sustain:if:able kiwi

prayer for those being bullied

Bullying happens in all sorts of ways – verbal and physical, perceived and real. It requires confronting, but sometimes that is not immediately possible. This is a prayer emerging out of being with some who feel powerless, as an application of Celtic “caim” or circle prayer.

Imagine you are in a bubble. It stretches all around you. Inside this bubble is a place for you to stand, to feel safe, secure, loved. Feel the security and safety.

This bubble has a window. This gives you a choice. You can let the words and people and actions in. Or you can imagine another choice. You can imagine that when words and actions and people hit the bubble, they simply bounce back.

Imagine words and actions bouncing back to those who might send them.

The bubble around you is God. Feel the security and safety. Take God’s love and protection with you into your day.

You might want to make this prayer your own, for yourself or for others you know. If so, one way to do that is to simply leave your initials as a comment.

For other everyday prayer practices, go here.

creationary: Good samaritan prayer for those loving neighbour in a CNN world

I wrote this prayer out of a day spent sitting with the banquet parables in Luke 14, made tense by the call to love our neighbour in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, being woken by morning news updates of the flooding in Pakistan.

God who is closer than our neighbour
we thankyou for the places you plant us,
the comforts of home, the familiarities of place

God who call us to love our neighbour
we thankyou for variety,
diversity,
our globality that gifts us spice and rice

God who points us to our neighbour in need
only till we turn on CNN,
to see,
the bigness of our world with 6 billion neighbours

And so we pray for aidworkers living love
Your hands, our feet amid flood and famine

God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills
we are grateful for the gifts of science
for researchers multiplying food to grow
We ask for honesty in the climate change industry
Our courage to make Your creation our moral issue

God who healed the ones among many
You gave every gift with it’s corresponding service

Grant us discerment,
the signs of our time – ourselves and your world
and so be your hands
of love of neighbour
today.

A creationary: a space to be creative with the lectionary. (For more on what is a creationary go here; for other Creationary resources, go here).

updated: Build-your-own prayer stool: some useful websites

I’m wanting to build my own prayer stool. Not sure why, it just seems a creatively, impulsive thing to do. Sometimes, creative impulses are worth following. A quick surf of the web reveals a few useful websites

• For best creative graphics go here.
• For softies, ie tips for padding, go here
• For a prayer stool that collapses down, due to the use of hinges, go here.
• For an ecological angle on the project, go here.

So the next step is to go and get the necessary pieces of wood …

Update 1: Here it is …

complete with hinges, so it can be folded …

I am happy to make these, at cost plus postage, for anyone who wants. Just leave a comment …

Update 2: And one of my students has just taken this a step further. They are wondering about starting worship by inviting those gathered to make their own prayer stool.  Wood and nails will be provided. And people invited to make their own, then use their own during the worship. (Then take their own away – the ultimate spirituality2go takeaway).

wind of Spirit blows on and on and on: valuing takeaways

Tim Keel just dropped me a line to share a lovely story of the gracious, caring, unpredictable Spirit. He describes being part of a worship experience I lead in Pasadena, back in 2005. (I blogged about it back here.) The story then blows on, taking shape some 5 years later. Tim writes …

I returned to my office to clean it out. That involved box a lot of things up. But I also took the opportunity to go through old files to see what I wanted to keep and what could be thrown away. Going through old conference files, I found this postcard. Because of the impression Steve’s prayer made on me at the time of the conference, I wrote it out on the back of the postcard … To randomly find a postcard from a place I would soon being leaving for…I can’t adequately describe how powerful it was to read and then pray that prayer at a time when everything in my life felt like it was being blown apart.

It’s a lovely, encouraging, inspiring story. What strikes me is the importance of things that make worship tangible. I talk about this in my book, The Out of Bounds Church?: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change.

Walter Brueggemann describes the task of mission in a postmodern world as one of funding, of providing the bits and pieces out of which a new world can be imagined. The emergent church needs to see itself as “funding” tourists, providing a deep and wide enough passage to enable postmodern people to navigate their way to God.

Sourcing tourism through the provision of spiritual products can be a key mission task of the emerging church. This builds on some of the current worshipping practices of the emerging church. It invites a move beyond gathered worship to consider how the church can be missionary, offering its spirituality resources as spiritual product to a spiritually hungry world, without expecting the crossing of a threshold of a church door. Let me give a few practical examples.

Most tourists buy souvenirs. When I talk of souvenirs, I am not thinking of kitsch. I’m thinking of photographs, personal mementos, shopping bags and those soaps, shampoos, and sugar packets from hotel rooms. These are souvenirs. When the tourist returns home, the handling of these takeaway souvenirs rekindles memories. The emerging church is asking itself what kind of physical souvenirs we can send home with those who journey with us.

For the last few years, churches like Graceway and Cityside have used art as part of the Advent experience in the Sundays leading up to Christmas. Each Sunday, a different piece of art was introduced and reflected upon. The art pieces were printed on postcards and distributed. Attendees could take them home as a spiritual memento for the week and perhaps return to the reflections of Sunday’s experience. They served as spiritual takeaway, a souvenir to hang on the fridge door.
At this juncture, the souvenirs become missionary. Everyone remotely connected with the church can be sent a pack of four postcards. The church as tour guide is now offering spirituality to people both gathered and scattered. The e-mails and letters of gratitude flow in.

When churches start adding physical souvenirs, people have access to spiritual resources without having to open a church door. A theological stake has been driven into the ground. The church has recognized that people are at different places in their spiritual journeys. The church is loving people enough to go into the “highways and byways,” trusting the wind of the Spirit to do its work in people’s lives.

Five years on from when I wrote that, my thinking still holds. Our worship needs tangible shape. I don’t see a separation between the wind of the Spirit and the practicality of a takeway. Rather, drawing on Eugune Rogers, After The Spirit: A Constructive Pneumatology From Resources Outside The Modern West: “To think about the Spirit it will not do to think ‘spiritually’: to think about the Spirit you have to think materially.” (56). And if you want to drift further back in time, then here is a scrap from a Pentecost sermon by Gregory of Nazianzen: “[I]f [the Spirit] takes possession of a shepherd, He makes him a Psalmist, subduing evil spirits by his song, and proclaims him KIng; if He possesses a goatherd and a scraper of sycamore fruit, He makes him a Prophet [Amos 7:14] …. If He takes possession of Fishermen, He makes them catch the whole world…. If of Publicans, He… makes them merchants of souls.”

This wind of the Spirit blows on the material world, and essential to our engaging the Spirit is our working with God’s creation. Like postcards.

practical praying for building project

Starting a building project can be way more than just a construction site.

What about we take photos of the work as it progresses? And every week we send a progress photo to people in the church (dividing church into 10 groups, and cycling through the entire church over a 10 week period). On the back of the photo we provide a list of what might be happening with the project that week, and ways people can pray.

A simple way to keep people informed, to encourage connection and enhance prayer.

20 minutes encouraging “winter” sabbath

So you have been given 20 minutes in a standard morning service. The Bible text is about encouraging sabbath and the “worship” aim is to give people some time and space to “worship by sabbathing”, ie to provide a range of options/stations which a diverse, inter-generational group of people could enjoy. All ideas need to be easy, to ensure that those running the service are not stressed at the expense of those who are enjoying.

(For example, hot chocolates would be great, but a lot of work for 140 people when you don’t have a kitchen in the building).

What would you put into the time/space?

cleansing rituals

A few details changed, to preserve anonymity

She phoned the church, a stranger, a local, asking for a house blessing. So I popped around, with my Bible and my usual house blessing service. “What’s been happening?” I ask.

“We’ve moved recently. The ashes (of my dead relatives) aren’t happy. My partner and I are fighting heaps and we’ve been burgaled. Twice. Still got the footprints. Come and see.”

We head into the house. Sprawled on the couch are two teenagers. Seeing us, they straighten and pull the hoodie down low.

Suddenly the words of my usual house blessing service seem inappropriate. Time to jettison the words and use the symbols.

I light a candle: “This is a source of light. In the Bible, God is the light of the world. Light drives out darkness. So we are going to ask God’s light to be present and drive out darkness.”

I ask for a bowl of water: “This is a symbol of cleansing. It’s where we wash and get clean. Lets start by getting clean. One, by one, lets wash our hands. Silently, lets say sorry for how we’ve acted in this place, the fights we’ve caused.”

And so, one by one, we stoop to the Bible, using the water as a vessel by which sins might be confess. In the flicker of candle and the splashing of water, it’s starting to feel like holy ground.

Which room shall we start with, I ask? And with bowl in hand, we move from room to room. “What needs to happen here,” we ask each other. At each room, hands are dipped in the bowl and water is sprinkled. And the words and the water, together become prayers for this house, of hope and of confession.

It’s starting to feel like our holy ground, not just my holy ground. The teenagers follow. Watching.

We head outside. The ashes are causing problems. “They’re not happy with how much we’re fighting.”

Fascinating. At this point, the ashes are actually pointing to what might be called “sin”. I have no way to process this theologically. Can ashes talk? How do they talk? But I don’t think that a theological discussion is what’s needed.

We talk to God about what the ashes are saying: “But we’re glad God, that these ashes are reminding us of how to behave. And we want to listen, to start doing right. That’s why we washed our hands.” Again, I’m not sure of the theology, but I’m trusting the Spirit for the words.

And finally the teenagers speak. The cars, they nod. Outside on the street.

There’s lots of talk in my city about boy racers and how bad they are. Its easy to create a category called “boy racers” and place all of fears about the future of our children. Yet here I am, being asked to “do” something to the car of a boy racer.

And so we walk into the street. We ask for safety and wise decisions. The teenagers grin. And nod. It’s still feeling like our holy ground. I’m not sure whether they’ll remember on Friday night. Does it matter? Surely prayer is to God, not to these racers?

The boys stay with their car and I return inside. I’m alone with the woman and together we look at the candle.

I tell her that I’m about to blow out the candle. When I do, the candle light will go out. But God’s light need not go out in this house. God’s light can live in our hearts. Yes sure, we can blow that light in our hearts out. But simply say sorry, and invite the light back, and it always will.

She nods. And grins. Now this really is holy ground. We’ve named God in this house. The gospel has been enacted – the water of confession as the grace of cleansing. We’ve confessed sin and together we’ve talked to God – with words and actions.

I’m looking forward to returning in a few weeks, grabbing a cup of tea, talking more with this family, about what it means to walk in the light and wash in forgiveness. Such is the power of symbols, that connect human participation with the Biblical story.

sunflower prayer

As the sunflower tracks the sun
God, help me track your warmth and love this day,

And
grow,
unfold,
bloom,

into my full splendour as your child, Amen.

If you want to make this prayer your own, you could add your initials in the comment section. Other prayers on this blog can be found here.

a non-Christian lords prayer

“How come there are so many flash churches in our poorest city suburbs? That’s my problem with Christian religion.”

I sat with a stranger at Auckland Airport yesterday. He’s not a church goer and he told me why. Growing up in Mangere, one of Auckland’s poorest suburbs, he could walk past 10 flash churches in the space of two minutes. All these big and beautiful churches, and slowly, as he grew, he connected what he saw with all the people he knew, struggling financially in the streets around him.

What’s flash churches got to do with God? Are flash churches keeping people poor? Why isn’t faith changing this suburb?

What’s kept me pondering the conversation is this uneasy sense that I actually heard the Lord’s prayer being prayed. Amid the blare of TV and the boarding calls, I think I heard a plea that God’s will be done, God’s Kingdom come, on earth as it should be in heaven. A cry that the poor would see justice and a suburb changed.

Sort of ironic when that prayer emerges with such clarity in a busy airport from a religious sceptic.

18.5 weeks old

I did a wee farewell service tonight for Hine Rose P. who died in the womb at 18.5 weeks. Close friends and family gathered at the family home to mark an incredibly difficult roller coaster journey over the last 7 weeks.

Here was one of the prayers: In the middle is a bowl of water. Water means many things. It speaks of life and death. It speaks of soothing and healing. It speaks of relaxing and letting go and cleansing. Beside the bowl is some salt, representing tears and sadness; and some roses, for Hine Rose, a symbol of love and beauty and joy.

Any who want to may now pray. We can pray with words. We can also pray with actions. You may want to
– make a fist in anger
– hold your palms open in release
– swirl your hands praying comfort
– make sign of cross as a speaking of hope
– add some salt to the water
– float a petal

If you would like to make this prayer your own, either for yourself or for others know who have been through miscarriage, you could add your initials in the comments.

A pastoral note: I’ve never done a service like this before. Normally miscarriages are a thing kept quiet. But I’ve had numbers of older woman thanking me and sharing their pain over the fact that their grief was never publicly marked.

be:holden wedding prayer

I did an outdoor wedding a few weeks ago, to a couple mad keen on cars. On the morning of the wedding, I sort of scribbled the following prayer, and it seemed to connect well.

God of love and passion, God of commitment and promises,
We pray for xxxx and xxxx today,
That, they will treat their marriage like a well-maintained Holden car,
They will pay attention to each other’s oil and water and tire pressure,
That they will be quick to forgive, well able to listen to the best advice from their pit crew.

May God’s grace rest on their life as they drive life’s road together,

May they grow in peace as one,
Always faithful to this model of 2008,
May the love that we see today last through all their life,
through every S bend and hairpin they negotiate,
so that at the end of their days,
they may just feel as they do now.
Very happy to be in love and married. Amen.

prayer for change agent pastors

Lord, we pray for Steve,
He has a large and difficult task,
we called him to make change in this church.
Yet when he opens the windows,
it is easy to complain about the draft/draught (word choice is yours),
We pray for him today,

This was a prayer prayed at our staff gathering today. If you would like to pray, for either Steve, or for a change agent pastor you know, add your initials in the comments.

Update: a sharp-eyed blog reader has pointed out the play of word around “draft” and “draught”. Since this was a prayer prayed verbally, I am not sure whether the person praying was meaning “draft” or “draught.” Isn’t the English language fascinating? Isn’t communication fascinating? Isn’t the way we got our Bible (oral words becoming written words which were for so many centuries read as oral words in church) fascinating?

prayer of gladness for nuture

We are surrounded by people who have shaped us, nurtured us, taught us to read and write, warned us, pushed us, inspired us, blessed us.

God of growth
You have shaped us
Through the love and devotion of your saints
Inspire us to follow their example
Through the true vine that is Jesus our Christ, Amen.

If you want to make this prayer your own, you could leave the initials of people you are thankful for.

For a prayer of patience, go here.
For a prayer for those walking with grief, go here.

all saints are our saints prayer

I wrote the prayer below for worship on Sunday. The church I pastor is 96 years old, so I asked some of our long-termers to describe for me the key figures in our church’s history: our saints, the people who have, in God, built up God’s church at Opawa. I then ended with a snippet from the Anglican prayer book.

2 of our folk will pray the following on Sunday:

Thanks God for Wyn Voyce
Our oldest living saint at 102 years
Pianonist, Singer in the choir
Ministering to Opawa through music
May we use our talents like Wyn Voyce did

ALL: Almighty God; You have built up your church
Through the love and devotion of your saints
We give you thanks for your servants
Inspire us to follow their example,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.