Prayer (again)

They raised their voices together to God …When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:24/31

The early Christians in Jerusalem were in a tough place. For they were a small group of ordinary people, they were following a discredited leader who’d been killed by a brutal occupying power working in cahoots with the religious authorities, and their two main spokesmen had just been arrested for illegal preaching. So, when those men were released from custody, what did they do? It would have been natural for them to turn in on themselves and have a good moan about their woes.

But that’s not what these good folk did. They certainly cried out to God, but it wasn’t to complain about their situation. No: against all the odds, they asked for boldness to speak out and even do miracles in Jesus’ name. We are told that the room where they were meeting was then shaken by God’s power. He was clearly pleased with them!

Since I’ve come to this Church I’ve realised that we’re pretty good at organising things, whether that be the Holiday Club, the Fairs, the Panto, Bring-and-Share Lunches, the 50^th Anniversary Concert or whatever. I’ve been impressed by the way that these things get put together with so much good humour and so little argy-bargy – things aren’t like that in lots of churches, especially when people have different ideas or when they start treading on each others’ “patches”! We’re pretty good at worship, too.

But one thing that we’re not good at is praying together – I know this has been voiced by other ministers and deacons down through the years. We have a weekly prayer meeting which is attended by a tiny handful of folk (and I recognise that it’s at an inconvenient time for some); when I ask for someone to say a prayer in a meeting I’m often met with an uncomfortable silence; and it was quite difficult to find people to pray on our community Prayer Walk, even though I’d prepared detailed guidance for them – although I was really delighted at those who did!

Now I know that praying can be hard. I’m probably a bit different to most of you, because I don’t find leading public prayer difficult. That, of course, is because I’ve learned how to do it over the years: my problem lies is not repeating the same old tired phrases! On the other hand I can honestly say that I’m finding it harder and harder to pray by myself at home: it’s not easy to get started, and my mind all too easily loses its focus. So perhaps I’ve got some re-learning to do there.

Corporate prayer ought to lie at the heart of a church’s life. By this I’m not just thinking of prayer for individuals or our community, good as these are. Rather I’m thinking of gatherings where we cry out to God together, saying: “Lord, what are you telling us to do? What amazing plans do you have for us? We feel weak – so how can we receive the power to do what you’re asking us to do?” The obvious place for this to happen would be at Church Meetings: yet in 31 years of ministry I’ve never encountered one remotely like that.

What can we do about this? I don’t know. One idea, voiced at Church Meeting, was to have occasional times of “Multi-sensory” prayer, informal gatherings where we can experience creative forms of prayer. That’s an excellent idea, and we’ll try to do it in the New Year – but it’s not really what I have in mind. So I’m open to suggestions!

A hymnwriter once said that “Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air”. We all need air if we are to survive and thrive; and churches need prayer if they are to do the same.

(This is a revised version of Andrew’s message at the September Church Meeting).