Teleprompting prayers

There are two kinds of preachers in the world: those who write out their pastoral prayers beforehand, and those who pray extemporaneously.

Ok, so that's a bit of an oversimplification. But I've found that people (both pastors and laity) can have strong opinions one way or the other.

Those who think all prayers should be offered without preparation often argue that the Holy Spirit works best 'in the moment,' and that preachers should open their hearts to pray on behalf of the congregation in the way the Spirit directs them in a particular worship setting.

On the other hand, those who believe in written prayers tend to emphasize that the Holy Spirit works just as effectively through the kind of careful discernment that goes on in the pastor's study, as the prayer is being written with the confession, petition, praise and thanksgiving of the congregation in mind. (I also recently heard a preacher cite Matthew 6:7-15 as an argument against extemporaneous prayer, although I think that is a bad reading of that text.)

In my own ministry, I've done both. Recently, in fact. During our Holy Week services, I used a lot of written prayers, simply because there are beautiful ones out there related to the great moments of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. Because they use images and allusions from Scripture in such beautifully poetic fashion, I find that offering liturgical prayers in specific seasons of the Christian year can express the church's praise and thanksgiving better than I could ever hope to do.

But my standard practice for pastoral prayers week in and week out is to pray extemporaneously. I do that in part because my congregation pauses in the middle of worship to offer individual witnesses of praise and to lift up prayer concerns. I write notes about those testimonies of praise and prayer during the service and then incorporate them into my prayer. I have found that this allows me to pray a prayer that is more fully of the whole congregation. And it also ensures that the pastoral prayer speaks to the particular joys, thanksgivings, concerns, and petitions of the church in that given week.

I've been thinking about the issue of how we pray in worship since I read a column on Barack Obama's use of a teleprompter by the Washington Post's Michael Gerson. In his column, Gerson pushes back on those who deride Obama's dependence on the teleprompter, arguing that the "careful sorting of ideas and priorities" that written remarks reflect, whether at news conferences or in full-length speeches, is an essential part of the craft of governing.

Gerson is a former presidential speechwriter, of course. So he is hardly unbiased. But what about introducing the teleprompter to church? Sermons, even pastoral prayers, could be scrolled down a couple of screens set at covenient angles in front of the pulpit! And then we could have the best of both worlds - the appearence of extemporaneous eloquence with the grounding of a carefully crafted text.

How is it that nobody's doing this yet??

Easter Reflection for Holy Week

It's the middle of Holy Week and the end of a semester. As a pastor and graduate student, that means that I feel like I don't have time to sleep (let alone blog!).

As I've been reading through the gospel narratives of Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection in preparation for my church's holy week services, I have been filled with this strange mixture of sadness and hope. Maybe it's not so strange, when you consider that both sadness and hope are exactly what the story should convey to us. But in most years, I don't dwell long enough on the sadness before I move on to Easter morning, the empty tomb, and the great hope we have in Christ resurrected.

This year is different. I don't know why, exactly. But I suspect that my thinking about society's larger economic woes is combining with some of my own personal struggles to be more faithful in a way that is making me dwell more on the sad aspects of a world broken by sin and alienation. I got my new copy of Newsweek this afternoon, and the cover story is an article by Jon Meacham on the decline of "Christian America." I am very leery of mixing fidelity to God and fidelity to country, but from my scan of the article it's not all about the decline of the highly politicized Religious Right. It is also about the decline of the Christian faith in our culture in general, an argument that is backed up by some statistical evidence.

The church is in a tough spot right now. We're all in a tough spot. So I thank God for the promise of Easter, because we need to hear its message now more than ever. I have an Easter column in the United Methodist Reporter this week, which I wrote both to help the church and help myself.

Hosanna, loud Hosanna

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

"Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord - the King of Israel!"

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!"

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these had been written of him and had been done to him.

The Gospel of John, 12:12-16

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From Olivet they followed mid an exultant crowd,
the victor palm branch waving, and chanting clear and loud.
The Lord of earth and heaven rode on in lowly state,
nor scorned that little children should on his bidding wait.

"Hosanna in the highest!" that ancient song we sing,
for Christ is our Redeemer, the Lord of heaven our King.
O may we ever praise him with heart and life and voice,
and in his blissful presence eternally rejoice!

"Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" (United Methodist Hymnal, 278)

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... And so, with your people on earth
and all the company of heaven
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!

Sanctus, The Great Thanksgiving (UMH, p.9)

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After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

The Revelation to John, 7:9-12