Tedious Tongues and Indifferent Intercession?
I'm committed to prayer, I believe prayer changes things. It's a conversation with the King of Kings, the All powerful, omnipotent,omniscient God. So why are so many prayer meetings so deathly BORING?
Is it just that prayer is simply hard work?
We all know it can be. Sometimes it's the battle to concentrate because we can't see the person we are talking too, at others sin is the issue, we are uncomfortable talking to God because we know He knows we smell bad, we stink of sin!
At other times praying with others is just tedious beyond bearability. (is that a word?) We sit, often in a circle, queuing up for our turn to speak...whilst that "lovely older sister" drones on and on, and on about something so dull we can't even recall what it was.
Why do we do that?
Where in the Bible does it say that's how we should do it? There are so many other ways we could tackle prayer. From time to time people make a foray into trying another way, which is great, but so often we quickly revert to that same old default setting.
Now I've nothing against "circle and queue" prayer meetings and the variations like the "pew and queue" meeting, but hey, come on, many of us have moved on as God has showed us how to be creative in worship. So why does prayer stay locked in pretty much one basic format?
Is it lack of imagination, is it just that it's the simplest and easiest format? Are we just to lazy or straight laced to try something a bit different?
My understanding of prayer from the Bible leads me to think it was pretty varied. Ranging from people praying locked away in their closet - Mat 6:6- (Wardrobe praying?) to rooms packed with people topped with tongues of fire and the sound of a hurricane passing through. As for politely queuing well it might have happened sometimes, but so did prayer where everyone prayed out loud all at once. (Though presumably not in a spirit of "talking over" one another in the way that my children have been known to do when they get angry or over excited.)
Even my most basic theology tells me that prayer is right at the very heart of our relationship with God. So how can something so vital have become so boring - Did Jesus die so we could become bored together? I think not!
I think there are perhaps five main causes of deathly prayer meetings:
1) Sin, it has a habit of mucking up the best things in life, prayer is one of those things.It's not always something huge, it might be quite small but it gets in the way!
2) Tradition, some traditions are helpful and good to practice, I guess we all like traditional good manners. But, tradition for traditions sake of it will suck the life out of anything given the chance. (Not all traditions are hundreds of years old, watch out for your little habits they quickly put down roots and grow into nice new traditions.)
3) Sheer lack of imagination! Perhaps this is a sin? - The sin of denying who we are in God. God is the ultimate in creativity, He thought up every living thing, and every other bit of creation. He's made you and I unique from everyone else. His creativity abounds unsurpassed, and He made us in His image. God's creativity is in our very genes, so we have no excuse for not being creative!
4) Busyness - It's hard to think creatively whilst juggling three balls, six clubs and spinning ten plates, whilst riding a unicycle.
5) Opposition! We have an enemy who is not best pleased when God's people pray. So whilst I don't claim to know how he does it, I'm pretty convinced that he does his best to make prayer as dull as ditch-water whenever he can.
So here is my challenge to you (and myself) let's start a campaign: Death to boring prayer meetings!
Too often we protest about the boredom found in so many prayer meetings with our bottoms! No we don't do something rude, well apart from the rudeness that is sitting on our bottoms at home when we should be meeting with God and His family for prayer.
Perhaps we are too scared, or maybe just too British to say actually I'm not coming to the prayer meeting because they are soooooo boring? OK well instead of protesting with your bottom how about protesting by offering to help?
Please don't see this as a whingers charter, giving you permission to undermine those in leadership. It's not! As alluded to earlier, often leaders are doing their best to juggle umpteen things, so don't expect them always to think creatively, or even to "get it" when you suggest new ways of doing things. You need to allow them space to get used to new ideas and you need to earn the right to be heard through serving, so don't pitch up on day one and expect to change the world. But don't let that dampen your desire to slay the dragon of boredom!
A word of caution! Whilst I'm passionate about killing boredom off in our times of prayer, I'm not advocating gimmicks for the sake of gimmickry. This is where we need to show some sensitivity. We want to liven things up - and sure whilst throwing a firecracker into the meeting would do that, it would also become something of a distraction! It may even lead to the early departure - from Earth - of some of the older or more sensitive souls! So please think carefully about how you drive out the dullness. Dare I say why not pray about it - just don't be boring when you do!
