Praying in the Plural

How do the whole-life ideas shape the way we pray on our Frontlines?

There are varied responses we might want to give to this, but as a start here is a great and simple idea from a series preached by Robert Gelinas, lead pastor at Colorado Community Church and self-styled Jazz Theologian (It is well worth checking out his excellent blog) in September ‘09. Hear or download the talks here...

Over the course of six weeks, Gelinas explores a number of passages (2 Chron 6:18-21, James 1:1-5, Is 29:13-14, Eph 1:15-20, Eph 3:14-21, Mk 9:14-24) and emphasises that many prayers in the Bible are in the plural rather than the singular. Think, for example, of the Lord’s Prayer. The voice of the prayer is not 'me' but 'us'. But how often do we pray it in a way that recognises this?

Gelinas suggests that we model our prayer on this plural model:

Instead of I say we. Instead of me say us.

Obvious and simple really…but in practice life changing for Christians on the Frontline. When we face difficult or challenging situations our typical response when we pray is to ask God to help me (not a bad prayer). But it is unlikely that we are the only ones who are facing such a situation, so why not instead pray God help us.

So, for example, if you are facing redundancy at work, a person can and should legitimately pray God help me. But isn’t it better to pray God help us…and by so doing pray for colleagues who are facing the same situation, pray for the many other people also facing unemployment, pray for the implications for the company that this might have? As Gelinas points out at the beginning of the series ‘there is more of God than we need’.

We really like this idea and here is why:

1) It grows our understanding of God’s lordship – we begin to grasp something of how involved God is in the world in a way that extends beyond our own often limited horizons.

2) It creates a dramatic shift in perspective – facing difficult or challenging circumstances on our frontline it is easy to feel isolated. In a deeply individualistic culture, a ‘poor me’ response is a real temptation, feeling that we are the only ones who face such circumstances. Praying this way bursts that bubble and helps us see that we are not alone in the situations we face.

3) It is deeply empowering – praying in the plural means we come to God with not only our own situation but as a representative of many who are facing the same challenges.

4) It makes prayer more vibrant – Only being able to pray ‘help’ can be limiting. After we’ve prayed this we can feel like we are endlessly repeating the same things to God over and over again. Praying in the plural means that there are further dimensions to our prayers and once you begin to pray in this way new possibilities open up.

Why not try it and encourage people to give it a go and see how it might begin to transform how you pray?