Sherds from a jar of clay

Next Sunday my church will have it's quarterly day of prayer. This happens between each Sunday school semester in lieu of adult Sunday school classes and is a time when all the adults are invited to come meet together in a time of directed group prayer for the concerns of the church and the city. One of our associate pastors spoke on this to the congregation during the Living Church portion of the service. One of the things he noted was that only a quarter of the number of people who attend adult Sunday school generally attend the day of prayer and he challenged more to come.

There have been discussions about this lack of attendance going on in the pews and on blogs. So I am adding my own take on things here.

I think that in the Presbyterian church (at least in my limited exposure to it) there is a lack of emphasis on prayer, especially participatory prayer or prayer that helps to train one in the habit, practice and language of prayer. The main prayer I am familiar with at my church and its events and bible studies are these: Prayer offered by a pastor or other elder from the front of the church to which the people quietly listen for an often protracted period of time, prayers that open meals or meetings and are generally brief and generally done by a pastor, elder or other recognized leader, prayers in bible studies or other small groups that generally consist of a long period of taking personal prayer requests and a shorter period of prayer where people can pray out loud for the various needs if they want to (it is my experience that it is the same 2 to 3 people, including the group leader, in any given group that do pray and that many don't pray out loud or only do so rarely).

I think an emphasis on learning and exegesis of scripture and study of theology in the Presbyterian church may couple with a lack of emphasis on prayer to make people feel that coming to pray is less important then coming to learn and study. Not that I necessarily think Presbyterians would say this is true but I think the way the worship experience and the Sunday school classes are set up could lead people to feel this way about a day of prayer compared to a Sunday school class.

I grew up in an Episcopal church (in the 60's and 70's) and later attended some strong bible believing nondenominational churches. I know that there can be problems with or reasons not to use written prayers or repeated set prayers like I grew up with but I think they had a couple of good advantages relevant to what I see lacking in the comfort level many around me seem to have with prayer.
1) they schooled me in the language and practice of prayer simply by doing it and hearing it every week. Having them in my head gives me patterns and words to draw on in my own times of prayer and times of need (the same would be true of the oral use of the psalms and other prayers found in the Bible)
2) In responsive prayers and the Lord's prayer I prayed out loud (granted as part of a larger group of voices) every week, again a habit and an implicit statement that prayer was something for me to do, not just the pastor.
3) My family prayed at home: at meals, at bed time and at other times in between especially at times of need or thanksgiving (ours or others). Granted we had an advantage in that my dad was the pastor so I may have had more consistency in this then others and my dad didn't hesitate to have us pray before meals in restaurants, or to offer prayer in other public settings. But I think the combination of these practices gave me an understanding that prayer should be natural at all times and in all places. ( I tend to assume other believers pray at home just because I do, but I am probably wrong, I can remember being at another pastors house for a sleep over as a child and not knowing how to start eating dinner because they hadn't had one so I did it myself under my breath)
4) Prayer was an intregral part of worship in a more liturgical church and was woven throughout out the entire service, not just a separate part of it, The congregation had prayers to say out loud as a participatory/responsive aspect of the ongoing worship. There were also occasional times for silent personal prayer. I know that some people think such rote prayers are meaningless, this can be true but I think it can be true of any prayer or any tradition, it all has to do with the heart. Most of those prayers on most days were and still are very meaningful to me. On communion Sundays I often still bring my Episcopal prayer book with me and say some of the prayers from it, especially the confession, during the silent time of prayer because they really have meaning and help me to focus and prepare my heart.

Anyway, I think many people are very uncomfortable with prayer days, prayer times in bible studies, leading prayer in their home etc. largely because they aren't comfortable with or familiar with prayer as something done by anyone but a pastor or other leader in a public setting. We need to do a better job of exampling prayer and of giving each other the tools for and understanding of prayer as something we can and should do and something that connects us to God and others through his Holy Spirit and not as something we just listen too.

We also need to be more willing to share our personal lives in prayer (in appropriate settings and with appropriate people) so that we can in prayer "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep". My extended family has been going through a lot this past year and it has been the power and support of a network of praying friends who have shared our burdens and God's blessings that have made the difference in how we have gotten through things. I think we are often afraid or too proud to ask for prayer and expose our needs.

Suggestions:
-More opportunities for people to pray in corporate and none/minimal threatening ways.
-Not being so afraid that written or repeated prayers will be empty but to use them as a way of gaining comfort with the habit and language of prayer with out the fear of worrying about what to say or what others will think of what you say. (I also learned a lot of theology from some of the written prayers that I said and heard regularly)
-Offering instruction, encouragement and guidelines for family and personal prayer to help people make it a habit.
-Read more about prayer what it is, ways of doing it, why it is important, how God uses it.
I am currently using a bible study on prayer called Before the Throne of God by Carol Ruvolo and recently finished Prayer by O. Hallesby
-Incorporate teaching on prayer into our sermons as appropriate. One of the biggest "buzz in the pew" sermons preached at my church was one called "Prayer Lessons For Firekeepers" that was on 1 Kings 17 and 18. I still have the little summary card they later gave out. I keep it in my bible as a reminder of some of the attributes that should characterize my prayer for God's church and kingdom.
-Remember to be an example of prayer your self, don't just tell someone who shares a burden that you will pray "for" them, pray "with" them right then and also pray for them later. You will both be blessed.

That said I will have to really try and make it to the day of prayer, I have to admit that I am not always consistent in my attendance to this event.

Post Script: I was thinking about the post over lunch and just want to clarify that I don't think that there are certain words we need to have for a prayer to be effective or heard or a magic formula to prayer or anything like that. It can take many forms and any heartfelt communication to God is a good prayer (we are even told in scripture that the Spirit groans with us and speaks for us when we don't have the words). However, I think especially with praying out loud in a corporate setting people feel uncomfortable with what to say and how to approach God so as not to sound foolish, a familiarity with the general language of prayer or experience having prayed out loud before aids the believer in naturally expressing the desires and feelings of his heart with out feeling so selfconcious.