy lives. Don’t get me wrong, the repairs must happen, but it’s alright to finish off urgent tasks before dealing with the repairs. Get out of the oncoming traffic. But don’t use that as an excuse to keep on putting off the repairs.

5. Repairing requires the appropriate tools. If you carry them with you, it will allow you to have a speedier answer (I remember how a tour guide in Amsterdam carried around spare inner tubes). Biblical knowledge, prayer discipline, routine – all these are tools that can support your spiritual life. Find the ones that work with your type of punctures, and keep them around with you, even when you don’t need them. If nothing else, they can be of service to someone else with a puncture.

6. Having a friend with the adequate know-how can help. Someone to talk to, someone to support you in prayer, is always beneficial.

7. You need to deflate the inner tube a fair bit before you can get the tyres off. If you just keep on going at full steam, you won’t manage to fix the punctures. All you’ll do is pump air back into your tyre, and that will last every time less.

8. Most punctures are invisible. That’s why you do the whole inner-tube-in-a-bucket-of-water thing. If no matter what the amount of prayer you do, no matter your willingness to get closer to God, you keep on drifting away, there might be something holding you back. Find the hole in the inner tube, and fix it.

9. If you don’t make sure the inside of the tyre no longer has any glass shards in it, your inner tube will perforate quickly, although not necessarily immediately. Some punctures come from our daily habits, others from our environment, others from part of our identity. If we manage to repair, through prayer for instance, our inner tube, but go back to the same routine, we’re going to get another puncture quickly.

10. Even when a tyre seems to be flat, there’s still some air in it. Just because we don’t feel it quite as strongly as before, or even not at all, it doesn’t mean the Spirit has left us altogether! On the contrary, the Spirit is always with us, even when we don’t feel it.

Do you have any to add?

—

(1) Fittingly, the Greek for Spirit is πνεῦμα, which also means breath!

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March 24, 2013 5:39 pm

Value in simplicity

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by    in Liturgy

There are a few modern worship songs which annoy me because all they seem to say is “I’m a Christian” over and over again. Not only are modern worship songs formulaic (and include a lot of woh-ohing), they also feature a lot of repetition. At the other end of the spectrum, most hymns are wordy and can turn into a contest as to who can use the largest amount of words to describe a rather simple thing. Or spend an entire song to ask a question which can be answered with a single word: no.

simplicity

Personally, I tend to favour hymns (whether modern or ancient), because in the variation of lyrics, I can feel their flow and progression towards the resurrection. In that, they play their part in accompanying us in our worship, starting from simple description of facts and progressively including us – a bit like the “This is our story” eucharistic liturgy. That’s how, when they explode into the victory being won, that victory is truly ours.

But the issue with hymns is that they don’t let up. If I don’t know the hymn, I don’t quite have time to take in what I’m saying. The mind and soul are sometimes left trying to catch up with the lips. And by the time they have caught up, the liturgy is about to continue, without much time to actually own what we were singing. The same applies if we sing a song with simple lyrics but a complicated structure, where boredom takes over at the tenth special electric guitar riff.

Halfway between lyrical complexity and musical fanciness, though, there are songs which can only be described as simple. Take the Taize song “Oh Lord, hear my prayer“; or the African song “Hakuna wakaita sa Jesu“, meaning “There’s no one like Jesus”. Both of these have simple lyrics which get repeated – without fancy additions. The repetitive pattern, finally, allows the mind and soul to catch up with the lips, and the statement that there is no one like Jesus becomes truly our statement, rather than a trite, quaint little thing better left for Sunday school.

There is a true value in simple songs. And singing a song that just keeps on repeating itself is nothing to shirk from, or to compensate for with fun riffs or drum solo. Leaving enough time for the simple statement to gather momentum and weight, with no distractions or shame, leads (for me) to a deeper form of worship. And I absolutely adore it.

So here’s my suggestion for you: next time you worship, pick a simple song. Or simplify one by using simply the chorus. And sing it over and over again until you feel it is yours. Then finish with a moment of silence.

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