How to Start a Missional Community

Why pray? Here are ten reasons:

1. Our Father who art in heaven
Because without prayer there is only – myself. Between the heaven of prayer and the hell of the self there is no middle way. The more I try to find myself, the more I am lost. To call on God as Father is to discover myself as someone God calls child.

2. hallowed be thy name
Not because prayer will give me what I want, but because it will knead and pummel my wants, stretching them my whole life long, until at the last hour of my life I have learned to want one thing only, the only thing worth having. And so my whole life becomes a secret sigh, an inarticulate utterance of the hidden Name of God. And so even my death will be my prayer, the sigh by which I give myself up into the presence of the holy Name.

3. thy kingdom come
Because my prayer encompasses not my own life only but the entire world of which I am a part. What defines this world is scarcity, injustice, and oppression – in other words, hunger. To pray is to find in my own hunger an echo of the hunger of the world, in my own small cry an echo of the cry for justice that rises like smoke from the scorched earth.

4. thy will be done
Because prayer is the end of willing, the beginning of wisdom. The life of prayer is a slow dying into the will of God, a slow awakening into the freedom to live.

5. on earth as it is in heaven
Not because prayer is a technique of self-improvement or an instrument of spiritual experience, but because it is beyond all human competency, beyond all language and learning and control. Prayer is the speech of heaven. To pray is to live beyond the narrow walls of the self and beyond whatever I can merely control. As sunflowers open to the morning, so the praying life opens towards heaven, standing up straight into the bright burning presence of the Name.

6. give us this day our daily bread
Because every day, morning and night, I hunger. The stuff of my life is hunger, need, and lack. Technology and affluence blind me to this truth, but one day – a single morning – without food is enough to show me the truth of what I am. I live by lack: God lives by fullness. I am only hunger: God is only food.

7. and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Because hurt and disappointment and resentment are always knocking at the door of my life. As soon as I drive one away another arrives, eager to come in and set up its home in the little house of my heart. I will die of resentment; I am destroyed by what I am owed. But I learn to forgive when God writes off my debts and makes me free. Now I can live, now I can clear the debts of enemies and friends, and speak the magic word of forgiveness that drives resentments back into the dark.

8. and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
Because this world is only trial. Yet it is God’s world, and all the evils that crowd in upon my life can never hide my voice from the listening God.

9. for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever
Because God is glorious. All my life I was asleep within myself, but when I bowed my head to pray I opened my eyes to the glory of God. Glory should be seen. Just as it is right for a mountain to be seen or a piece of music to be heard or the body of a woman to be loved, so it is right to give God thanks and praise, for God is glorious.

10. Amen
Because the life of God is prayer itself. It is deep calling to deep, the endless giving and receiving of unbounded self-divesting self-communicating joy. My prayer is an eavesdropping on the Prayer that is God. God’s speech is grace and truth, God’s life is love, God’s silence is the annunciation of the Name. The word of my life is a modest, small, yet glad and true, Amen

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, when when we start telling the story again, the story of how Jesus Christ fulfilled the story of Israel in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and how we now live with him by the Spirit and await his final return.

Every year we tell the story again, basically because we need to immerse ourselves in it, because it is the true story of the world. It is the report of what God is doing in the world to redeem and restore all things, the proclamation of how God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

We immerse ourselves in this story every year because our identities come from the stories we tell and the rituals we participate in. We immerse ourselves in this story because our culture loudly proclaims quite a few alternative stories that vie to tell us who we are, and thus claim our allegiance. Some of those stories (from McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel):

• Individualism — the story that “I” am the center of the universe
• Consumerism — the story that I am what I own
• Nationalism — the story that my nation is God’s nation
• Moral relativism — the story that we can’t know what is universally good
• Scientific naturalism — the story that all that matters is matter
• New Age — the story that we are gods
• Postmodern tribalism — the story that all that matters is what my small group thinks
• Salvation by therapy — the story that I can come to my full human potential through inner exploration

We combat these competing ideologies by immersing ourselves in the True Story, which is another name for the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why it matters what holidays we celebrate, and how we celebrate them. Our very identities are stake, because we live by the stories we tell ourselves. Thus it is actually a matter of life and death.

There’s nothing magical about celebrating the church year. There are plenty of lifeless churches that commemorate Advent “faithfully” (i.e. read the right Scriptures, fly the right colors, stick to the right themes). But the church year is essentially organizing time around the gospel story, which seems like a great idea to me, because the alternative to organizing time around the life of Christ is to organize it around something else, like when it’s time to shop, which is a disastrous way to live.

So may you immerse ourselves in the True Story once again, and have a blessed Advent! Come, Lord Jesus!

So, yes, winter is on its way, but here are a few of the benefits of prayer-walking, from my friend J.R. Briggs:

Why should someone prayerwalk? Can’t we just pray right where we are?

Sure we can. We can pray anywhere at anytime for any reason. But there is something intentional and powerful about prayerwalking. There are many benefits.

1. It helps you get into a rhythm of prayer. Prayer can be like music. When you hear music you like, you tape your feet and get into the rhythm. It’s true with prayer, too. The strides of your step help you to get into a rhythm with God.
2. It’s one thing to sit in your office or living room and pray, but its quite another to be out in the community that you’re praying for. Prayer is heaven crashing together with earth. When you look into people’s eyes as you pass them on the sidewalk or you see areas of need in your town, there’s a deeper sense of connection to God’s purposes.
3. You begin to see things you never would see if you weren’t out praying as you walk. (You see much more when prayerwalking, but don’t think its the same thing as prayerdriving or prayerbiking. There are places for both, but this is different.) You begin to have eyes that Jesus has and see what he sees. It’s great to see what you’re praying for.
4. Your kingdom imagination is stirred. You ask questions of God when you see new things. God, what does the kingdom breaking forth look like in that neighborhood? What does the gospel look like in this context? How can the gospel restore that park? How can I join you – quite literally – in seeing your agenda lived out in that family/person/business/organization/park/neighborhood/house/etc? What is your dream for that school?
5. It gives you things to pray for when you don’t know what to say. Whatever you look at, pass, hear, smell – pray for it. Neighbors. Neighborhoods. Parks. Schools. Businesses. Churches. The weather. People (whether you know them or not). Whatever comes to mind, pray for it. All the senses should trigger longings and yearnings for renewal and shalom to occur in your community by the power of God’s spirit.
6. When you walk you will begin to feel overwhelmed with the amount of needs you see around you – and this is a good thing. Prayer is helplessness acknowledged. When we pray with a spirit of helplessness and desperation we are truly praying. I get overwhelmed by the physical, emotional, mental, cultural and spiritual needs I feel all around me…and the best thing I can do is to tell God. If he’s in control of His world then I place those feelings of being overwhelmed to him.
7. Others can easily join you. Invite someone to come with you for 45 minutes or an hour (you’ll be surprised at how quickly the time passes). Do it with your smaller group or your family after dinner. Pray out loud and then when you’re done, stop praying and let those with you pray out loud. When there is silence, pray as you feel led. There’s a special bond when you pray with others for your neighborhood and community.
8. It’s good exercise, especially as the weather is getting warmer, it allows for a great excuse to get outside.
9. Most importantly, we pray so that the kingdom of God will break in and through in our communities. We pray so that the gospel will be realized and Jesus will become more famous in our communities and neighborhoods

A couple more resources about prayer-walking:

• Prayer-Walking Around Campus
• Prayer-Walking With Alpacas!