The Lost Art of Praying Together

This week's great stuff comes from a book I'm currently editing called The Lost Art of Praying Together by James Banks. Pastor Banks, of Durham, North Carolina, makes the case that the church is missing out today--in many ways--because we no longer pray together. He gives many examples throughout the Old and New Testaments and in church history of the powerful things that happen when God's people pray. I think this anecdote from his own life is one of my favorite passages in the book, which will be available in early fall. Dr. Banks is a first-time author, but I expect this won't be his last book. One of my favorite things about working with him has been that every time he e-mails me, he tells me he is praying for me.

His name was Floyd King, but we called him “The Wizard of Ahs.”

It wasn’t a nice name, and he didn’t deserve it.

Pastor King had come out of retirement to shepherd the Nazarene church in the sleepy desert town of Holtville, California. I was thirteen when I met him. My older brothers and I would sit in the fourth pew from the front, counting the number of times Pastor King would hesitate and say “ah” between points in his sermon. Like Joseph’s brothers, we meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

It made us pay attention. And as we watched and listened, we were able to observe a true believer in the twilight of his life. Little did I know that his impact on my life would last well beyond his years.

Not long after Pastor King’s arrival, my father was hospitalized for major surgery. Pastor King would travel over twenty-five miles every day to call on Dad and to pray for him. He even took the time to give Dad a shave each morning. After that, my brothers and I dared not breathe a word about “The Wizard of Ahs.” Dad wouldn’t have it.

When I began to question my faith a year later, Pastor King was there again, patiently listening to my doubts (I had a lot of them). He and his wife quietly made themselves available, answering my questions when they could and praying for me when they couldn’t. That summer I wore a path to their door and found it open, even if I hadn’t called to ask if it was okay if I came by. After each visit, I somehow always found us praying together.

It was one summer evening as I sat on my old Schwinn ten-speed bike outside their home saying goodbye that Pastor King remarked, “We think God may be calling you to be a pastor someday.” At age fourteen, being a pastor was the farthest thing from my mind. It would take me more than six years to catch up to what the Kings came to realize in the quiet moments we spent together in prayer. God, in His kindness and humor, had given “The Wizard of Ahs” a special place in my life. It wasn’t courage or a brain or a heart that I found. It was a calling.

Comfort in Tough Times

One of the interesting things about working for a creative organization that publishes both books and music is that I and the other members of our team are often asked to contribute our ideas toward projects that we're not directly involved in. Last week, we were told that Discovery House Music is creating a new music project with the purpose of ministering to people who are going through difficult times. The music team is selecting music and Scripture that have ministered specifically to people in various situations. The interesting question that came to us was if we would share the hymns and Scripture passages that have ministered to us during difficult times in our lives.

So I thought for a while and came up with the following hymns and Scriptures that I have found comforting.

1. One of my favorite hymns that I have found particularly comforting is "Rock of Ages," set to this tune. It's hard to do better than lyrics like these: "Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Savior, or I die."

2. A second favorite: "Comfort, Comfort Ye My People." How beautiful is this thought: "Speak ye to Jerusalem Of the peace that waits for them; Tell her that her sins I cover, And her warfare now is over."

3. "In Thine arms I rest me; Foes who would molest me Cannot reach me here. Though the earth be shaking, Every heart be quaking, Jesus calms my fear. Fires may flash and thunder crash, Yea, and sin and hell assail me, Jesus will not fail me." "Jesus, Priceless Treasure," Psalter Hymnal, #441.

4. through 6. Contemporary artist Steven Curtis Chapman will never know how blessed I've been by his entire album, Speechless, but three songs from that CD are standouts to me: "Speechless" (the title song), "With Hope," and "Be Still and Know." It is difficult for me not to become teary when he bursts out with the chorus of "Speechless":

And I am speechless I'm astonished and amazed
I am silenced by your wondrous grace
You have saved me
You have raised me from the grave
And I am speechless in your presence now
I'm astounded as I consider how
You have shown us
A love that leaves us speechless


You can hear these songs at Steven's Web site.

It is actually difficult to choose only a few favorite Scripture passages. I'm always reminded of the funeral of the death of a college friend when people talk about the comfort of Scripture. One of our professors, who officiated at the funeral, got up to deliver his address. He looked out at the mourners and calmly said, "Some Scripture for our comfort." For about five minutes he recited--from memory--passage after passage offering comfort and hope. I was amazed then at the power of the Word, and I've never forgotten it.

Here are some of my favorites:

7. Psalm 121: "I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from?" And it just gets better.

8. Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble . . . The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

9. Romans 8:37-38: "We are more than conquerors through him who loved us . . ."

10. Revelation 21:1-7: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth . . . He will wipe every tear from their eyes."

So what are some of your favorite songs/hymns/Scripture passages? Leave them in the comments and I'll pass them on to our music department. Maybe you'll be contributing to a CD!

What the Church Is and Is Not

This week's great stuff comes from Michael Horton's Christless Christianity--again. It's a great book, and I'm finally coming to the end. This seminary professor with a PhD from Oxford really knows how to communicate to the layperson, and I'd recommend this book highly. Here are a couple of excellent paragraphs on what the church is not and is:

"The church is not a club for those with similar cultural tastes, political views, ethnic backgrounds, and moral leanings. They do not meet because they share a hobby called spirituality or because they have the same vision for transforming culture. Believers gather to be regularly reconstituted as the body of Christ, receiving Christ as their living Head. They do not gather on their own but are gathered by the Spirit through his ordained means of grace.

"Unlike voluntary associations (book clubs, political parties, or fans of the opera or garage bands), the church is not made up of people I chose to be my friends. God chose them for me and me for them. They are my family because of God's election, not mine. Gathered to be redefined by the kingdom of Christ rather than the kingdoms of this age, we are then scattered into the world as salt--not huddled together in Christian societies for moral transformation and ecclesiastically sanctioned political causes, but dispersed into the world as doctors, homemakers, plumbers, lawyers, truck drivers, citizens, and neighbors."

And for something else really exciting, our recent Discovery House release, You Are the Treasure That I Seek, But There's a Lot of Cool Stuff Out There, Lord by Greg Dutcher, which I excerpted here last spring, got a great review on Challies.com

The Open House, or Why I Have Only Two Kids, Spaced Apart

So I have now faced down one of the greatest challenges any parent could face, and I do believe I have won: the graduation open house. The planning for such an event was second only to the planning for last year's wedding, but since we paid everyone to take care of last year's wedding, the open house was a lot more work.

I've actually been stressing about it for months now, but the actual work began about a month and a half ago, when Katie and I decided what kind of announcements to send out. She had opted not to get the traditional announcements that the graduation announcement companies charge lots of money for, and instead we discovered that we could have an announcement printed at one of my new favorite establishments, Costco, complete with a lovely photo of Katie (see above), for not lots of money. So step 1 was accomplished. It was relatively easy.

Katie had decided that she wanted to have a dessert open house, so we toyed with the idea of a chocolate fountain, but found that we were surrounded by naysayers (you know who you are), so we opted for less messy, less oil-demanding desserts. The whole problem for me with the open house thing is that you might invite 125 people, and maybe 67 will show up. But maybe 125 will show up. Or maybe if all your child's Facebook friends checked her status announcing her open house, 237 will show up. You'll either have far too much food, or far too little. You cannot win. At any rate, I'm not one of those people who just "goes with the flow" very well. If I had my way, I'd know how many people were coming; what time they planned to arrive; which desserts from the dessert menu they would be eating and how many of each; and whether they wanted punch, coffee, or water. So this was a real exercise in flexibility for me, a growth experience.

The dessert buffet included the following:

chocolate cake with strawberry filling (from Costco, of course)
white cake with white filling (again, Costco)
sugar cookies with blue icing (to stay with the blue and white school colors--baked by me)
banana bars (made by my mom)
heavenly dream bars (an extreme Rice Krispie treat, made by Katie and probably the most talked-about of the dessert items)
mini cheesecakes with blueberry topping (blue/white theme, baked by Katie and me)
almond bars (my personal favorite, baked by Henry's mom)
fruit and fruit dip (no one touched the dip, but it was excellent)
and probably the most popular thing--a citrus punch that made 90 cups; I thought we'd probably be drinking it until Jonathan's graduation, but it was drunk to the dregs by the end of the evening
and the obligatory coffee and water

If guests left without a sugar buzz, weighing what they weighed when they came in, it was their own fault.

We decorated with blue and white daisies and photos of Katie everywhere. She made a tri-fold board with a variety of pictures from infancy to present. There were balloons and confetti, which was a lot of fun to clean up come Saturday morning.

Of course, the event was not without its moments. The evening began at 6:00, so Katie and I left our house a little before 5:00 to make punch and put on the finishing touches (the open house was at our church's fellowship hall since I couldn't deal with the unpredictability of weather). We made our way down Kalamazoo Avenue, which, as usual, is under construction. The traffic was terrible. As we approached the intersection of Kalamazoo and 60th Street, I suddenly realized that we had no key to get in, and Henry would not be coming for another half hour or so. To turn around and go back home would be pointless; by the time we were actually able to turn around and re-enter the traffic headed the opposite direction, Henry probably would be on his way. So we pulled out the church bulletin that I keep in my purse (so many times that has been useful), and looked for the elders and deacons that lived nearby whose phone numbers we had with us. It's only right that our friend Harry, who we have known since before Katie was born, provided us with a key and saved our behinds, not for the first time in our friendship history, I might add.

It was a lovely evening, and our guests included family from Ohio, Indiana, and other parts of Michigan, friends from our former and present churches, co-workers of mine who have overheard me arguing with Katie on the phone for the last four years and thus share an important piece of her life, Katie's friends, and just friends we have known for a long time.

I'm thinking that we should have made it a two-day affair, because in spite of the fact that I left a lot of stuff behind for the youth group to eat on Sunday and several guests accepted my pleas to fill a plate and take it with them and I made a small dessert plate for a shut-in from church, we have far more dessert than any family of slightly overweight people should have. If you're in the neighborhood, and you have a hankering for some cake, stop on in.

And I now have three years to start planning for Jonathan's open house, and I suspect that he won't be nearly the help that Katie was . . .

Obama Butters Them Up . . .

I very nearly didn't find a great stuff excerpt for this week, and with a graduation open house looming in my near future and requiring most of my attention, it didn't look good. And then my co-worker, who has an appreciation for sarcasm akin to my own, pointed me to this brief column in the New York Post by Charles Hurt. Although I'd love to post the whole thing, that probably wouldn't be legal, so I'll just give you a little taste, and you can click on the link to read the rest.

With his trademark humility, President Obama noted in his speech this morning that "change cannot happen overnight" and that one speech in Cairo -- even delivered by him -- will not bring about world peace.

Oh, snap!

But if world peace is attained by complimenting those on the other side into submission, he made some serious progress.

Obama really buttered them up in Cairo.

He thanked them for everything from algebra to the pen, though he curiously failed to mention that they often throw people in prison for using it.

He even went so far as to tell the audience that he considers "it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

Wow. That won't be the last time you hear that line.

And anyway, where exactly is that in the oath of office he took?

For those of you who are wondering, like me, when America became a Muslim nation and who have a deep appreciation for our president's "trademark modesty," be sure to read on.