I had never truly encountered the concept of "written prayers" until I began working in the United Methodist Church. In this case, I'm not talking about special, specific themed readings as acts of prayer. (We have those, too.)
No, in this case, I am talking about what seems to be a relatively common practice of writing one's prayers out. I see ministers do this, lay people, special guest speakers, etc. In my Baptist years, I never had much contact with this aspect of worship, but I'm getting of plenty of experience now.
I don't like them. I don't like a written prayer. For some reason, it rings "hollow" to me. I'm not trying to make any negative comment regarding those who opt to pen their prayers rather than create them spontaneously, but I have to say that I seem to have trouble spiritually connecting to a moment when someone is simply reading lines on a page during a time set aside for prayer. In all honesty, I hate written prayers. I find myself thinking things like,
"Where's the passion? Where's the poetry of a human heart open and naked before the Father?"
But here's where I struggle; I am a songwriter. A songwriter, in fact, who tends to make quite a big deal when worship songwriters don't spend much time actually writing their tunes. I'm the guy standing aside saying,
"Too much passion! Poetic, but no clear line of thinking!"
Anybody see Duplicitous Todd in this situation? With regard to prayer, I'm all about the spontaneous, non-linear approach. As a writer, I'm all about the line of thinking, the clarity of message.
Where do you guys land on "written prayers?"
Friday, April 20, 2007
Strange Words From A Writer
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2 comments:
Remember Ragamuffin Prayers?
remember our little attempt to duplicate that?
I hear where you're coming from, however, I don't think that just because a prayer is pre-written necessarily negates its authenticity or its passion. While at times, the written prayers seem to lack spontenaity, they do often reflect the authentic heart of the one who is praying. The practice of writing one's prayers ahead of time could indicate a desire to give forethought to what we are praying for and assurance of remembering specific prayer concerns. While God is not impressed with our words, sometimes it is good to have a roadmap of where we are going with corporate prayer. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 to not pray as the hypocrites to be seen by men nor like the babbling pagans with many words in hopes of being heard by God. I think it is ok to have a plan for corporate prayer times but we should always remain flexible to follow God's lead in this time. I will say that sometimes it is distracting when someone is "reading" a prayer and they stumble over a word and then correct themselves.
It seems that it comes down to motive. Is our motive in writing prayers to get all of the right words out so that man will say, "Wow, that was an awesome prayer," or so that the congregation can pray together and God is honored and glorified.
I relate it somewhat to the process that many of us go through in planning our worship sets. We will spend time planning and rehearsing songs and transitions as we think the Spirit of God is leading us ahead of time. However, we know in the back of our minds that the Spirit may lead us to deviate from the plan in the moment of worship and we prepare to be flexible to repeat choruses, etc. or even at times to cut songs or bring in unplanned songs.
My $0.02! Sorry for the long comment.
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