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Randy Heacock, randy.heacock@doylestownmc.org
Pastor, Doylestown Mennonite Church

When visiting an out of state relative, I would frequently be asked, “Do you want to go for a ride?” I soon discovered that while the destination of this ride was to get something, the purpose was to spend time together. I learned to look forward to saying yes to this opportunity. This is a bit how I feel about the prayer ministry at Doylestown Mennonite Church. Though the forms and environment may vary, the purpose to spend time in God’s presence, is always a blessing. For this reason, I find it easy to be supportive of and to say “yes” to the unfolding nature of our prayer ministry.

Like running errands with my relative, I have simply been along for the ride. The joy of our prayer ministry is that I take no credit for its vision or focus. Rather it has been my blessing to hear and see this vision take shape in and transform others. It began several years ago when I was released through a teaching by Noel Santiago to free up those called to pray. Therefore, my role has simply been to encourage, help navigate the administrative structures of the church, to learn and to be transformed. As I said to someone recently, prayer is not the only thing we can do, but the best.

It is these later experiences that have been most surprising and enjoyable in my journey. Being treated to articles, seminars and a greater variety of prayer experiences has nurtured and energized me significantly. The constant awareness that intercessors are praying during our entire worship service and hearing God’s words of affirmation, encouragement and challenge through others has been a tremendous blessing. Monday morning phone calls from members who are praying for me that week ground me in whose work it really is and what agenda to pursue.

On a personal level, my experience of worship has increased significantly. My ability to be engaged in worship on a regular basis has multiplied my joy in preaching. It has been challenging as well. I have been humbled to admit my need for confession, struggles that continue to entangle me and stressful relationships. There have also been some risks in trying new things prompted by prayer. One such area that I am still learning about is listening to God when awakened at 3 or 4 AM. Prayer has also laid a foundation on which to unite with other Christians in seeking God together.

In my years of ministry being supportive of the prayer ministry at Doylestown Mennonite Church is easily the wisest and most productive choice possible. The sense of God’s presence both individually and corporately has become more evident. People’s lives have been transformed both in being prayed for and in praying. Sometimes in our practical approach to life, we feel the need to fix broken relationships, financial struggles and crisis. Prayer both provides a resource of hope for the individual and can guide our actions in more meaningful ways than we first think.

I will close by listing a few practical suggestions by which a pastor can support a prayer ministry in any congregation.

* Discover who God is calling to this ministry.
* Encourage and equip them with the financial and the
facility space needed.
* Demonstrate a personal commitment to the prayer
ministry as a high priority.
* Be willing to learn and be led by those leading the
prayer ministry.
* Welcome the prayers of concern and prayers of
blessing on your behalf.

I encourage you to go along for the ride as you support the prayer ministry God desires for your congregation. God will truly bless every time you say “yes” and invest time, space and financial resources to this ministry.

Dawn Ruth Nelson, dp.ruthnelson@verizon.net
Pastor, Methacton Mennonite Church

Prayer is not just talking to and petitioning God. It’s also listening to and waiting on God. I spent many years living in a Catholic context trying to promote the peace of Christ in Ireland and my prayer was changed by that mission encounter. Among these Catholic Christians, there was just an assumption that deep service to God requires deep meditation and connection to God in prayer. Action was not the opposite of contemplation. Instead there was a deep joining of the two through contemplative prayer that was very intriguing and nurturing for me as a missionary.

Shortly after coming back to the United States, I remember being at a meeting where a hard decision had to be made and the leader suggested we spend some time in individual prayer. Immediately the room erupted into a noise so loud I wondered if God would be able to get a word in edgewise. It was jolting to move from one form of prayer that I’d been learning, back into a context where prayer was assumed to be about our words.

Contemplative prayer is prayer that is less word-oriented, less busy–it seems to me counter-cultural–in that regard, in our busy, noisy culture. This form of prayer is more like receiving from God, more like “waiting for God.” It can begin with slow meditative reading of small portions of the Bible. It needs silence and slowing down the pace of our lives, to notice what is around us. One person has called this form of prayer “a long loving look at the real.”

More recently, I have also been encountering the charismatic emphasis on prophecy, on “words from the Lord” and expectant, fervent prayer for healing and direction. In fact, my first experience of having a “prophetic word” spoken to me confirmed so clearly what I have heard from God in my contemplative prayer and in spiritual direction (and nowhere else), that I knew it had to be from God. It was clear it was the same Spirit guiding both forms of spirituality.

Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline has written much about the various streams of spirituality in the church – he has identified six key streams. Foster believes these six are all necessary for a balanced life of faith, and that all six were practiced by Jesus. They are: the prayer-filled life (contemplative), the virtuous life (holiness), the spirit-empowered life (charismatic), the compassionate life (social justice), the Word-centered life (evangelical), and the sacramental life (incarnational). Perhaps recognizing that we need to live within all of these streams will unify our teaching and practice of prayer.

In the May 5, 1987
issue of the Gospel Herald a committee on Spirituality in the Mennonite Church also identified six streams influencing our church. These are slightly different from Foster’s but perhaps include some he did not include. They were: Anabaptist, evangelical, relational, charismatic, feminist and contemplative. Let’s begin to talk about how some of these have influenced us as people and as churches. The article concludes with seven basic understandings of Christian spirituality in a Mennonite mode, by which to determine the usefulness of the various streams of spirituality:

“1) Christian spirituality is rooted in God’s initiating grace through Jesus Christ and issues in new life. 2) Christian spirituality is nurtured in and realized in solitude, in the community of faith, and through life in the world. 3) Christian spirituality recognizes and confronts the reality of evil, both personal and corporate. 4) Christian spirituality as discipleship includes being in Christ (the relational) and following Christ (the ethical). 5) Christian spirituality is expressed uniquely in each person and faith community. 6) Christian spirituality is both costly and celebrative. 7) Christian spirituality is renewed through worship and in the hope of the fulfillment of God’s reign” (307, Gospel Herald, May 5, 1987).

In my encounter with the contemplative tradition and more recently, by attending Franconia Conference prayer intercessors meetings and hosting an Alpha course at our church (see www.alphausa.org), I have been exposed to many gifts and practices of the spirit with which I was not familiar – silence, spiritual direction, tongues, prophecy. But so far it is all producing the same fruits – a reliance on God and the Spirit of Jesus. If tensions arise because some people are more charismatic and others are more contemplative I have found it helpful to “test the spirits,” asking: Is the Spirit saying similar things or moving in similar directions through these different spiritualities? Is the Spirit I am encountering consistent with the Spirit of Jesus? Is it consistent with the biblical New Testament witness? If so, let’s rejoice instead of dividing into “camps” and let’s learn from each other! Let’s rejoice that through many voices and forms, God is still speaking to us today!

June 16-20: The Challenges of Anabaptism Today: Learning with Yoder and Hauerwas
Palmer Theological Seminary Summer Course
(www.palmerseminary.edu)

June 19: Third Thursdays Pastors’ Breakfasts
Agape Prayer Ministry

September 5-7: Kairos School of Spiritual Formation
Contemplative Spirituality: Joining the Stream

September 13: Congregational Leadership Conference on Disabilities
Peaceful Living (www.peacefulliving.org)

September 23-25: Values-Based Leadership Program-Leading from the Inside
Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, Mt. Pleasant, Pa.

Courses offered by Eastern Mennonite Seminary
(www.emu.edu/seminary)

Harrisonburg, Va. campus:

June 16-28: Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation:
Incarnation, Healing and Hope

Online Courses:

Aug 26- Dec 14: Ethics and Nonviolence: Sermon on the Mount

Aug 26- Dec 14: New Testament: Text in Context

Lancaster, Pa. Campus:

September thru December, varied: Pastoral Care: Ministry to Persons Throughout the Life Cycle

September thru December, Thursdays, 6:30-9:30 pm: Congregational Revitalization

Suburban Philadelphia campus @ Biblical Seminary:

September thru December, Mondays 6 -9 pm: Active Nonviolence: Nurturing Peaceful Transformation
This course will explore the use of active nonviolence as a means of personal and social transformation consistent with the Anabaptist understanding of the Gospel’s call to liberation, justice and peace. Instructor: Jon Rudy
(www.emu.edu/lancaster or www.missio.edu)

Summer courses and events from
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
(www.ambs.edu)

June 14–30: Celtic Spirituality Pilgrimage
This 16-day pilgrimage visits historic Celtic Chris-
tian sites in Scotland and Northern England. Instructors: Marlene Kropf and Willard Roth

June 16-27: Mennonites in the U.S.: Change and Continuity Across Three Decades

June 16-27: Family Systems and Pastoral Care

June 16-July 3: Hebrew readings: Prophets

July 7-18: Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations

July 7-18: Celebrating the Christian Year

July 7-18: Spirituality, Pastoral Care, and Healing

July 7-25: History of Christian Spirituality

July 21-August 1: Job and Wisdom

July 20–26: Creation and Spiritual Renewal
This course takes place in the Boundary Waters Area in Minnesota. Instructor: Arthur Paul Boers

August 7-9: Upgraded? Conversations on technology and worship

John Tyson, jtyson@mosaicmennonites.org
Intern, Franconia Mennonite Conference

Christians, whether in the garden in Gethsemane or in the crowded streets of South Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., call out to God. Individually and corporately, prayer is the oldest practice known to the Christian tradition.

In our current day in age, however, we are experiencing many elusive shifts in how we think and, consequently, how we act. Though this is a broad phenomenon, these cultural shifts are changing how we worship. Most especially, they are providing new joys and challenges dealing with matters of prayer. According to Marta Castillo, pastor of Nueva Vida Norristown (Pa.) New Life, “The challenge is to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer personally and a climate of prayer within the church.”

In Washington, D.C., members of Peace Fellowship Church gather on the first Sunday night of every month for a “concert of prayer.” While weekly prayer tends to be more private and prone to interruption, the “concert of prayer” is meant to unify the community in a collective effort to awaken to God. While the “concert” typically lasts 90 minutes, the community often ventures outside the church doors to offer prayer and hospitality to the neighboring community.

Philadelphia Praise Center, akin to Peace Fellowship Church, also gathers among other church communities who reside in the neighborhoods of South Philadelphia for monthly prayer in unity. The Nueva Vida congregation offers prayer and worship to God in a diversity of languages.

Creating new forms of prayer and reinvigorating old forms is a challenge of today’s congregations. Peace Fellowship Reverend Dr. Dennis Edwards is exploring diverse forms of prayer as a response to new cultural shifts. “All of our senses need to be made use of in prayer, especially through art,” says Edwards. While artistic prayer may be less time-honored, the Peace Fellowship community is also reinvigorating the ancient practice of confession in their worship.

As new corporate prayer challenges emerge at the forefront, the leaders of these communities feel responsible to re-ignite their individual prayer life. Philadelphia Praise Center Pastor Aldo Siahaan commented, “For me, the challenge is to have the same attitude and heart every time I pray, but it is not easy. My strength is my prayer life and the people who pray for me. I know my limitation as a leader but every time I pray, God encourages me and gives me wisdom, strategy and so many other things that if I use my own brain I won’t find.”

In similar light, Reverend Edwards stressed, “I can offer a fair amount of criticism to myself, I need to be the example and set the tone.”

Walter Brueggemann. Oregon: Cascade, 2007.

Owen E. Burkholder, Conference Minister
Virginia Mennonite Conference

In his early years, Brueggemann was, “rightly taught that prayer is ‘the conversation of the heart addressed to God,’ a formula that I believe derives from Augustine.” (xiv) As he has continued his study of the Psalms he has been surprised by the genuinely dialogical character of the interaction between Israel and her God. “I have come to understand…the dialogical quality of faith that leaves our life with God always open and unsettled, and available for new demanding/yielding venture.” (xvi)

The complaint psalms bring ‘the experience of dislocation’ to full voice. “They are willing to articulate this chaos to the very face of the Holy One.” The complaint psalm “is disorientation addressed to God. And in that address, something happens to the disorientation.” (11)

The movement from disorientation to reorientation is also given full voice in the Psalms. In reorientation, the presence of God is seen as transforming the earlier situation, not just restoring a mess to its former state. This evokes the deepest gratitude.

In this fashion, Brueggemann helps us deal with the realism of the Psalms. He holds before us the difficult texts, inviting us to see them first through Jewish eyes. And he finishes with a chapter on ‘Vengeance – human and divine.’

At issue, of course, is the way in which we perceive God to be at work in the world. And that brings the whole question of prayer into clear focus. We bring ourselves to prayer with all of our experiences, and some conception of God. In the authenticity of that interaction we find the possibility of deliverance from the “pit” into the “shelter of safe wings.”