Group Prayer

At our monthly all-staff meetings at Group, we usually open with prayer. It's awesome to work at a place that values prayer. I should be thankful for it. And I am...but...

I have to confess that sometimes I find it very boring. And that's not just at Group...it's group prayer in general. Sometimes at our all-staffs we pray silently but with direction - and that I like. I'm engaged in it. It's personal. I'm not a mere observer.

But other times, we take prayer requests and then someone up front prays for them all. And I get really bored. I shouldn't. It feels wrong to be bored. But I doubt I'm the only one that gets bored with this method of prayer. For one, it's redundant...we just heard all the prayer requests, now we're praying for them. Why didn't we just have people say their prayers instead of saying what they needed prayer for? I guess it's nice to have someone else pray for your needs, even if they are essentially just reading off a checklist.

But moreover, I find group prayer requests very shallow. It's very rare that someone will ask for prayer for themselves in a group setting. More often, it's "Pray for my cousin's cousin, who has cancer." And to be quite honest (albeit harsh), even though cancer is a sad, sad thing, I don't really care about your cousin's cousin. I may not even know you that well (though I'd probably like to), but I don't even have a frame of reference for your cousin's cousin.

It's hard to ask for personal things, though. I don't do it very often. Because it's vulnerable. It's easier to think of the closest person to you who has cancer and ask for prayer about that than to ask for God to change your heart on something that you've been struggling with.

I know this blog probably sounds very mean...but it's honest. It's personal. And I think we need more personal sharing. Maybe in a meeting with your whole company isn't the place for that. But at least in our small groups...it's time to get personal.