Zeal For Truth

This is part 5 of a 6 part series

Recently I finished the book Praying With The Church by Scot McKnight. The book is a look at different traditions (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and roughly protestant ecumenical) of communal prayer. It’s an important book because it seeks to introduce protestants from non-liturgical traditions (Baptists, Charismatics, E-Free Church…etc) to a type of highly liturgical prayer.

Within the vast majority of evangelical protestant churches, prayer is strictly an individual endeavor. Yes, many churches have prayer meetings where the church gathers to pray, but the prayers that are offered are all individual prayers. Each person prays what is “on their heart,” others may agree and nod, or pray along similar lines, but it is really praying alone in a group. There is nothing wrong with this type of prayer of course, as McKnight makes clear, there is a time and place for it, but it has become the only type of prayer many protestants know.

Historical Corporate Prayer
If one is serious about looking at church history, one must look at the type of prayers offered up by past generations; both their content and their form. It is clear that praying alone in a group as we do now has not been the only way the church has historically prayed. Set prayers, at set times, is a tradition reaching back into Judaism and was employed right from the early church to today. Yet for fear of participating in “vain repetitions” and being “too Catholic” the majority of evangelical protestants have given up this tradition long ago. But should we have?

Much like reading through and reciting the creeds of the church can connect one to the past (as discussed in the last entry) so too can prayers anchor a person in the historic church. One of the major shaping factors of any group is its practice. This is even more true with prayer. I’ve heard the expression before from evangelicals that “you are what you pray” meaning that your prayer life will direct the type of person you become. If that is the case I want to be one who is conscious of my history.

The daily prayers of various traditions not only teach us a lot about where they come from - they go beyond academic knowledge and offer us new ways of looking at God outside of our tradition. Today in our churches, prayers of every kind are often offered up “off the cuff.” Little thought is put into the words used to describe God, man, and our relationship, often leading to clumsy wording that listeners find hard to follow or at worst promote incorrect teaching.

One of the beauties of set prayers is that a tradition has often wrestled with these prayers for ages. They are detailed, theologically set out prayers that one should have no problem learning from. Emphasis put on the central themes of scripture (Christ, sin, repentance, gospel) and not on whatever the preacher feels the congregation needs today (which is important but must be balanced with the whole of scripture).

Vain Repetitions or Consistent Communication?
The evangelical argument against set prayers is that they constitute “vain reputations”, but does repeating the same prayers each morning (with some changes) make for vain reputations? If we think about the words, and mean them is that vain?

There is a danger yes, one may start to only say them without thinking and without meaning them, but doesn’t that same danger exist with “off the cuff” prayers? If one has been in the church for a few years, you know how to formulate a prayer that sounds good, means nothing, and keeps the people around you happy. Vain reputations is not a scourge only on set prayers but exists on all types of prayers: it should not be an excuse to discount one type but instead to redouble the efforts to mean what you pray and think about it.

To go into detail about how to begin praying set prayers is beyond the scope of this post. McKnight’s book seems to be a good place to start. I myself have begun this past week to attend Anglican morning prayers each Friday for, among other reasons, to learn more about this tradition and develop the habit of praying with those who have come before me in the church. I loved the experience this past week.