Summer Practices 2020
As a local church, we want to invite each other to give ourselves to God in three particular ways over the next weeks, from June through mid-September.
We are simply calling these our summer practices.
Three P’s: Peter + Psalms + Prayer-walking
Practice #1: Peter Protests on Sundays
What is it?
We will be holding our corporate sermon conversation each Sunday based on the letter of 1 Peter.
Why 1 Peter?
As our country wrestles through Covid restrictions and the current social unrest from years of racist policy, we believe 1 Peter offers a timely message, calling our attention to the themes of: “Hope Rising” in the midst of uncertainty, Identity as Resident Aliens + Royal Priests, Protest against the Power structures of the day, and a counter-Formation of the reconciling body of Christ known as the Church.
Practice #2: Pray the Psalms Daily
What is it?
This summer, we will also be relying on the Psalms to help us lament, learn, unlearn, and reimagine our country/world. Our invitation to you is to engage with the psalm from the previous Sunday’s Call to Worship to prayerfully meditate throughout the week that follows (Monday through Saturday). Ex: On Sept. 20, we meditated on Psalm 55 while this past Sunday (Sept. 27) we practiced Psalm 145, and this coming Sunday’s (Oct. 4) Call to Worship will be based on Psalm 130.…and we will update them each week here and on our social media outlets.
Why the Psalms?
Though we were created to commune with God, we also really struggle to pray. We end up praying, as author Donald Whitney put it, “the same old things about the same old things.” The Psalms help us interrupt our prayer ruts and invite us to bring our real selves and real emotions to a real God. They teach us that no emotion is uninvited to our prayer lives, but rather each of these emotions are to be acknowledged, even welcomed into our prayers. These include joy, pain, sorrow, anger, depression, cries against injustice, etc.
How to practice it?
It’s about as simple as it gets. Go through the psalm praying what you find in the text or what it brings to mind. If nothing comes to mind, or if you don’t understand the verse, go to the next. You might choose to linger longer on one verse. You can spend as long as you want, or as little as you need on this exercise. It’s that simple!
This method of prayer is found in Donald Whitney’s book Praying The Bible. If you’d like a PDF of “Praying The Bible” Guide as a reference click HERE.
Practice #3: Prayer-walk Weekly
What is it?
It is what it sounds like: praying while walking. Some have described prayerwalking as “on-site intercession.” We have all sorts of amazing sites to prayerwalk, such as: Deering Center + Evergreen Cemetery, Woodfords Corner, the Old Port, Back Cove, Sebago to Sea, Cousins Island, or anywhere else that we find ourselves.
Why are we practicing Prayerwalking?
“Most people gaze neither into the past nor the future; they explore neither truth nor lies. They gaze at the television.” ― Radiohead
A prayerwalk is walking and gazing with our eyes open to see God and grit, beautiful and broken Creation, and neighbors with capacity for ill and good. It’s not just walking around. It’s not just praying. It’s walking through your neighborhood praying with your eyes and your heart wide open. It’s noticing signs of hope and signs of need, and how God calls us to be present to both.
It is praying in a new way wherever God has placed us, seeing things we might otherwise ignore, and bringing them before God in prayer. It gets us out of our normal four walls. It helps slow us down from our frenetic pace! It reminds us that our neighbors are real people and there are real issues to talk to God about for our neighborhood. Prayer is one of the main ways of us participating in God’s work and our own formation as humans! As Dallas Willard said, “Prayer is talking with God about what we’re doing together.”
How do we practice it?
You can prayerwalk alone, or also in groups of two or three. Consider pulling in someone from your household or someone from the Coastal fam. Before heading out, pray for the leading of the Spirit as well as spiritual protection and insight as you go! Briefly plan where you are going to walk and then do it. Here are a few directives as you go:Pray Scripture. While not necessary, some choose to pick a particular Scripture to pray as they walk. You can even read the Scripture out loud and then expand on that passage in your own words.
Pray as the Spirit leads. The Spirit, your spirit and the city’s spirit might give you discernment or insight into something that you can pray about.
Pray aware of your surroundings. This includes people as well as your 5 senses. Observe houses, buildings, posters, signs, graffiti, anything that might direct your prayers. Pray with your eyes open!
Pray to see Signs of Need & Signs of Hope Rising: Where do you see signs of hardship, hurt, or injustice? Where do you see evidence of God’s grace and God’s people at work? Look for nonprofit organizations, playing children, uplifting artwork, faith symbols, social gatherings, gardens. Look especially for local assets that could be connected with neighborhood/local needs.
Pray for your neighbors. Shhh…This is a great time to listen to the joy and sorrow of those around us. This is a great time to get to know your neighbors and actually pray for them. Some might want to ask neighbors what they can be praying for if they see them, or perhaps just say hi and stop to talk along the way if they’re open to conversation.