St. Stan, Church Growth Movement, and Liturgeo

Stanley Hauerwas is concise, to the point, and packs a punch as usual. Worship really is the work of the people.

Filed under: Hauerwas, prayer, preaching

Stan the Man On Prayer …

I think I’ve linked to this one before. There are many times I say, “come here, let’s pray real quick”. This is good advice to the contrary.

Filed under: Hauerwas, prayer

“history is your story”

Rick Warren’s prayer at the inauguration was unapologetic, prophetic and completely, Christian. He remarked that “history is your story”, in reference to God’s sovereignty. Bravo RW.

Filed under: from the profane to the sublime, politics, prayer

from the Abbey #1

The time at the Abbey was spent resting and praying, praying and resting. These trees are near the cemetery attached to the monastery.

Filed under: pilgrimage, prayer , Abbey of St. Benedict

Election Day

Don’t worry, pray, and vote your conscience. By this time most of you have already done that. Remember that God wants us to be involved in his creation and that means being active in our communities incarnating, however imperfectly, the love of Jesus Christ.

The Blind Beggar has some good thoughts and words from Johnny Cash for us on election day. Check those out here:  Election Day 2008

Sometimes the simplest, most traditional prayers reorient us during times that are difficult. The same prayers also help us maintain the right perspective when all seems to go our way.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever more shall be, world without end. Amen.

Filed under: prayer

Silence, Blog and otherwise

St. Benedict

This week I have the opportunity, thanks to the board of our church, to spend three days on retreat at the Benedictine Abbey in Atchison, KS. The thought occurred to them to send me away to pray, rest, and pray some more. Their thoughtfulness and generosity are much appreciated. I treasure their friendship.

I have been a bit “blog silent” lately and that silence will continue for at least the next three days. I hope to share some of my experience with the monks when I return.

Let me also share that our family will be taking a semi-sabbatical during the month of November. School and other obligations prevent us from leaving town for more than a few days at a time but our church responsibilities will be scaled back for a few weeks as we rest and pray. I also want to say thanks to all of you at Wheatland who have helped make this possible. Your generous friendship is a treasure to our entire family. May God bless you.

Filed under: prayer , Add new tag

Life Together #6: Getting Still, Getting Quiet

There are many days when I feel as if I have been shot out of a canon. Going a million miles an hour, tumbling head over feet through the air, I search for my bearings in order to find a place to land. I know that I am not alone.

Getting still, getting quiet and letting God re-orient us through prayer, meditating on Scripture and simply being in his presence is at the heart of a life lived in his Kingdom. Bonhoeffer says it this way:

“…Scripture meditation leads to prayer. We have already said that the most promising method of  prayer is to allow oneself to be guided by the word of the Scriptures, to pray on the basis of a word of Scripture. In this way we shall not become the victims of our own emptiness.“

Filed under: books, prayer , Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Good Prayer for the Day from John Baillie

“O Father I pray —

for faith to take no anxious thought for tomorrow, but to believe in the continuance of your past mercies:

for faith to see your purpose of love unfolding itself in the happenings of this time, especially, and …

AMEN.”

Filed under: prayer

Peterson on Prayer

Prayer is the most deeply human action in which we can engage. Behavior we have in common with the animals. Thinking we have in common with the angels. But prayer — the attentiveness and responsiveness of the human being before God — this is human.  – Eugene Peterson in Under the Predictable Plant

Filed under: Peterson, prayer , Eugene Peterson, pastoring, prayer

Hauerwas on Prayer

Stanley Hauerwas is an interesting combination. He is the son of a bricklayer from East Texas and received his Ph.D. from Yale. He is a pacifist but he cusses like a sailor. He is an academic theologian, ethicist, and philosopher who has taught at Notre Dame and Yale. He is also, apparently, someone who takes God and prayer seriously.

Not long ago he was described as “America’s Best Theologian” by TIME Magazine. He responded simply by saying: “Best is not a theological category.”

Filed under: Hauerwas, from the sublime to the profane, prayer , prayer, Stanley Hauerwas