No Tears Shed for the Pastoral Prayer, RIP

One thing I don't miss is the pastoral prayer. It was a childhood bane, something I dreaded every Sunday. I'd stand there shifting from one foot to another as the preacher droned on and on, lifting up every health need, from heart operations to ingrown toenails, and every ministry of the church, and "everyone gathered here today," and bestowed numerous flowery compliments on God for his sundry attributes and his patience with us ne'er-do-wells, on and on and on. Fifteen minutes seemed to be the minimum length, else it wasn't worth God's time to listen.

And yes, it was necessary that we parishioners stand while the pastor was talking to God on our behalf. God, evidently, looks askance at parishioners who sit down while someone else is praying, and he withholds his blessing from that church. It was as if it's better to focus on your poor aching feet than on actually praying. Some preachers feel the same way about public Bible reading—that everyone must stand when Scripture is being read, because it really impresses God and proves that we are spiritual warriors. If you read Scripture while sitting, it just means you don't respect the Bible.

Maybe once every other month, six times a year tops, the pastor would allow us to sit during his pastoral prayer. As we proceeded through our usual routine of hymns and throw-away prayers, and the moment of the high-priestly pastoral prayer approached, I would find myself hoping, "Please, oh please let us sit today!" Alas, I was nearly always disappointed. But it's good to have hope.

I grew up in the 1960s and early 1970s, when women wore very high heels to church because, I guess, guys liked them. So lengthy pastoral prayers could be quite an ordeal for women, though perhaps that was part of God's plan—after all, they have pain in childbirth because a woman sinned first, so standing for 15 minutes in high heels is just more of the same just punishment for Eve's transgressions. One of my distinct, recurring childhood memories involves our family's drive home from church, and hearing Mom say something like, "I didn't think he would ever stop praying. My feet were killing me." I suspect the same sentiments were voiced in numerous other cars as long-suffering high-heel wearers headed home to pot roasts.

Anyway, the churches I've attended since 1989 haven't featured the pastoral prayer. I don't know if God is glad about that, but I am.

Posted on July 26, 2006 11:36 AM|

Comments

Your blog about the pastoral prayer reminded me of my childhood, when we attended weekly Wednesday prayer meeting. We had some people in the congregation who could pray the most flowery prayers, and I can remember as a little girl, crawling underneath the pews of the church on the wooden floor at Glendale UB and wishing that this boring meeting would hurry and and be over!

I kind of had the same impression of all prayer meetings up until about eight years ago when I began to experience a whole different kind of prayer life. It started when I began waking up very early in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep. After a few weeks of this, I thought about the story of Samuel and wondered if perhaps I should get up to pray instead of wrestle with the sheets. As I began to pray, I learned to let God "lead" me in what I should say--not that I heard an audible voice, but as I waited, I would think about someone or get an impression as to a situation that I should pray for. The most exciting thing would be when I would see visible answers to these prayers--someone would call later that day, or something would happen that couldn't have been coincidence. Prayer began to be an exciting, two-way conversation that was active and not boring!

I have also been excited as I have seen others around me growing in this area--for example, the women in my Bible study. Often their simple, child-like yet heartfelt prayers can bring me to tears. So much better than wooden, formal or overly-flowery ones! But I don't mean to sound as if I'm judging between which prayers are better. It is always better, though, when my heart and mind are fully engaged and the words that come from my mouth or another's are from the heart.

Posted by: Doris | July 26, 2006 06:30 PM

As a pastor it was obligatory to always come up with a pastoral prayer. So I always mouthed the prayer requests. none of them were ever about spiritual needs, just all about curing "Aunt Susie's toe" as I always called it. What a monotony, but always a command performance.

You can't accuse me of going for 15 minutes. I never clocked it, but 3-4 minutes would be tops. At College Park, several of us college students would time the prayers. It was always Burkey, an old timer missionary or another windy preacher. The record was somewhere near 30 minutes as I recall.

NOW, I have a question. Do you get as tired of standing for 10-20 minutes for the 7/11 choruses that are in vogue today? I don't wear high heels, but my 75-year-old feet don't cotton to such. It is no different than those long prayers!

I would like to throttle the megachurch music director that started the torture of standing for choruses that everyone felt the holy need to copy for Jesus, because if it worked for that megachurch it must be the way for all of us to go. (bah humbug)

Posted by: dad | July 26, 2006 11:11 PM

Your dad got you on this one, Steve! And I think I know where some of your writing prowess came from.

Posted by: Dave Datema | July 27, 2006 02:32 AM

Wow, Dad did get me on that one! I've heard plenty of complaints over the years about having to stand for song after song. Since I'm always up front playing the keyboard (standing, by the way), I guess I don't notice the discomfort.

Posted by: Steve Dennie | July 27, 2006 09:44 AM

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