Prayer, Movements and Belief - Part 2
The ‘emerging church’ and
‘radical discipleship’ movements have their roots in a profound dissatisfaction
with establishment Christianity. In rejecting the establishment church, both
traditions have tended to throw some babies out with the bathwater. One of
these babies is prayer. As one deeply committed to radical discipleship and
mission, I think it is imperative to examine what I perceive to be a lack of
prayer among us, and what the consequences for our movements will be.
In Part 1 of this short
analysis we looked at how our movements’ history has shaped our attitudes
towards prayer and briefly outlined some reasons for why we don't pray. In Part
2, I’ll suggest some consequences for our movements stemming from this lack of
prayer and attempt to sketch the real issues that prayer masks.
Prayerless
Movements
The primary reason why
movements exist is spiritual passion, a consequence of an encounter with God
that is nurtured through prayer. When prayer is lacking, this spiritual passion
dies. It follows that prayerless movements stop moving. Spiritual passion
is replaced by activism, critique and
ideology - all of which have their place within the context of a living faith.
However, when these things become primary to a movement, we should dismount,
because the horse died long ago. Look at our movements - what is more
prevalent? Spiritual passion or relentless activity propped up by
intellectualism and critiques of ‘enemies’?
Without prayer, movements
turn to other sources for security - the obvious one for Christian movements is
the Bible. Instead of allowing the Bible to constantly pose hard questions for
our movements, we use the Bible to justify our existence and respective
identities. We are perfectly happy for the biblical witness to be a challenge
to the mainstream church, but reluctant to allow the contradictions between
‘our way’ and the Bible to be fully explored. For example, how do we in the
radical discipleship movement deal with the New Testament’s emphasis on
mission? The constant chorus that justice work is mission evades the call to preach the gospel with words as well
as deeds. How does the emerging church plan to deal with Jesus’ clear priority
for the socio-economically marginalised? Planting churches that give people an
alternative experience of worship but sidestep socio-economic issues is a
surrender to the same consumerist values that we despise the mainstream church
for embracing.
The other consequence of
prayerless movements is more serious. Individuals within our movements will not
keep on the road of authentic faith. The paths offered by our respective
movements are counter-cultural and therefore difficult, and in the absence of
spiritual passion, the excitement engendered by being an ‘alternative’ to the
‘mainstream’ will wither away. Where does this leave individuals who have been
attracted to our movements? They are prone to helpless capitulation to both
establishment Christianity and our consumer culture.
Prayer
& Belief
I, like most of us, struggle
to pray. But in reality, prayer itself is a side issue. Our obsession with
experimenting with new spiritual techniques or ‘alternative worship’ will be
unsatisfied if the cause for our spiritual malaise goes unaddressed.
Our lack of prayer is the
spotty skin that, when peeled back, reveals the rotten fruit of our faith. In
other words, our prayer life is merely a symptom of our faith. For each of the
reasons above for not praying, the underlying issue is one of belief. I think this is what we need to
work on - belief in God. I am not
talking about constructing creeds that we can sign up to and then breathe a
sigh of relief. I am talking about deep-set conviction that comes from God. How
does that come about? By acknowledging that our activism, our critiques and our
ideologies are empty, that we are lost, that we need God desperately.
Such an acknowledgement will
not immediately produce any results. But a commitment to simultaneously
acknowledging our emptiness and reaching to Jesus for salvation will, I
believe, bring forth much fruit. Working for justice with joy, authentic
worship independent of liturgical sophistication, sacrifice for others free of
resentment. In short, a spiritually healthy and biblically faithful witness to
the world.
Dave Fagg is Seeds Bendigo - Long Gully convenor
First published online at phuture.org (now defunct) in 2002