Spiritually Revitalizing Your Community of Faith through Prayer

By Robert Arthur Hansen, DMin

As we enter a Community of Faith for the first time, we are naturally drawn to a shared spirituality. It may be a congregation, synagogue, mosque, or temple. It is shared spiritually of the people at prayer which attracts us and draws us to unite with others in prayer. There are three shared stands of any Community of Faith: their shared faith tradition, the culture of the community, and the personalities of the members.

This book examines the elements of tradition, culture, and personal temperament to determine how the three become spiritually integrated at the moment of prayer. The conclusion is that through an explicit assessment of these three elements, members of the faith community can enrich their personal spiritual life, resulting in spiritual growth and can ultimately revitalize the spiritual prayer life of the community of faith.

The books is a spiritual intervention of a Presbyterian congregation in Central New York in the 1980s. I'm grateful for the prayer group that committed there Wednesday nights during 1986. This is their story of how they were able to revitalize the spiritual life of a 150-year-old three-hundred-member Presbyterian congregation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888510636

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Preface

Acknowledgment

Description of the Problem in Ministry

Theoretical Framework

Theological Principle

Description of Thesis Objectives and Interventions

Report of the Results of the Thesis Interventions Personal Prayer Assessment

Evaluation of the Thesis Objectives and Interventions

Conclusions and Learnings

Notes

Bibliography

Supporting Material

Personal Prayer Assessment (Administered September 30, 1986—Fifteen Respondents)

Additional Comments

Daring Prayer Summary of Chapters Four through Eight

Daring Prayer Summary of Chapters Nine, Ten, And Eleven

Personal Faith Orientation Assessment (Based on Carl S. Dudley's Affectional and Directional Orientation to Faith)

Dr. James Hopewell's Definitions of the Four Poles of Setting

Worldview Test

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter

Directions for Scoring

Prayer and Personality Types

The History and Development of the Theory of Temperament

Definition of Terms

Relationship of Temperament to Prayer and Spirituality

Augustinian Prayer and Spirituality

The NF Temperament

Characteristics of the NF (Augustinian) Temperament

The Spirituality of the NF Temperament

Augustinian (NF) Prayer

A Group of Augustinian Prayer Suggestions

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession (One minute should be given between each prayer section.)

Evaluation

Additional Written Comments

Group Dialogue

Prayer Study Group (Summary of Assessments)

About the Author

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Spiritually Revitalizing Your Community of Faith through Prayer

Robert Arthur Hansen, DMin

ISBN 979-8-88851-062-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88851-063-6 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Robert Arthur Hansen, DMin

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Preface

Prayer is the integration of the faith community's tradition; culture is founded within its members for spiritual growth. Revitalizing your community of faith through prayer will deepen commitment of members as they truly discover their own spiritual journey, which is shared by others enjoined on a similar journey of faith.

Prayer is an important means of communication with God. It is difficult to imagine that a community of faith's spiritual growth could take place without it. However, prayer does not occur in a vacuum. From the nascent moment a person experiences a community of faith sacredly engaged in prayer, one has an intuitive sense of their inner experience of the spirit of the divine within.

Whether one is consciously aware of it or not, once prayer life has already been influenced by centuries of past tradition as conveyed by the religious culture of the faith community. In addition, one's approach to prayer and experience of it is deeply rooted in one's own individual personality and temperament.

This book examines the elements of tradition, culture, and personal temperament to determine how the three become spiritually integrated at the moment of prayer. The conclusion is that through an explicit assessment of these three elements, members of the faith community can enrich their personal spiritual life, resulting in spiritual growth and can ultimately revitalize the spiritual prayer life of the faith community.

The book is a spiritual intervention of a Presbyterian congregation in Central New York in the 1980s. I'm grateful for the prayer group that committed their Wednesday nights during 1986. This is their story of how they were able to revitalize the spiritual life of a 150-year-old 300-member Presbyterian congregation.

Acknowledgment

Thank to Lynne Hansen for her invaluable assistance.

Description of the Problem in Ministry

What Now Exists

The cultural climate of this congregation (its environment of prevailing attitudes and practices) can be characterized as one of quiet, Christian habit. Members are politically diverse, but conflict is avoided. In spite of the fact that the church is nearly 200 years old, there is no preoccupation with historical roots. Newcomers are welcomed more warmly by some members than by others but are usually absorbed into congregational life fairly quickly.

At the beginning of the current pastorate (1985), there was only minimal ecumenical relationship with other community churches and almost complete isolation from Presbytery, but these situations have greatly improved. There is openness to change, both in administrative structure and in worship. Members recognize the necessity for financial stewardship, but don't like to be reminded of it too often. The word evangelism is not part of the vocabulary here, but there is increasing attention to mission outreach, and a newly established shepherding plan has the potential to improve our in reach to inactive members, shut-ins, and families in crisis. The turnout at fellowship events is sometimes disappointing, but worship attendance is consistently high. There is a core of dedicated, hardworking folks; the Session and Board of Deacons are active, most committees are ably chaired, and there is willingness for leadership training. Overall, there is a determined attitude of doing what needs to be done and doing it relatively cheerfully.

This groundwork is laid to show by contrast what is missing: an observable, conscious desire for personal spiritual growth and development. The church offers no formal Christian education for anyone beyond the age of sixth grade; longtime members can recall no regular Church school class for adults at any time within the past three decades. Evening Bible and other studies have been held sporadically, usually only when initiated and led by the pastor. There are no growth groups (collections of individuals drawn together by a common desire to grow spiritually and who help each other apply faith to life, sharing their ups and downs, studying, and praying together). There is no group which gathers regularly to pray together.

As a result of this lack of emphasis on spiritual growth, many of the adult members have only a childhood Sunday school understanding of God and Christian theology. There is a lack of felt interpersonal closeness and unity: the Passing of the Peace in corporate worship is dispensed with as quickly as possible; no one objects to doing it, but there is an obvious desire to get it over with. The church is not used as the powerful support community it is capable of being: a member quietly enters the hospital for surgery and is home for several weeks before anyone even knows they've been ill (We didn't want to bother anyone). When a change occurs anywhere in the congregation's work or structure, another cog is simply added to the gears, and the well-oiled wheels of the organizational machinery continue to turn without a hitch but not necessarily with much feeling or sense of meaningful purpose.

There seems to be little understanding of the power of prayer—to bring unity, to comfort, to give courage, to work change, to bring us into the very presence of God, to establish and sustain relationship, to make us more faithful as a covenant people, and to empower us for mission and ministry. Given the reality of this power, prayer would be a key element in any effort to deepen Christian spirituality, but there has been no focus on prayer as a primary means to spiritual growth.

In other words, there is no strong or obvious tradition for spiritual growth—and specifically prayer—activities in this congregation. Tradition, simply stated, is the historical principles of the Christian faith.

Specifically, the Whitesboro congregation has no strong tradition for prayer as a primary means of personal spiritual growth. In reference to the pastorate which lasted from 1960 to 1977, the activity most often remembered is the Couples Club, a social organization for parties, progressive dinners, etcetera, but apparently no Bible study or prayer or other spiritual orientation. Regarding the pastorate of 1977 to 1984, the descriptive word most often used is change—change in committee structure, changes in the order of worship (You never knew what was going to happen when you went to church on Sunday morning). A devastating fire was suffered during this period and the congregation was united in the work of rebuilding but was not drawn personally closer. No indication is given that the congregation's prayer life was intensified in response to the crisis, and members ultimately became divided over the issue of whether or not to rebuild the steeple.

However, in spite of a less than full expression of prayer in the church's life, there is an implicit sense of the importance of prayer within the historical framework of the Church. For instance, there are occasional complaints about the particular hymns chosen for worship, or a few will say that they didn't understand the sermon; but there are no complaints about prayer in worship. Based on their own statements, even those members who do not have a disciplined personal prayer life nevertheless have a sense of the oughtness and centrality of prayer for the church. A frequent comment is "I don't pray as often as I should."

Committee chairpersons who don't have the courage to pray aloud at the opening of a meeting will ask the pastor or another member to do it because it is perceived as proper to open a church meeting with prayer. The pastor is always asked to say grace at a church supper, but not all members (by their own reports and by personal observation) say grace at their own family meals. Members rarely stand and voice prayer concerns during worship, but no one would advocate omitting the Prayers of the People from the order of service.

The previous pastor attempted to focus on prayer by organizing a program called Let Us Pray for One Another, which still functions. During an assigned week, one member of the group is responsible for praying each day of that week. Members of the congregation submit their written prayer concerns with the weekly offering. There is no