I’ve been thinking about the practice of prayer in church history for the last week. My family attended Central Christian Church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi when I was a kid. My dad’s mentor was the pastor, Dr. Lee Hargus. On occasion my dad would preach in his place. As a college student, dad gave me a few of his sermon manuscripts to look over. One thing I noticed was that dad always typed out his prayers. It was obvious he’d put thought into what he was going to say to our Father in Heaven before praying publicly. It’s something I haven’t seen often in the Baptist world, and it got me thinking about how we pray.
Jesus taught his disciples (and us) to pray, which the Gospel writers recorded (here and here). He modeled a prayerful life (to be real, his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane always comes to mind), and the Apostle Paul told us to pray without ceasing. So we know, to a certain extent, how to pray (and how not to pray), when to pray (constantly and consistently), who to pray for (even our enemies), and where to pray (at least sometimes). But I’ve been thinking more this week about how we’ve prayed over the centuries.
I’m not thinking about content, which is often very private and intimate (although not always). Instead I’m thinking about methods. For thousands of years we have been writing their prayers. What are the Psalms, if not poetic prayers written to be sung? The same is true of today’s hymns and songs. I’m reminded of the collections of prayers and liturgies of the Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox, and Anglicans (among others).
How are we bringing the arts into our prayer practice?
You may have heard of the 24-7 Prayer boiler rooms. If not, check them out. The goal is to have groups praying 24 hours, 7 days a week, for as long as they choose to go. At the Passion Conferences in Nashville (the two I’ve attended) and the Thirsty Conference in 2004 in Atlanta, there were guided prayer sessions, where students and ministers commit to pray for a set time (usually an hour). We were given topics and suggestions to pray through as we guided ourselves through stations. Jonny Baker offers his worship tricks (one, two, and three)- among them many different aids to guided prayer.
The goal is to communicate to God. But sometimes we just simply don’t have the words. Or maybe we bring our heart into it better by singing or writing our prayers out. Sometimes we need stations that guide us through prayer on a particular topic. What are some ways you’ve experienced creative prayer?
