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Spiritual Habit 1

Praying

The exquisite risk is twofold:

the risk to still our own house so that Spirit can come through

so that we might drop into the vital nature of things,

and the risk to then let that beautiful knowing

inform our days.11

– Mark Nepo

“The greatest change took place in our congregation when we started praying.” The man had been asked to share at a gathering about his church’s journey as a transforming congregation. “Oh, we’ve always said prayers as a church; but now we’re really praying. Our leaders gather once a week to pray for our ministry, to pray for people in the congregation, and to pray for each other. It’s helped us connect with each other and with God in new ways.”

“We all felt a little awkward at first,” another woman from the same congregation said. She turned to another woman sitting next to her in the circle. “I guess that sounds awful, doesn’t it? That praying was so awkward for church people? But it was. Then our pastor taught us several different ways we could pray at home. Last Lent, we each committed to thirty minutes of prayer every day. I couldn’t imagine what I would find to pray about for that amount of time, but I gave it a try. Sometimes I journaled. Sometimes I read something inspiring, or listened to music, or prayed while I walked, or just meditated in silence. The time was up before I knew it!”

“Learning to pray sure was the first step for our congregation.” A leader from another church spoke up. “I don’t think we could have taken all the other steps we’ve taken as a congregation if we hadn’t begun with prayer. Now the church feels … I guess I would say less religious and more spiritual.”

Another woman from the other side of the circle joined in. “I would say we’re calmer too. The little things don’t stir us up like they used to. It all started for our congregation when we installed a labyrinth in our church hall. People from the neighborhood started coming in to walk it during their lunch hour and we’ve used it for several prayer services.”

“On Wednesday nights, we have a worship service that’s just quiet music playing for a half hour. I come because it’s a place of rest and it makes a difference in the rest of my week,” a younger woman added. “Our church feels more peaceful than it did a few years ago. Even our business meetings seem to have a different tone. We’ve shifted from an organization which talks about God to a community which connects with God.”

Transforming congregations learn to rely, not on their own power, but on the power of the Spirit that runs like sap through the core of their being. Like a tree planted by water, those who pray send out roots by the stream of God’s life-giving love.

It shall not fear when heat comes,

and its leaves shall stay green;

In the year of drought it is not anxious,

and it does not cease to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Prayer provides transforming congregations with the resilience they need to thrive even in stressful times.

Coping with Anxiety

Change in the cultural landscape creates anxiety for North Americans. Grief due to a loss of status, members, and support causes anxiety in the church. Anxiety is the automatic reaction to a threat, real or imagined.12 Anxiety in the human body makes muscles tighten and jaws clench. It creates the feeling of being bound up and weighed down. Anxiety in the Body of Christ causes narrow-minded thinking, irritability, and hopelessness. Over time, it can become disorienting and debilitating.

In order to cope with anxiety, people living today often fall back on two coping strategies their cave-dwelling ancestors used when their stress level was raised by the threat of a large beast: fight or flight. When people are anxious, they may work harder, believing that success is all up to their own efforts, or they may give up, believing that they can do nothing to change the situation. On the one hand, they try to ease anxiety by controlling it; on the other, they try to flee anxiety by escaping it.13

Some people fight anxiety by trying to micro-manage those people, places, or things over which they believe they still have influence. They construct a sense of order amid chaos by reducing growing complexity into simplistic categories. To keep intact those categories, however, requires disregarding the growing diversity in the world by limiting their relationships to include only those who are like them. Eventually, they may begin making a habit of avoiding contact with people, events, or ideas that challenge their way of thinking and ignoring conflicting information by mentally categorizing it as unimportant.14

Control can also take the form of blame. Rather than engage in thoughtful reflection that leads to responsible action when anxiety appears, people divide themselves into political camps of like-minded people and alienate those who do not share their same beliefs. They view only the network that gives them the news with the slant that matches their own ideology. They read only read the books and visit only the websites that confirm beliefs they already hold. They look for scapegoats to impute—all for the sake of maintaining the illusion that they are in charge of what is happening.

Escape is the second way people try to ease anxiety. They flee to the private realm in order to isolate themselves from the distress of the public arena. Ironically, they insulate themselves from the unpleasantness of the changing world by becoming consumers of its products. They invest in a large number of diversions the technological industry makes available to them. Those who can afford to, come home to large houses surrounded by acreage in gated communities and hole up in front of big screen televisions in home theaters where movies and shows provide respite from the complications of daily life. They engross themselves in worlds created by video games. They lose themselves in applications available on their mobile phones. They immerse themselves in the traumas of celebrities or in the battles of their favorite sports teams, living vicariously through the triumphs and defeats of the stars.

Congregations often try to escape the discomfort of anxiety by attempting to make everyone in the church feel comfortable. To do so, they circulate surveys and then build their ministry around the personal preferences of the majority of their members, or make compromises to make the most people happy. They design worship with something for everyone and chase after those who leave the church, assuring them that the congregation will construct its ministry around their specific desires.

Congregations that try to appease everyone may feel harmonious, but their interactions often stay at a surface level. In order to avoid conflict, they often remain passive and avoid making decisions by continually dithering. In order to avoid taking responsibility, they often invest in an outside source of authority that will make decisions for them. They look to the expert who will provide a quick fix, or to the pastor who will save the church.

Other congregations escape anxiety by pretending everything is fine. They hunker down and ignore the changes that have taken place around them. Their participants busy themselves with their individual lives, their individual careers, their individual families and friends. They go to church to have their needs met by the minister who has been hired or appointed to do just that. As long as the clergyperson is doing the job, he or she is allowed to stay. If the pastor begins making them uncomfortable by calling the church to be something more, it is likely that pastor will be fired or reassigned.

Control and escape may provide respite from anxiety in the short-run, but as coping strategies, they do not make for healthy communities in the long-run. Over-functioning by taking responsibility for everything leads to exhaustion; under-functioning by bolting the door against distress leads to loneliness. Keeping harmony leads to superficiality; cutting oneself off from others leads to fragmentation. No matter how much power North Americans gain, how much they buy, how much happiness they pursue, they are left with the nagging truth that they cannot control everything nor can they escape every discomfort that life dishes out.

Prayer calls transforming congregations to solitude rather than escape, to letting-go rather than control. Through prayer, they find serenity, even amid the noise and chaos of change. Prayer connects them to the power and presence of the Spirit that resides within and among them.

Connecting to the Sacred Spirit

Because the Spirit is an invisible life-force, the Bible uses the language of poetry to describe its nature and activity. It depicts the Spirit as a bird that descends from out of the blue,15 as a fire that comes to rest upon individuals, giving them the ability to speak the words of God,16 and as power that fills people up so that the selfish ego disappears.17 It portrays the Spirit as life-giving water that pours out over a thirsty land, like a stream that brings nourishment and growth to dry ground.18 It describes the Spirit as a lover that captivates,19 causing people to lose track of time and overwhelming them with wonder, adoration, and gratitude. It affirms that it is possible to dwell in the Spirit20 and that the Spirit can lift people up out of the mundane like a whirlwind carrying individuals through mystical visions into another reality.21

The Christian tradition teaches Jesus was so filled up with the Spirit that he became a Spirit-Man, both fully divine and fully human. John’s Gospel claims what was possible for Christ is also possible for Christ’s followers: “To all received him, who believed in this name, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). Just as Jesus became a Spirit-Man, other ordinary people can become spiritual human beings filled with the power of God and enlivened by that creative Spirit. For the Apostle Paul, living “in the Spirit” was the same as living “in Christ.”22 Throughout his letters, he interchangeably used the phrases “Spirit,” “Spirit of God,” and “Spirit of Christ.” He understood the presence of the Risen Christ to be the same as the Spirit of God. When the church dwelt in Christ, it could access the energy of the Spirit and live in the fullness of life.

The Bible described the activity of the Spirit as wind and breath: ruach (roo-ach) in Hebrew and pneuma (noo-ma) in Greek. The book of Genesis proclaimed that the Sacred Spirit had been present since the creation of the world when it swept over the waters like a wind.23 That wind-like energy was creative and life-giving but also unpredictable and uncontrollable. “The wind blows where it chooses,” Jesus told Nicodemus. “You hear the sound of it but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8a).

The book of Acts described the wind blowing through Jesus’ followers, taking away their fear and empowering them to speak with boldness. On Pentecost, the disciples were all together in one place when, suddenly, they heard a sound like the rush of a violent wind. It filled the whole house where they sat. Then flames of fire appeared among them and one flame rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.24 The Spirit came upon the disciples unannounced and enabled them to communicate in a global context.

Centuries earlier, the prophet Joel had heard God speak of such a time when the power of the Spirit would be made available, not to just a few religious leaders, but to everyone.

“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” God told Joel.

“Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

Your old men shall dream dreams

And your young men shall see visions

Even on the male and female slaves,

In those days, I will pour out my spirit.” (Joel 2:28b-29)

The Spirit could not be contained in one nation’s customs or language; it had been set loose in the world and could be found everywhere, if people only had eyes to see it.

The second Creation Story described the Spirit as the breath of life. God breathed life into the nostrils of the adam (human) made from the adamah (humus) and that breath animated the dirt causing it to become a self-aware human being who could think, choose, and take action.25 The Psalmist expressed a common belief of ancient people:

When you take away their breath they die

And return to their dust.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created;

And you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104: 29b-30)

For there to be life, the breath of the Spirit had to be present.

The book of Ezekiel told the story of a prophet who had a vision of a valley full of dry bones. God spoke to the bones through Ezekiel, “I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live” (Ezekiel 37:5b). God laid sinews on the bones and caused flesh to come upon them, but muscles and skin alone did not make for life. It was only when the breath entered the bodies that they lived.26 The breath – the ruach – was the life-force, the energy that caused them to become living human beings who could stand on their own two feet.27

In the Gospel of John we read that the disciples were holed up in a locked room after Jesus’ crucifixion because they were anxious. But Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Then he sent them out to continue the work God sent him to do.28 The breath enlivened them and allowed them to carry on Jesus’ ministry in the world.

The Spiritual Habit of Prayer

In transforming congregations a high percentage of individuals take time each day to engage in the ancient Christian practice of listening prayer. Listening prayer connects them with the empowering and enlivening Spirit. In Mark Nepo’s words, it allows them to still their own house and drop into the vital nature of things. It expands the eyes of their heart so that they can see the underlying oneness of all creation. It allows them to align their heart with the heart of God. It bonds them to a Spiritual energy that dispels anxiety and teaches them what it means to live as the authentic Self that is created in the divine image.

“I didn’t know how I would fit prayer into my life,” one young mother confessed, “but now I get up a half hour before the kids get up. When I take time to pray, it settles me down and gives me a sense of peace. That peace allows me to take on the challenges in the rest of the day without getting rattled by them. Prayer helps me tell the difference between the voice of God and all the other voices in my life. I wouldn’t trade my morning time for anything!”

Listening prayer comes in many forms including but not limited to:

1 PRAYING WITH THE IMAGINATION: Ignatius of Loyola encouraged Christians to enter into a Biblical passage and to use their senses to explore the scene. What does it look like? What sounds can you hear? What can you smell? What conversations do you overhear? What happens next? What do you do? What does the Spirit say to you as a result of your immersion in that place?

2 TRANSPOSING PRAYER: Augustine of Hippo taught Christians to transpose the words of a Biblical passage to their lives. For example, if the passage is about the “bent-over woman, the reader reflects on what or who is “bent over”—physically, spiritually, socially—in their world. They listen to Jesus saying to the woman (and to those situations in their own lives) “You are set free from your ailment.”29

3 LECTIO DIVINA (DIVINE READING): The Benedictine Tradition taught people how to read through a Biblical passage slowly, listening to the whole passage. Next, it encouraged them to read through it a second time, listening to the word or phrase that seems to speak directly to their own lives. Finally, it invited them to read it a third time, considering what action the phrase might be guiding them to take.

4 CENTERING PRAYER: A book by a 14th Century anonymous author entitled The Cloud of Unknowing taught a form of prayer in which a person sits in silence with eyes closed and focuses on one word or phrase of their choosing that invites the presence of the sacred Spirit.

5 CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER: Hildegard of Bingen and others taught Christians to focus on a scene or an object from creation, allowing it to reveal to them some aspect of God’s nature and purpose. (See Appendix B for a hand-out on the various forms of Listening Prayer.)30

However, it is not just individuals who engage in listening prayer in transforming congregations; the whole church corporately prays together in many different ways. Prayer keeps the congregation grounded in the power and presence of God. The church’s life together becomes a dialogue with God in which it tries to listen and respond to the leading of the Spirit. Prayer opens it up to wonder and gratitude for the gift of life. It gives the congregation time to be self-reflective, to notice what is going on instead of just plunging headlong through life unaware of the presence of the Holy in its midst.

In transforming congregations, leaders pray together weekly and the congregation prays every time it worships together. Prayers are spoken aloud by the pastor and lay people offer public prayer as well. Often there is a group within a transforming congregation that prays for those in need as its sole mission. Sometimes that group walks the streets and prays for their neighbors. Sometimes it gathers prayer requests and offers intercessory prayer on behalf of those who wrote them. Many transforming congregations also make time during their worship life for corporate silence, for being alone together in the stillness. Some offer entire worship services planned to allow for contemplation, making use of simple, repetitive, quiet songs.

Others practice the Biblical tradition of anointing with oil or placing hands on a person seeking healing and wholeness. Unlike some Pentecostal traditions that may promise a “cure” by such actions, transforming congregations seek only to be a conduit for the Spirit’s power, leaving the nature of the healing up to God’s good grace.

Making intentional time to connect with the power and presence of the Spirit, both corporately and individually, allows transforming congregations to practice resting in God without having to control anything. It teaches them to trust the leading of the Spirit, even when they do not have all the answers. It allows them to reframe their understanding of what it means to be human. When they take time to pray, they learn to see themselves not just as those who consume, but also as those who create, not just as those who seek comfort, but also as those who are called and sent for the sake of the world.

When transforming congregations take time for prayer they not only reduce the stress in their life, they also subvert the claim made by the consumer culture that there is not enough time to do what needs to be done. Prayer allows transforming congregations to let go of the anxiety that causes them to choose the safe, the expedient, and comfortable. It helps them to make bold decisions in order to become the people they believe God is calling them to be. It allows them to say yes to God’s future, even before they know what that future will bring.

Questions for Reflection

1 What causes you to feel anxious? How do you behave when you are anxious?

2 Which metaphor for the Spirit from the Bible particularly captures your imagination? Why?

3 What distractions keep you from making prayer a priority in your life?

4 What could you do to create a set-aside time of prayer amid the noise and clamor of each day?