by Rowland Croucher

The following comprises one - of four - chapters in my book 'Recent Trends Among Evangelicals'. The other chapters: 'Recent Trends Among Evangelicals', 'Towards an Evangelical Theology of Social Justice', and 'Evangelicalism Towards the 21st Century'. Available for $10 plus a few dollars for postage (Please contact me by email: simply click on the 'Contact Us' button top right on your screen for details)

Head And Heart

Carlo Carretto describes the most important discovery of his life - That prayer takes place in the heart, not in the head. (3) The saints teach us that "knowing Christ through love" is much more important than "knowledge of doctrines about Christ". To know a person differs from knowing about that person. So Christianity is not just a set of truths but a way of life.

Praying contemplatively moves the emphasis from thinking to loving, from the understanding to the heart and will, from conceptualization to simply looking lovingly at the Lord. The basic dynamic: from more activity on the part of the person praying to more receptivity; from dependence on one's own activities in prayer to more dependence on the actions of the Holy Spirit. (4)

However, a caution is need here. Some experiments with biofeedback machines in California found that for a majority of Christians prayer is stressful! That was because they did not practice mental or contemplative prayer. Their prayer was all words, little listening, and so was not relaxing. But we do not pray to "get peace of mind". Peace of mind is certainly a by-product of restul prayer habits, but is not the reason we pray in the first place. Jacques Ellul gives us the clue in a powerful chapter he calls "The Only Reason for Praying" in his Prayer and Modern Man. According to the Bible, he says, the only reason to pray is that God commands us to pray. But along with the command to pray are examples of the substance of prayer: the Psalms, the prayers of Job in his struggle with God. "We should also remember that every bearer of the word of God was a man of prayer: Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon. Each one has bequeathed us both a style of prayer, prayers which can turn directly to our own use, and also a model of the relationship with God, which is unique and yet available to each person. To read the Bible is to read prayers......" (5)

Prayers Of The Bible

What are these prayers like? They are often very direct and frank (e.g. 2 Kings 19:15-19, 2 Samual 7:18-29). Sometimes there is a sense of the awesome majesty and power of God (Isaiah 6:5, Job 42:1-6). Others are mystical (Ezekiel 1:4-28); many of the Psalms are lamentations - cries to God "from the depths" to be healed, to be set free, to be saved.

Some biblical prayers are very brief - even one word ("maranatha", "our Lord, come", which is the oldest Christian prayer - 1 Corinthians 16:22, cf Revelation 22:20).

The prayers of the Bible often arise out of crisis and conflict, leading us to faith, hope and confidence in God.

We can use some of these great scriptural passages to recollect the presence of God in the present (Psalms 138-139; Acts 17:27). We can pray some of the Psalms as our own cry from the heart to our God (e.g. Psalm 51, when we have sinned). We can turn exhortations into supplication ("Help me Lord, as your word instructs, to ..."). Ponder a text, a phrase, or even a word, "writing it on your heart" (Proverbs 7:3). Learn from the prayers offered by Christ; or from his response to petitions offered to him; or from his teaching on prayer.

The general impression one gets in studying the Bible's prayers, or teaching about prayer, is that prayer covers all the events of our lives, so there are many different ways to pray. Sometimes we are still, knowing within the depths of our being that he is God. At other times, we have to work hard at prayer: it "is not a gentle pastime", as the new Dutch Roman Catholic catechism puts it.

Above all, we learn from Scripture that God is God, that God is the God of the impossible. He is the God who can make Sarah's barren womb fruitful and separate the water of the Red Sea.

He is the living God.

He is a God who guides.

He is a God who raises from the dead.

He is the eternal God.

He is a God who wants me in his kingdom for ever.

So "do not be afraid when God calls you, but do not be afraid when he is silent.

Do not be afraid when he asks you to perform some task, but do not be afraid when he asks for it back....

What matters is to walk in his presence and to be certain in faith that it is he who is leading us." (6)

Footnotes:

1. Mark Link, You, Argus, 1976, 39ff, Breakaway, Argus, 1980,98ff.

2. Quoted in Jean Laplace, An Experience of Life in the Spirit, Shand, 1978, 58.

3. Carlo Carretto, The Desert in the City, Collins, 1978, 23.

4. Robert Faricy, Praying, Villa, 1979, 38.

5. Jacques Ellul, Prayer and Modern Man, Seabury, 1979, 108-109.

6. Carretto, op.cit., 58,62.

(7) Praying For Others

The most compelling reason for praying with others is Jesus' promise that "whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my Name, I am there with them". (Matthew 18:19, 20).

Jesus took his disciples with him occasionally when he was praying in solitary places (Luke 9:18,28). We know what Jesus prayed in Gethsemane probably because part of his prayer was overheard (Mark 14:33).

The apostolic Christians prayed together from the start. The Holy Spirit was poured out on a group at prayer (Acts 1:14). They continued to spend a lot of time in prayer together (Acts 2:42). Paul prayed constantly with his co-missioners (Colossians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11) and asked others to join him in disciplined prayer (Romans 15:30). James (5:16) tells us to "confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed."

Praying together is one of the richest experiences Christians can have with each other. "There is a deep joy in praying together, an added vitality, a plus difficult to define. It is rather like the difference between eating your meal alone and sharing in a party feast. Eating together is not the same as eating in solitude; the something more is the company, the fellowship. So it is with prayer." (1)

Revival

But prayer with others is not only helpful to us, it is also associated with all the great spiritual awakenings. For example, the Evangelical Revival in England in the late 18th century began in a little "Holy Club" at Oxford. So impressed were the Wesleys with the prayer vell principle that every Methodist society was organised into small Band and Class meetings. Similarly the great revival in America in 1857-1858 was empowered and nurtured in prayer meetings. The longest-lasting revival in Christian history, affecting four-to-five generations of Koreans, has been noted for its powerful prayer meetings.

In his books How to Develop A Praying Church and The Exciting Church Where People Really Pray Charlie Shedd lists the advantages of praying with others. In a chapter in the latter book entitled "Where the People Pray - These Good Things Happen" he lists these "good things": "They care for each other; lives will be changed; they attract new members; there will be social concern; they also serve the church; they reach out to the world; the little negatives stay little; everyone is able to serve." (2)

Sometimes prayer meetings are large; they are church-wide. These can be powerful occasions, but only where there is a strong sense of community. In Western nations such imtimate "belongingness" on a larger scale is quite rare, so there has been a worldwide movement towards smaller prayer-groups. This is good. Such "growth groups", "prayer cells" - call them what you will - should do three things; scripture reading, meditation and study; sharing of our personal concerns with one another; then prayer. That is, we listen to God, listen to each other, then speak to God the things have have arisen in the other two encounters. The "mix" of Bible, sharing and prayer will vary from group to group, and from time to time in one group. What is important is that all three occur in all groups all the time.

Ideas For Group Prayer

Here's a pot-pourri of principles and suggestions for praying with others:

The best size for the group will depend on what it does. If the emphasis is on personal sharing or therapy, it ought to be small - say 3 to 6. If the group majors on Bible discussion the optimum size is 8 to 12. If it's a "house church" there may be 30 to 40, but there ought to be times where "tows or threes" pray together.

Sensitivity ought to be shown towards those who have rarely, if ever, prayed aloud before. Ease them into it by encouraging written prayers to be read, sentence prayers to be spoken, or "prayer points" shared which one or two may bring to God on behalf of the group. With acceptance and love and encouragement, it ought to be expected that all will soon be able to pray aloud. The lengthy prayers of the verbose might have to be "reined in" in the process!

There aren't many books on group prayer, and few resources. However, some excellent material can be found in John Mallison's "Learning and Praying" (Vol. 2 in his series on small groups), and Maxie Dunnam's "The Workbook of Living Prayer". Charles Kemp's "Prayer-based Growth Groups" (Abingdon) is a good introduction.

Many Approaches

There are many ways to pray together. Charlie Shedd says "Pray in your own way. There are twelve gates into the holy city and a thousand different doors to prayer. When we pray we are entering a vast expanse of truth which leaves room for much experiment and many approaches."

Being silent in a group is important. After the scripture is read it is good to encourage silent meditation on the sacred words for a few minutes - or longer. "For people who live hectic lives, corporate meditation can be an oasis in a desert." (3) Silent retreats, or quiet days with others can be healing occasions. (4)

Sometimes the group can devote time to adoration and praise. Confession can happen in a group by silently writing down our sins, tearing the paper into small pieces, passing a cup around, then enacting absolution (either by saying something like "As you have confessed your sins to God, in the name of Jesus you are forgiven" to one another in turn; or by the leader on behalf of the group). Thanksgiving can follow this experience. Bidding prayers can invite members to verbalise their blessing. (For example: "let us recall 'high moments' from the recent past; let us thank God for someone, a book we have read, a scripture that has been meaningful to us' etc.). Specific intercession, selfless prayers for others, ought to be written down as they are prayed (to check for God's answer). Sometimes it's enough to mention a name, and no more details (to avoid gossip). Trust and confidentiality are important here. The group prayer could conclude with someone bringing a special benediction; or by the group praying a written-out prayer of dedication.

Try one - or two-word prayers of adoration: "Jesus", "Father", "maranatha", "Lord you are here", etc. Sometimes write out a litany, or pray a great hymn of adoration or dedication together. Bidding prayers can be offered by group members (Let us pray for our pastor and elders"; "Let us uphold our prime minister and cabinet before God"). Pluriform praying - all praying aloud at the same time - is practised in many cultures, and over many centuries. It's beautiful once we overcome our initial embarrassment!

The "laying on of hands" if someone has a special need (or by proxy for someone else) is an ancient practice being revived in many churches today. Symbols and liturgies have, from time immemorial, enriched the church's worship. Those os us from the "Free churches" who are exploring these riches are finding treasures everywhere! For example, "a cross, candle, loaf of bread, chalice, jug of water, open Bible, vacant chair, or a simple drawing of a fish or a dove, and other traditional symbols can be useful aids if they are varied." (5)

Group prayer, says Frank Akehurst, is an act of fellowship building up the body of Christ in love; it is a ministry of care and support to fellow Christians; a participation together in mission beyond local or regional boundaries; and an expression of life and relationship to Christ.

Onwards, then, to "the more". (6)

Footnotes:

1. Stephen Winward, Teach Yourself to Pray, H & S , 86.

2. Quoted in John Mallison, Learning and Praying, Renewal Publications, 1976, 133.

3. Michael Wright, New Ways for Christ, Mowbrays, 1975,44.

4. See, eg. Margaret Harvey, Worship and Silence,Grove Books, 1975.

5. Mallison, op.cit., 167.

6. Frank Akehurst, Praying Aloud Together, Grove Books, 1975, 20.

(8) Finding Time To Pray

Most os us want to pray more effectively. We know this takes time. But for most of us it's very hard to find this time. Australia may be "the Timeless Land" as Eleanor Dark calls it, but only for its aboriginal, rarely for its white inhabitants. "Banjo" Paterson in his ballad "Clancy of the Overflow" says:

"For townsfolk have to time to grow, they have no time to waste".

Research tells us that middle-class people are least able to master their time. (1) Working mothers with children are particularly harried. Then, for Christians, there are the incessant demands to attend Church functions. Parents seem to be constantly chauffeuring their children to school activities, or music lessons, or club outings, or little athletics. Clergy, who have more "discretionary time" than any other group, also, paradoxically, suffer more than most other from shortage of time.

"The heathen in his blindness
bows doen to wood and stone':
the modern Christian worker
is slave to door and phone;
the diary his bible
to guide the daily plan,
dispensing or refusing
the love of God for man....

Our lives are all time-shackles,
programmed and set in place,
and scarcely ever able
to apprehend your grace;
our spirits want the freedom
the risen Christ can give:
a space for timeless praying
a land of spacious praise'. (2)

Universal Fatigue

Our stressful lives have resulted in what Paul Tournier calls 'universal fatigue', which has reached epidemic proportions. Even our leisure and exercise activities are 'time-intensive'. We play squash or tennis, or ride an exercise-bike, to 'save time' while getting fit. Our reading is mostly related to professional demands. We try to do two or three (or more) things at once. Many of us wake to an alarm, whether we've had adequate sleep or not. We breathe polluted air, are exposed to too much artificial noise, worry about economic problems (Jesus told us not to do that), live in crowded cities, and our kids can't safely travel in trains or walk the streets in the dark anymore. Car drivers have more and more information to process in less and less time, creating more stress and accidents. "Information overload" makes our decision-making more complex. We move house, change jobs (and partners) more often. Our meals (particularly breakfast) are "self-serve". We rarely write long letters to people nowadays. Even our worship is regulated by the clock.

Most Christians are not reading as much as they feel they should, and yet are spending more of their lives these days getting 'educated'. We mostly need a 'reason' for walking or driving. ('Can't I just be in the woods without any special reason?' Thomas Merton asks). Adults are not 'playing' enough (or if they do, it's highly competitive - beating the other person or the golf score).

Exploiting Time

We have done to time what we have done to nature - attempted to dominate it rather than submit to it. We've followed the Creator's injunction about subduing the earth and forgotten the other command about replenishing it. Our "conquest mentality" has led us into the destructive habit of 'using' natural resources, of 'exploiting' time.

So our 'time management' courses are almost totally preoccupied with a how-to-get-more-done-in-less-time mentality. The clock has become our master. And being a slave to clock-time can be the worst tyranny of our stressful existence..... While we in the West have conquered material poverty, we have paid an awesome emotional price; 'economic growth entails a general increase in the scarcity of time. Consumption gobbles up time alive'. (3) So - another paradox - the more we go on seeking additional material goods, the less time we actually have to enjoy them.

Wasting Time

Recently, in Lae, Papua New Guinea, I bought a book called Prayer for Pilgrims by Sheila Cassidy. You may remember she was the British doctor who was tortured and imprisoned by the Chilean authorities in 1975 for treating a 'freedom fighter'. She has some excellent advice on finding time for prayer in the midst of our busy-ness. (If a young doctor working 80-100 hours a week can learn to pray, anyone can!). She writes: "One of the break-throughs that I have experienced in the understanding of prayer is the significance of 'wasting' time. One day I was working at a boring job and a friend came to join me. He loitered about for nearly an hour, perched on the edge of the table ... and talking occasionally of nothing in particular. When he had gone I was filled with a special joy because I realized that he had deliberately wasted an hour with me; it was not that we were discussing something of importance or that I needed consoling: it was a pure and unsolicited gift of time. If we think about it, for busy people time is often the most precious thing they have to give. Doctors, priests, those who counsel, will always 'spend' time with those in need. They may sit up all night with someone who is distressed; they may pass long hours in listening to problems, or in giving advice; but this is all time deliberately spent. We only deliberately waste time with those we love - it is the purest sign that we love someone if we choose to spend time idly in their presence when we could be doing something more 'constructive'. And so it is with prayer; there is a very real sense in which prayer is a waste of time ... it is the purest sign of our love for God that we are prepared to 'waste' our time with him". (4)

We'll come back tothat, but let's now go deeper into understanding this mysterious entity we call "time".

There are three ways, biblically, of understanding time: chronos, kairos and aion. Chronos-time is measurable, chronological time. Kairos-time is "timeliness". The first is time-as-duration, the second time-as-harmony.

Oscar Cullman, in his book Christ and Time, says aion-time designates both an exactly defined period of time (this present age), and eternity; both time-limited and time-unlimited.

Now, to understand different ways of praying we need to relate the three prayer-forms with these concepts of time. Verbal prayer is concrete, specific, active. Meditative prayer is more creative. And contemplative prayer has a timeless quality about it.

Please note that none of these biblical expressions for time is abstract. Our times (plural) are in God's hands. The Christ-event was time's mid-point, and the Divine plan for our world and its peoples is moving forward to its consummation.

"Now" And "Not Yet"

The Christian, then, views time in different ways. We are "exiles in time", but we also possess "eternal" life here-and-now. So we must not only "number our days" to achieve certain goals, but also "gain wisdom of heart". (Psalm 90:12). We must strive for the fine balance between "doing", "being" and "becoming".

Perhaps the greatest problem busy people hae in relation to finding time to pray is the "tyranny of the urgent". Jesus had a lot of urgent things to do, but he regularly distanced himself from them to do something more important - spend uninterrupted time alone with his Father. So he was able to "finish the work God gave him to do". Many of us rush around doing significant things, but the work God has ordained for us to do includes much more than achieving tangible goals.

"Wasting Time With God"

Every day, if possible, we should aim to do as Psalm 46:10 says (in Joseph Pieper's translation): "Have leisure and know that I am God". Once a week or fortnight give extended time to "waiting for the Lord". Then, perhaps once a year, attend a retreat, to do a spiritual stock-take.

Finding the delicate balance between the "mystical" and the "mundane" will only be learned by trial and error, and great discipline. Finding time for prayer is less a matter of time-organization as an attitude of mind. Time for prayer has to become a priority rather than occupying a peripheral position in our lives. Be sure of this: the half-hour or hour given to prayer at the expense of other things is never wasted. Such "wasting time with God" enriches and enhances all that we do, and in a mysterious way makes our work more creative and productive.

Individual Patterns

Each of us must find the pattern that is appropriate to our lifestyle. A mother of small children will pray at different times (e.g. when feeding the baby, or when the kids are asleep) than a single person. Teenagers will learn to get to bed early - despite the allures of television - to find time first thing in the morning. Pastors will put their telephone answering-machine on while they leave the crowds to find a solitary place. Nine-to-five workers will slip into a church sanctuary, or park their car a mile from their work-place, or use the train journey for their 'quiet times". Travelling salespeople will find the shade of a tree for a midday hour with the Lord.

Whatever we do the principle is the same: if prayer is our first priority it will not be impossible to arrange the rest of our lives accordingly. "We shall never be safe in the market place unless we are at home in the desert". (5)

God has invited - no, commanded - us to pray. His will for us allows this special space and time in our schedules. Michel Quoist says, "Time is a gift of God and he will demand of us an exact accounting of it. But be at peace; God doesn't give us a job to do without at the same time giving us the means to accomplish it. We always have time to do what God wants us to do." (6)

The question is: are his priorities for us our priorities too?

Footnotes:

1. I am indebted to Robert Banks' The Tyranny of Time, Lancer, 1983 for many insights on this subject.

2. Owen Dowling, ibid., 37.

3. S.B. Linden, ibid., 124.

4. Sheila Cassidy, Prayer for Pilgrims, Fount, 1980,40-41.

5. Cardinal Basil Hume, Searching for God, quoted in S. Cassidy's Prayer for Pilgrims, 86.

6. M. Quoist, The Christian Response, Gill & Son, 1965,75.

(10) Practising The Presence Of God

When a young person is hopelessly in love, thoughts of the beloved are in one's mind almost constantly. Sometimes these thoughts are translated into "interior dialogue" with the loved one. We conduct loving conversations with him or her between doing other things.

This is something like what Brother Lawrence called "practising the presence of God".

Brother Lawrence (1611-1691) cheerfully worked and quietly prayed in his kitchen. "The time of business," he said, "does not with me differ from time of prayer". His aim: to "seek God only, and nothing else, not even his gifts." "We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to him frankly and plainly, and imploring his assistance in our affairs, just as they happen." Indeed, Brother Lawrence claimed he was more united to God in his outward employment than when he left them for devotion and retirement.

One of his secrets: "We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed."

The Game With Minutes

Frank Laubach - a modern mystic - advocated calling the Lord to mind "at least one second of each minute". Impossible, you ask? No, he says. It is no harder to learn this new habit than to learn to touch-type.

"Practising the presence of God is not on trial. It has already been proven by countless thousands of people. Indeed, the spiritual giants of all ages have known it. Catholics and Protestants find this practising the presence of God at the heart of their faith. Conservatives and liberals agree that here is a reality they need."

Start with one particular hour each day, he suggests. Write down, on a score-card, how many minutes you thought of God. Imagine Christ nearby, in a definite location. Some like St. Paul, imagine him within; many, like St. Patrick, feel him all around us, above, below, before, behind, as though we walked in his kindly halo. Others imagine him in a chair or walking beside them. Some have gazed so long at a favourite picture of him "until it floats before our memories whenever we glance at his unseen presence, and we almost see him."

Laubach says we should train ourselves to "see double", as Christ does - we see each other person as he or she is, and as Christ longs to make them. When the telephone rings, you say to yourself, "Someone very precious to God will now speak to me".

Then, while doing other things, hum a devotional song or prayer to yourself. When in conversation keep whispering inside: "Lord, put your thoughts in my mind. Tell me what to say."

In our social interactions we consciously become "Christ to others" as Luther put it. We imagine the other is Jesus. We cannot keep God unless we give him to others, as Laubach says.

When reading anything, read it to Christ. (Kagawa says scientific books are letters from God telling how he runs his universe).

Some of our prayers will of course be direct conversations with God. "When evil thoughts of any kind come, we say, 'Lord, these thoughts are not fit to discuss with you. Think your thoughts in my mind'. The result is an instantaneous purification."

Friendship With Jesus

Laubach has lots of other ideas. Try to get hold of his little booklet "The Game with Minutes" to explore them further. These habits help us develop what Thomas a Kempis called a "familiar friendship with Jesus".

There are many other ways to practise the presence of God. Some have a habit of writing down a Scripture and/or a prayer from their devotional time in the morning, and putting it where it can be seen constantly through the day. Others are keenly aware of the presence of God in nature: no bird or animal or butterfly crosses their vision without a reminder of the beauty and simplicity of the Creator's handiwork in all he has made. Still others punctuate their day with periods of meditation and silence, enabling them to "centre down" to get in touch with God within them. Some of the simple stillness exercises in Anthony de Mello's "Sadhana: A Way to God" are helpful here.

For Dom Helder Camara the newspaper headlines are a springboard to prayer. Sheila Cassidy sings praises to the Lord as she drives. As a doctor, she says she strives to do her work for Christ. Indeed, "Christ's is the face I look for in the unconscious motor-syclist rushed in off the motorway, his the help I invoke as I struggle to set up the blood transfusion, and it is he whom I thank when a brief flicker of an eyelid shows that consciousness is not far away..." (Prayer for Pilgrims", 93).

Pray Without Ceasing

Meister Eckhart urged us to carry from our secret meeting with God "the same frame of mind" into the world around us. Thomas Kelly, in his "Testament of Devotion", talks about living on two planes at once. This is the same as the psalmist's enjoying the Lord "always before my face". Paul says we should "pray constantly" (1 Thess. 5:17). God is vitally concerned with all the details of our lives: "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6). "Pray at all times in the Spirit..." (Eph. 6:18). Jesus taught that we should "always pray and never become discouraged" (Luke 18:1).

Even if - like me - you don't enjoy moving physical objects of any kind across the face of the earth, we can use these times of doing chores to pray. Our God and Father is never very far from any one of us. He is, indeed, closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet.

(11) The Celebration Of Discipline

Protestants - particularly evangelical Protestants - have written very little in the area of formative spirituality, particularly about contemplative prayer. The great British Methodist, Dr. W.E.Sangster did, but he was a generation too early!

Now all that's changing. Protestants and Catholics all around the world are meeting to learn more about spiritual disciplines.

One of the best introductions to this whole field is Richard Foster's THE CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE. Foster is an evangelical Quaker (as reluctant Quaker, he once told me, as he appreciates the validity of the sacraments), and a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary).

Three Disciplines

Foster divides the spiritual disciplines into three categories: inward disciplines, outward disciplines, and corporate disciplines. "Superficiality", he says, "is the curse of our age...The greatest need today is ... for deep people." Striving for holiness by the human will is insufficient: righteousness is a gift from God. And we must lay down the "everlasting burden of needing to manage others", so we must resist the temptation of turning spiritual disciplines into laws. Leo Tolstoy observed, "Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody

+ thinks of changing himself".

There are four inward disciplines: Meditation, Prayer, Fasting and Study. In reality, Foster says, eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it. Thomas Merton wrote, "Meditation has no point and no reality unless it is firmly rooted in life."

The chapter on prayer is superb. "The Bible pray-ers prayed as if their prayers could and would make an objective difference."

There has recently been a greater interest in the discipline of fasting. The list of biblical personages who fasted becomes a "Who's who" of Scripture, although there are no biblical laws that command regular fasting. We do not fast to get God to do what we want: fasting enables us to centre on God himself.

Study

If meditation is devotional, study is analytical. Meditation will relish a word; study will explicate it. The principal task of study is to perceive the reality of a given situation, encounter, book, etc. This involves four steps: repetition, concentration, comprehension and reflection. The whole process demands humility. The central purpose of study is not doctrinal purity (though that is no doubt involved) but inner transformation. An important discipline is to find time for a two- to three-day study retreat: even busy people can find this time if the idea is important enough to them.

Then there is the study of nonverbal understandings - in nature, for example.

Outward Disciplines

There are also four of these: simplicity, solitude, submission and service.

"Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear."

Because - and to the degree that - we lack a divine Centre our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. "Conformity to a sick society is to be sick." However, asceticism and simplicity are not the same: asceticism renounces possessions; simplicity sets possessions in proper perspective. Then there is the discipline of sharing. Martin Luther said somewhere, "If our goods are not available to the community they are stolen goods."

We'll pick up on the idea of solitude next issue.

(12) The Celebration Of Discipline (2)

Richard Foster's The Celebration of Discipline is not a comfortable book, says David Watson in the foreward. "in an arresting and challenging way it brings us right back to the most basic essentials for knowing God and for living the life of Jesus."

Foster calls these essentials "disciplines". Last time we looked at the four inward disciplines - meditation, prayer, fasting and study - and the first of the outward disciplines, simplicity.

Of the three remaining outward disciplines (solitude, submission and service), solitude is perhaps the most scary for many of us.

Solitude

Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. But loneliness and clatter are not our only alternatives. We can enjoy solitude in cities; it is possible to be a desert hermit and never experience solitude.

Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfilment.

In his Life Together Bonhoeffer wrote: "Let him who cannot be alone beware of community ... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone." So we need both community and solitude: each is necessary for the enrichment of the other. It is only in the discipline of silence and solitude that we learn when to speak and when to refrain from speaking.

Butif we take seriously the discipline of solitude we will at some stage pass through what John of the Cross calls "the dark night of the soul". It is a time of apparent desolation, but in reality God is at work in divine surgery, bringing us to a profound stillness, so that he may work an inner transformation upon the soul.

Thomas Merton observed: "It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them."

Submission

"A Christian man", said Martin Luther, "is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone."

The discipline of submission frees us from the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. We can be given the grace to love people unconditionally, and give up the right for them to return our love.

Jesus calls us to self-denial (which is not self-hatred or self-contempt). Self-denial is simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent upon getting what we want.

The spiritual classics make lavish use of the language of self-denial. For example, Thomas a Kempis says "To have no opinion of ourselves, and to think always well and highly of others, is great wisdom and perfection". The teaching of the New Testament is revolutionary, challenging the contemporary customs of super-ordinate and sub-ordinate and calling upon everyone to "count others better than yourselves" (Phil. 2:3).

We are to submit to God, to scripture, to our family, to our neighbours, to the believing community, to the broken and despised, and to the world. Followers of Jesus come to perceive that authority does not reside in positions or degrees or titles or tenure or any outward symbol. Rather we are given a spiritual authority, marked by both compassion and power.

Occasionally, however, revolutionary subordination to temporal authorities has its limits - when those authorities violate biblical injunctions and become destructive.

Discipline Of Service

"Learn the lesson well," Bernard of Clairvaux, enjoined, "that if youare to do the work of a prophet, what you need is not a scepter but a hoe."

As the cross is the sign of submission, so the towel is the sign of service. It's hard to wash feet, isn't it?

Jesus did not abolish ideas of leadership and authority, rather he radically redefined them. He did not merely reverse the "pecking order" either. He abolished it.

"Self-righteous" service may be frantically energetic, is impressed with the "big deal", requires external rewards, is highly concerned with results, picks and chooses whom to serve, is affected by our moods and whims, is temporary, insensitive, and fractures community.

Humility, on the other hand, is never gained by seeking it. It is more "choosing to be a servant" than "choosing to serve". When we choose to serve we may still be in charge: we decide whom we willserve and when we will serve. But when we choose to be a servant we give up the right to be in charge. If we voluntarily choose to be taken advantage of, then we cannot be manipulated.

The "service of hiddenness" - even for leaders - is a beautiful grace. Listen to Jeremy Taylor : "Love to be concealed and little esteemed: be content to lack praise, never be troubled when you are overlooked or undervalued."

Then there is the service of loving speech. We must "speak evil of one one" (Titus 3:2) nor allow others to speak disparagingly of another. There is also the service of common courtesy, of hospitality, of listening, of bearing one another's burdens and sorrows, and sharing the word of life .....

Service that is duty-motivated breathes death. Service that flows from Christ-within-us is life and joy and peace.

Perhaps, suggests Foster, you would like to begin this beautiful journey with a prayr at the beginning of each day: "Lord Jesus, I would so appreciate it if You would bring me someone today whom I can serve."

Next time, our final article in this series: the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance and celebration.

(13) The Celebration Of Discipline (3)

We conclude this all-too-brief overview of spirituality by looking at Richard Foster's four "corporate disciplines" in his excellent book The Celebration of Discipline.

The Discipline Of Confession

Confession, says Foster, is so difficult for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. "We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy."

The followers of Christ have been given the authority to receive the confession of sin and to forgive in his name (see John 20:23). "Our brothers.... has been given to us to help us. He hears the confession of our sins in Christ's stead and he forgives our sins in Christ's name. He keeps the secret of our confession as God keeps it. When I go to my brother to confess, I am going to God" (Bonhoeffer).

Whilst most of us would have problems with the stylized form of the "Confessional", there are probably greater dangers in ignoring the biblical injunction to confess our sins to one another, praying for forgivenss and healing for each other (James 5:16).

Alphonsus Luguori writes, "For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin."

It is important that when others are opening their griefs to us we discipline ourselves to be prayerfully quiet. Too often an embarrassed comment can destroy the sacredness of the moment.

Foster suggests that "the ministry of retaining sins is simply the refusal to try to bring people into something for which they are not ready. Sometimes people are so anxious to get others into the kingdom that they will try to announce their forgiveness before they have sought it or even wanted it.

Unfortunately, this malady is characteristic of a great deal of modern evangelism."

Worship

God is actively seeking people to worship him, Jesus tells us (Jn. 4:23). The form of our worship is surely a matter of indifference to God - whether of high liturgy or low liturgy, this form or that. A striking feature of worship in the Bible is that people gathered in "holy expectancy". They believed they would actually hear the Kol Yahweh, the voice of God.

So it is unthinkable for Christians to live in isolation from one another. Martin Luther witnessed to the fact that "at home, in my own house, there is no warmth or vigour in me, but in the church when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through."

Just as worship begins in holy expectancy it ends in holy obedience. Holy obedience saves worship from becoming an opiate, an excape from the pressing needs of modern life.

Guidance

All the teaching on divine guidance in our century, says Foster, has been noticeably deficient on the corporate aspect. "We have received excellent instruction on how God leads us through Scripture, and through circumstances, and through the promptings of the Spirit upon the individual heart. But we have heard little about how God leads through his people, the body of Christ."

The church has not always been individualistic. The people at Antioch, for example, received the call for Paul and Barnabas to do missionary work together (Acts 13:2).

At the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C. when any member feels that God has led him or her to be involved in mission, they will "sound the call" so that others can meet to test the call with that person.

Another beautiful model for receiving God's guidance with another has been the classical practice of spiritual direction. There is a renewed interest in this ancient form of relating, right across the churches throughout the world in this decade.

The Discipline Of Celebration

Harvey Cox says that modern man has been pressed "so hard toward useful work and rational calculation he has all but forgotten the joy of ecstatic celebration."

True celebration does not come through worshipping a particular way, or with a particular group. It is rather a function of all the common ventures of life being redeemed. Of course living in a spirit of constant thanksgiving in the midst of all situations does not mean that we will celebrate the presence of evil.

God has established a created order full of excellent, good and beautiful things. If we think on those things we will be happy, says Paul (Phil. 4:8.9).

Celebration saves us from taking ourselves too seriously. It adds a note of gaiety, festivity, hilarity to our lives.

So these classical disciplines of the spiritual life beckon us to the Himalayas of the Spirit. At times we may be discouraged. Valleys and foothills will intervene between mountain tops. But, with thousands who've gone before us, we can have confidence in our heavenly Guide, who has "blazed the trail" and conquered the highest summit. To him be glory, for ever, Amen.

Rowland Croucher.