THE GREATEST SCHOOL OF PRAYER

The Greatest School of Prayer



Before we dip into the real dynamics of prayerthe really practical stuffwe need to talk about the place where, more than any other place, we learn about Christian prayer. Books help. Talking with others helps. But if you really want to learn about prayer, you are wise to spend time with others who pray. And that means going to worship, or church.

This may be more than you bargained for in buying this book. You may have just wanted a little guidance on how to pray by yourself. If that's the case, you should just skip this chapter and move on to Part 4, "The Big Book on the Big Issues." But I have to warn you: Anyone really interested in growing in Christian prayer will need to explore what it means to worshipand in this chapter I explain why.


Why Go to Church to Pray?

In many circles these days, "going to church" is socially incorrect, something only old ladies and the feeble-hearted do. Sophisticated people don't need that sort of "crutch" to get through the week. Then again, more Americans go to church each and every weekend than watch the Superbowl. Why? Church certainly isn't as entertaining as the Superbowlor the Superbowl commercials.

And it isn't as if anyone in the community is going to look down on them, like people used to do. No, some go to church because they want to be with friends. Others actually believe all that church stuff, or at least want to. Still others go because they really want to learn how to pray. But how exactly? Let's find out.


1 We Learn from Others

This is something I mentioned a couple of chapters ago, so I won't spend a lot of time with it here. Simply put, if you're serious about learning anythinggolf, carpentry, cooking, or whateveryou spend time with others trying to learn the same thing. You take classes, you find a mentor, you try to get around people who know what they're doing. Why should it be any different in prayer?


2 We Get Stretched

One thing I've noticed about taking classes when I'm trying to learn something new: At some point, the teacher always pushes me to do something I didn't think I was capable of. When I took a class in creative writing, I expected to get weeks of lectures about various techniques. After we had studied all that, I figured we'd get to try our hand at putting it all together and writing a short story.

No way. We wrote stories from day one. I didn't know exactly what I was doing a lot of the time, but I was learning pretty quickly.

The same is true of prayer in church: It challenges us to stretch ourselves. For example, one key practice in Christian prayer is to pray for political leaders (I told you, prayer can be challenging). During my day-to-day existence, I don't give a whole lot of thought to government leadersand when I do think about them, it's often in disgust. I end up cursing them a lot more than praying for them.

But in my church, we pray for ''our president, our governor, and those in authority in communities comprising Saint Mark's parish." There are some weeks I'm pretty unhappy with the president, and yet there I am being called upon to pray for him so that he would manage the office well and make decisions that are just. Some weeks it's a stretch to really mean itbut that's one of the points of praying in the church.


3 We Hear God in Special Ways

Prayer is a two-way conversation, and one of the best places to tune into what God is saying to you is in church. This happens to me in one of three ways.


First, there is the reading of Scripture. This is, after all, the "word of God," which means in some sense that it is God's speech to us. As common as many biblical teachings arelike "Love one another," "Do not bear false witness," and "God so loved the world"I can never hear them enough because I always need reminders of what the world is really like.

On top of that, as I hear the Scripture read, often I hear not just a general word but a message for me. I don't know how to explain it (theologians call it the influence of the Holy Spirit), but sometimes when I hear a passage readlet's say it's Jesus saying, "Love your neighbor as yourself"the image of a relative who has been irritating the bejeebers out of me will pop into my head. I know at that moment that someone is trying to tell me something.

The second way I hear God in church is through the sermon. In fact, I've never failed to hear some message for me in any sermon when I'm leaning forward trying to hear something for me. And I've heard some pretty lousy preachers. But even the worst preacher I've ever listened to always had at least one sentence or one phrase that caught my attention. And when it did, I would often have to stop listening to him as I considered what that little bit might mean for me.

The third way I hear God is less rational and more intuitive. God's word sneaks up on me in a service when I least expect it. One Sunday it was a sentimental song of the children's choir that helped me sense God's forgiveness. Another Sunday, I was overwhelmed with the breadth of the Christian community as I watched peopleyoung and old, male and female, wealthy and modest, liberals and conservatives, and so onall file forward and kneel to receive communion. Another Sunday still, it was a couple of children whispering in the pew in front of me that caused me to reflect more deeply about God's love.


Just when I've gotten bored or irritated with the routine and what seems superficial in church, God will surprise me like that with another bit of grace from him. And it wouldn't have happened had I not been present.


4 We Learn to Pray in Community

This is the heart of Christian prayer. As we noted in Chapter 5, "The Prayer to Begin All Prayer: Part 1," a key to Christian prayer is found in the pronouns we, us, and our. So when we gather with others to worship and pray, we are experiencing the most profound form of Christian prayer.

Certainly, we can enjoy moments of private prayer that blow us away. But it's like, excuse the analogy, the difference between cheering for the Chicago Cubs (or whomever) from your living room or rooting them on from a box seat at Wrigley Field. It's great to watch the team on TV, but there's nothing like being in the stadium with other fans.


The Bible paints a variety of pictures about what heaven will be like, but, invariably, the images all involve lots of people, enjoying new life and praising God together. One classic scene in the Book of Revelation, for instance, speaks of thousands upon thousands of people and angels standing around the throne of God: "And they fell face down before the throne and worshipped God. They said, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and forever. Amen'" (7:1112).

Some Christian traditions (including the Eastern Orthodox) go so far as to say that when we attend worship, we are getting a glimpse of heaven. Some Sundays, I'm not so sure; other Sundays, I pretty much believe it.

Objections to Going to Church

There are lots of good reasons not to go to church. I've been going to church now for some 35 yearsbelieve me, I've seriously considered every one of them.


The Church Is Full of Hypocrites

Agreed. Lots of them. The problem is, I can't think of an organized group that isn't full of hypocrites. I've known Christians who pray to a God of love on Sunday and then act like the devil on Monday. But I've also known liberal-minded professors who don't exactly act liberally toward conservatives. I've seen managers of health clubs who are overweight. And I've yelled at my children for not picking up after themselves, only to discover five minutes later that I left my coffee cup on the TV.


It seems that all sorts of institutionseducational, fitness, even the familyis full of hypocrites, and I have to count myself one. Which means to say, for me, it's always been a lame excuse not to go to church.

I Don't Need the Church:I Can Pray by Myself

Agreed again. As we've noted, prayer is about personal communion with God. Not only can I pray by myself, but I should pray by myself.

The only problem I've found is that when I skip church, I don't spend as much time in prayer. I may go off to a secluded setting, beneath a full red maple on a quiet patch of land on a local forest preserve. But it's pretty tough to worship there for an hour, and it's pretty tough to keep my focus for long.

This is a pretty common experience. When I was a pastor, people used to say to me, "I don't come to church, but I worship God on my own." At that point, I'd ask them how much time they had actually spent worshipping God on their own in the last month. Invariably, it was only a few paltry minutes.

This is not to say that the quality of prayer is determined by the quantity. That's hardly the case. But it's also silly to say that it's only quality time that matters. I've tried telling my boss that I'm going to give him 20 hours of quality time this week. He doesn't buy it. If I'm serious about prayer, then I can't be squeezing it in between the margins of a busy life. And in my experience, that means devoting some time to it.

The empirical fact is that most people don't pray as muchquantity or qualitywhen they depend on themselves to pray.

Church Is Boring

Indeed. Then again, when I find myself saying this regularly, I start feeling pretty juvenile. It drives me crazy when my teenagers say they're bored; they act like boredom is the ultimate existential crisis. I guess I'm hoping that I have evolved from teenagehood.


The difference between teenagers and adults is supposed to be this: As an adult, once you decide that something is important, you take the trouble to figure out why you're bored and then do something about it. You don't hang around waiting for others to entertain you.

In the case of church, I may be angry at God, or I may not really want to be there, or I may just find the minister dull. Well, I can deal with my anger, or figure out why I'm there. As a last resort, I could change churches.


The Church Is Not My Kind of Place

I hope not. If the church becomes a place where you feel pretty comfortable, you're probably no longer experiencing God. For all of the comfort, grace, hope, and other nice things God gives us, he also is in the business of helping us mature and grow. And that means he's going to make us decidedly uncomfortable at times.

When it comes to the church, an extended quote by the writer C. S. Lewis, one of the leading scholars of English literature in his day, is worth quoting. It sums up my experience, anyway:

When I first became a Christian. . . . I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my room and reading theology, and I wouldn't go to churches. . . . I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren't fit to clean those boots.


Prayer is not just about feeling closer to God and feeling better about the world. It's about allowing God to transform us into the people he has created us to be. For most of us, that means learning to respect and love people who are starkly different than us. One place we meet such people is in church, which is a ragtag collection of people who have little in common but this: They've gathered to worship Jesus Christ. With all that discomforting diversity, it's an awfully good place to be transformed by God into someone who actually can love all manner of people.

Churches Make Things Too Complicated

I'm sorry. If I haven't made it clear that prayer is a complex and mysterious event, then I've not done my job. To step into the world of prayer is the easiest of thingsa simple sigh to God is enough to get you started. But if we're interested in growing in prayer, then we're going to be challenged. Granted, churches can make things more complicated than they really are. On the other hand, if they're going to be honest about prayer, the way churches pray and talk about prayer is going to sound a tad complicated sometimes.

I Don't Believe All That Church Nonsense

Yeahme, too, a lot of days. The church is indeed a miserable little institution sometimes, but it also happens to be a place where Jesus said he promises to make himself known. And, for all its flaws, I've not found a better place, week in and week out, to learn about Christian prayer.


In summary: If you're convinced, you may want to look at "Prayer in the Free Church Tradition," and "Prayer in the Liturgical Tradition," now. Otherwise proceed. . . .