Review of Prayer Walking

Noah writes:
 

7.5/10

For my first prayer walk, I decided to go somewhere different. Instead of walking where I live I went with a friend around the area where he lives. As I walked around I discovered places I hadn’t been to before. 

It was a very run down area and I spent most of my walk praying for the area and the people who lived there. I didn’t just pray for the town and the people in the houses but also for maybe stressed and troubled people. And for a bit of my walk I prayed for the people waiting at the bus stop in the pouring rain. 

It was kind of weird doing it with a friend: in a way it felt slightly awkward because I wanted to talk with him but he was praying, and he probably wanted to talk to me but knew I was praying. But it was nice too, because I knew someone else was praying for people and he was right there with me.

Then a few weeks later I tried this again in the area where I live, on my own. I got lost in a housing estate, which I guess was good, because there were places I hadn’t seen before and I realised there was a lot of the town I didn’t know about. 

There were some old people sitting reading so I prayed for them as I went past, that they have a happy life, and some children playing outside with a ball, so I prayed for them as well. There were also some builders who looked like they were having a rough time doing some building work, so I prayed that they were safe in their job and that God would look over them. At points where there weren’t individual people I prayed for the street or the houses I was passing - just saying ‘I pray for this street’.

It was quite nice: it felt much less selfish than praying sometimes does. I often pray for myself and for other people in countries that are in conflict or in times of need, but it was much nicer praying for people closer to home who probably still needed praying for.

 I would recommend doing it by yourself or with one other person, but probably not with a large group - thinking about doing it with my church youth group I think that would be weird, as we’d be walking round in a big group but not speaking to each other, which wouldn’t feel very sociable. 

 

Prayer Walking

Prayer walking is a way of praying for a particular area, when we might not know exactly what the people who live there need, or even who they are.

In prayer walking, two ancient traditions of prayer are combined: intercession and pilgrimage. The first thing you might think of when you think about prayer is praying for God to help other people. This is called 'intercession', asking God to act on behalf of people or situations which we believe need God's help.

But we can often feel overwhelmed and confused by how much there is to pray for. And sometimes we don't know what is needed, so it is hard to know how to put it into words. This can be especially tricky when we want to pray for an area, perhaps the area around where we live, or around our church, or an area which has had a lot of problems recently. We won't always know who all the people are that we are praying for, and the problems an area has may be very complicated.

As in the ancient tradition of pilgrimage, the very fact of walking means that we are 'walking the walk not just talking the talk'. We aren't just saying prayers, we are expressing our care for the place we are praying for physically, by walking around it. We are putting ourselves to some effort, not just sitting comfortably at home. And the action of walking takes up some of our conscious mind, so that prayer can flow more freely without us worrying too much about our exact words.

The main difference with pilgrimage is that there doesn't need to be a particular destination in mind. Instead of walking to get somewhere, in this kind of prayer walk the walking around an area is the point: the walk itself, up and down the local streets, park or shops, is itself the destination. You could of course choose to walk to a particular place, maybe a park, viewpoint or church, but the point of this exercise is not getting there, but praying for the places you pass through and think about on the way.

Before setting off, plan your route and tell someone where you are going and when to expect you back (a basic safety precaution). You can do this walk either alone or in a small group, maybe with a friend from church.

As you walk, pray – not out loud, just in your head – for the places you are passing. You might ask for God to bless the people who live in the houses you pass. If you pass a school, or shops, or offices, you could pray for the people who work there, and for all that they do. A particular business might make you think of things to pray for: a supermarket might spark off a thought about fair trade, or struggling farmers, or those who can't afford food easily. A newsagent might make you think about people in the news, or about the people reading their papers at home and what they are worrying about. A florist might remind you to pray for people who will be buying flowers this week to celebrate, or to mourn.

If you pass churches or other places of worship, pray for the people who meet there: depending on your local situation you might also want to pray for particular community tensions, or church projects.

Just let thoughts arise in your mind, and when you notice that you are thinking about something, pray for it.

There will probably be people passing you, on foot, car, bicycle or bus. You might pray for God's Holy Spirit to fill the lady who passes you walking their dog, or for the man just leaving the shop across the road to be aware of God's presence with him as he goes. If an ambulance goes past, pray for the paramedics and whoever they are going to help. A delivery van might make you think of praying for anyone whose birthday it is today, or for those who are lonely and never get letters or parcels.

As you return home, ask God to bless the whole area, and to show you how you can be a blessing to it. You might like to end by praying for your own home as you enter it.

Minecraft Place of Worship

Many people associate praying with going to Church or another special place where they can feel at peace. Although we can pray to God anywhere, you might find going somewhere that is set aside as being 'for prayer' helpful in focusing your mind.

But where do you spend most time? It could be a good idea to think about how you can make that into a place for prayer.

My son spends large amounts of time on the computer game Minecraft. So we wondered - could Minecraft be somewhere you can pray?

So this experiment involves creating a prayer space on Minecraft (or another world building game).
Think about what your ideal place for prayer would be. Where would it be? What would it look like? How big would it be? What would you do there?

Now go online and have a go! Once you've built it, try spending there praying. Is it any different to being in a chapel, church, or prayer space in the real world? If so, how?

Noah's Review:

I didn't want to build a massive cathedral but I wanted something fairly big. I made it look like a traditional church, because that is what my church looks like: I was sort of trying to create my version of our local church. Because its a nice church and makes me think about God, because its got the right kind of atmosphere.
So I made a church building, with a nave and the altar, choir stalls, at least 50 pews, a bell tower and stained glass windows. I built it facing East-West, so the sun would come up through the big window over the altar.
During the build dad and I were more thinking about what to build, but towards the end I was thinking about the stuff in the church when I was putting in the details - the pews, and the pulpit, and so on. I was thinking about how it is all designed to face the front and wondering whether that is a good thing or not. It makes you focus on what the vicar has to say, but because it makes everyone focus on the front they might miss some of the other lovely bits of the church that people put lots of effort into building.
At the end I had a little bit of pray. I got a vicar skin (costume) for my character, and did a short service in the church as the vicar. It was just me and my younger brother, with him being the congregation. First, we sang one verse of 'Nearer my God to thee' (which we remembered from the film Titanic). Then I went up into the pulpit and told the story of Jesus asking the Samaritan woman for water at the well (we'd done that reading in Junior Church that morning), and I ended by asking my brother a question about the reading. He answered, and then he left and I went and stood in front of the altar looking at the big window. Then I took my hands off the keyboard and said a few prayers. When I was praying I wasn't looking at the Minecraft screen, I was praying in real life.

Marks:
Ease of use: 2/10 It took me two hours to build it even with help from my dad!
Spiritual value: 7.5/10 It did make me pray, but during the building I wasn't thinking about god but about the details of the building.

9. ACTS 2: Confession

TPE 7: ACTS 2 - Confession, or 'Owning up'

'Confession' has two distinct meanings. The first is the one you are probably most familiar with - owning up to what you've done wrong. Normally, this includes saying sorry, and promising to try not to do it again - though we all know that is a promise we often don't keep! Most church services include a 'confession'. This is a time when the whole church congregation says sorry to God for not living up to the standard of human life that the Bible and Jesus' life set out for us.

The second meaning is again 'owning up', but this time to our faith. Standing up for what we believe in. We often literally stand up for what we believe in, as everyone stands to say a Creed (from the Latin 'credo', meaning 'I believe'), or other statement of faith: a short summary of what the church believes about God.

Confession is the second element of the ACTS pattern of prayer. In our personal prayers, the very fact that we are praying is a 'confession' of sorts. We are 'confessing' that there is a God who hears and answers prayers, just by praying at all. So in our personal prayers we don't very often say a formal 'statement of faith'. But for as long as people have been praying, owning up to what we've done wrong has been an important part of prayer.

I wonder what you think this owning up achieves? God, of course, already knows everything that we have done. So by owning up, we aren't letting God into a secret that we could otherwise keep to ourselves. It's not like telling your mum that it was you that broke that plate, when she thought it was probably the cat! But God seems to like us to admit what we are doing wrong. (Even if your mum knew perfectly well it was you that broke the plate, she is likely to be pleased with your honesty if you own up). Why?

Well, if we don't own up to what we are doing wrong, we can't change it. If we pretend that there is nothing at all wrong with how we are living our lives, then we are saying we don't intend to change anything. Sometimes we don't want to own up to things that are wrong because we are ashamed or embarrassed. But if we make a practice of regularly admitting that everything isn't perfect, we can help ourselves to focus on what changes we'd like to see.

This isn't because Christians are miserable, but the opposite! Even for those who wouldn't call themselves Christian, it is a really important part of any spirituality or self-improvement programme. No athlete gets to the top of their game by deciding they are so good there is nothing they need to work on, and the same applies to all of our lives.


The Experiment:
Get some stones (gravel, stones from the garden, or even twigs or leaves, or maybe coins). Have at least 3, and up to say 6 or 7. Put a bowl of water in front of you, and the stones in a pile. Sit down, and pick up the first stone. As you hold it, think about one thing that is not as good as it could be in your life. Own up to it. Then put the stone into the water: you are giving it to God, not holding its weight any longer. And it is being washed clean. Pick up the next stone and think of something else, and repeat as many times as seems right. When you have finished, you might like to end by simply saying 'Amen', or you could repeat this traditional prayer: 'Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.'

[A health warning: It is really important, when you confess as part of your private prayers, to remember that confession and God's forgiveness go together. One of the things Christians believe about Jesus's death on the cross is that as he died, he took all the blame for anything we might do wrong. So we don't confess because otherwise God won't like us: God has already forgiven us. If, when you pray, you find that you still feel guilty after confessing, and you can't shake off a feeling that God didn't mean to forgive you, then please go and talk about this to someone you trust from church, perhaps your vicar or youth worker.]

8b Adoration: review

Ease: 9/10
Spiritual value: 7/10

To do this I had to think 'what reminds me of God?', and I had to really think about it to choose the pictures, so that made it higher spiritual value. I chose the mountains because they were majestic, and the rocket because it was a world breakthrough. I chose a picture of my cat because cats are the best thing ever so obviously God made them! The Christmas tree is something that's meant to remind you of God, but most people normally forget about the true meaning of Christmas.
Doing it electronically meant it was easier to find the pictures.

8. ACTS 1: Adoration

There is a well known suggestion for a balance prayer life: ACTS. This stands for

 1. Adoration (adoring God, standing in awe at God, praising God)
 2. Confession (admitting all the ways we are not perfect, and resolving to do better)
 3. Thanks (saying thank you to God for all that we have and are)
 4. Supplication (asking God for things we need, asking for help for ourselves or others)

The idea is that a balanced prayer life consists of all four elements. Many people find that they actually just do 4, with not very much of 1, 2 or 3. But think of them like the food groups. A balanced diet of prayer will have all the different elements.

For the next four sessions, we will focus on one of these at a time. Often, you will want to make sure you do all four each time you pray. But for now, we will split them out and just look at each one at a time.

So, this week we begin with ADORATION.

What makes you think about how amazing God is? For some people, it might be being at the top of a high mountain; or a beautiful sunset; or the ocean waves; or a huge storm. You might be filled with awe at wild animals; or tiny insects; or vast crowds of people; aerial photographs of the world, or even space and the stars and planets. And what about God's story in the Bible, or in the world around us? Maybe beautiful churches; a soaring cathedral spire; music, whether a soloist or a rock concert; pictures and youtube clips of charities working to relieve hunger and poverty and suffering; pictures of Jesus being born on a Christmas card, or pictures of the crucifixion or empty tomb?

After thinking about this, make an adoration collage. You could either do this with paper, scissors and glue, using pictures from postcards, magazines, newspapers and printouts from your computer: or you could do it electronically, searching for the images you want and making a digital collage. Print it out at the end if you do it digitally, though.

Write 'I adore you, God' or simply 'Adoration' in the middle, and surround it with images that each make you feel awe, wonder, or love for God and for all that God has made and done.

Then, stick it up on your wall so that it is a reminder for you of how amazing God is.

7b: review of Colour In your Prayers

I enjoyed doing this, it was really fun, but the picture I was doing did not make me think about the bible passage that was written on it (For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him will not be lost but will have eternal life, John 3:16) but it did make me think about the picture itself.

A hand to me means feel or touch so a hand, to me, means God feels for us with his whole heart. The sort of rainbow pathway indicates the pathway to Gods love, heaven.

I like colouring in, but to me this wasn't really a prayer experience.

I think part of the problem might have been that this was a Bible passage I know well, and I've done some Ethics and Philosophy work on it at school. In a few weeks time I'd quite like to try doing this differently, by drawing the picture myself.

Ease of use 7/10
Effectiveness  4/10