Quick Prayers

We on the Anchor worship team once had a habit of saying to the congregation, "Let's all bow for a quick word of prayer." Or something like that. The important word was "quick." Pastor Tim told us he would prefer that we not use "quick" and "prayer" together. It sounded like we wanted to rush through "prayer" to get to more interesting stuff. And he was exactly right.

And so, for the past couple of years, we've tried to wean ourselves away from that, and we've succeeded pretty well. But it's fascinating how easily the word "quick" wants to keep inserting itself.

  • "Before the service starts, let's get the worship team together for a quick prayer."
  • Prior to a potluck: "Let's all bow for a quick prayer, and then you can line for up for your food."
  • "Before we launch into our board meeting agenda, Bill, would say a quick prayer for the meeting?"

Tonight, eight of us from Anchor went to the Union Chapel United Brethren church for a performance of Godspell by a group from Huntington University (my alma mater). It was very good. My brother Rick saw it last week and wrote on his blog that he enjoyed it, but found one of the performers to be annoying. Several of us were on the lookout, but couldn't determine which one Rick was talking about. None of the cast members struck us as annoying.

Chris Kuntz, Anchor's former worship leader, is now worship leader at Union Chapel. He introduced the group, and when they finished, he came up again to say a few words before the group did one last number. And Chris said something like, "In a moment I'm going to say a quick prayer, and then we'll hear one more song." Tim Bauman and I made contact and just smiled. Chris, who had, with Tim's promptings, helped us nearly eradicate "quick" from our prayer lingo, had relapsed. He was still doing "quick" prayers.

Pastor Tim would be appalled.

Posted on July 14, 2007 11:25 PM|

Comments

Good Point. We often fail to make prayer a top priority. But who of us would have a "qiuck" talk with their spouse or loved one? "Pray without ceasing!"

Posted by: Adam Will | July 18, 2007 10:10 AM

OK Ok I'm guilty. I guess I didn't even realize I said it. Bad Bad Bad habits die hard. I have been hassled by the music team at U.C. for saying this as well. I guess I should go back through the process of eradicating this word from my vocabulary. Thanks for pointing this out...again.

In all seriousness, though, I'm glad you said something to me about it.

I'll say a quick prayer tonight before I hit the hay in hopes that it will stop.

Posted by: Chris | July 21, 2007 12:08 AM

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