Target Practice: Nerf Gun Confession

Imagine that you are standing with a Nerf gun (or a bow and arrows) in front of a target. It is only a metre or so in front of you. Close your eyes and picture it. Or if you have a suitable gun and space, go outside and choose a target - perhaps a certain patch of wall, or a tree - and try this in real life.

Now turn away from the target, raise your gun, and shoot in the opposite direction.
How far away from the target did you get?

Now turn around and face the target, still only a metre away, and try again.
How many out of ten do you get when you try to shoot from close up?

Now you move back, to maybe five metres away, and try again. Then you move back to 10 metres away, 20 metres away, and so on, until you are lucky if any of your shots go anywhere near the target.
How far away did you have to be before you missed more often than you hit the target? And how did it feel to be shooting from so far away that you had little or no chance of success?

One of the words in the Bible that is normally translated as 'sinning' literally means something more like 'missing the mark'. It is a term from archery, about aiming for the target - aiming for a bullseye, perfection - but more often than not, falling short or going wildly off course.

Target practice can help us to think about what this really means, and how it feels to miss the mark. We want to hit it; we are aiming at it; but when we are a long way from the target, to our frustration, we find it very difficult to get that elusive bullseye.

Christian tradition tells us that we are so far from God that it is inevitable that we will miss the mark most of the time. But the good news is that God isn't keeping score. God is happy so long as we are trying to aim in the right direction.

At the beginning, when you shot facing away from the target, it didn't matter how good a shot you were. You were only going to get further away from the target if you shot further. Just as in target shooting, in living as a Christian the most important thing to get right first is to be facing in the right direction.

That's why, in the baptism service, when someone becomes a Christian, they are asked a series of questions about turning from all that denies God, and turning to God. In many churches, people will actually be asked to turn around at that point, as a sign of their commitment to going through life facing in the right direction. What matters in being a Christian is not how far on you are, but what direction you are facing in.

Its also why Christians confess their sins to God very regularly. In the Anglican and many other traditions, this happens in the main weekly church service, and Christians often also confess to God as part of their own regular private prayers. By confessing - naming where we have missed the mark - we are acknowledging that we have missed the target of living like Jesus (which of course we will!), we remind ourselves to make sure we are still facing in the right direction, and we commit ourselves to not give up bothering to hit the target, but to keep practicing.

And just as with target shooting, we will get better with practice. Missing the mark in target practice isn't failure. In fact, if you are seriously trying to improve your shooting,  then when you have got so good that you are hitting the target every time from a particular distance you would move further back to give yourself a new challenge. When you are trying to improve at any sport, you keep pushing yourself. Missing the mark if you are practicing hard enough is an inevitable and good part of learning.

The very best target shooters practice loads. And someone who becomes an Olympic gold medallist at shooting doesn't stop practicing just because they have got good enough - if they did, they would quickly lose their touch. Similarly, confession is something we keep doing as Christians, and even the most experienced Christians, even the holiest saints, keep doing it. In fact, just like with sports, the people who are the very best are the ones who practice most! Maybe thats what we mean when we call someone a 'practising christian'?

So if you didn't actually try shooting at the beginning of this, have a go now. Choose a target, and grab your gun or bow - something like a Nerf gun that shoots foam darts is ideal.
First try shooting in the wrong direction.
Then turn, and try shooting from 1 metre away, then from further and further away until you are mainly missing the target (how far you will have to go will depend how good a shot you are!).

Each time you hit the target, think of one thing you did today or this week that was right on the mark, and thank God for that.

Each time you miss, think of one thing you did today or this week that missed the mark - a word that hurt someone, an opportunity for kindness missed, a rush that meant you didn't give someone your full attention, or maybe deliberate rudeness or wrongdoing. Admit that was a missing of the mark, and then try shooting again.

Build a Prayer Den

The idea of building a prayer den came from two teenage girls I know, Rachel and Anna. They were trying some of the experiments in this book, and decided to also try praying in the den they had made in the corner of one of their bedrooms. They absolutely loved the experience, so they suggested I include it here.

Many people find it easier to pray in church, or in a chapel, than at home. There seems to be something helpful about deliberately going to a place that is set aside for prayer. In the past, wealthy Christians with grand houses would often have a chapel in their home, or a small room that was set aside for reading the Bible and praying.

Few of us have space for a chapel in our homes, but you could make a prayer corner in your room. As you go through this book trying the various experiments, why not keep some of the things you make and put them together on a shelf or windowsill in your room? Then you will build up your own personal collection of prayer objects and reminders, and create a prayer corner of your own.

This experiment takes that idea a step further. The idea is to make a small enclosed space to pray in - just big enough for one or maybe two people.

First, you’ll need to decide where to build the den. Could you make it in the corner of your bedroom? Or maybe in a family room, shed or garage? If it is summer, you might want to build one outside. This could either be something that just stays up for an afternoon, or a semi-permanent den, whatever suits the space you have available.

The easiest way to build it is to pitch a tent! You may have a tent for the garden, or do you have a younger brother or sister who has a pop-up play tent that you could borrow?

If you don’t have a tent, think about what you could use to give your den some strength and stability. You want to make sure you feel safe inside, so you don’t want to be worrying about whether it is going to collapse on you.

Here are some other ideas: a bottom bunk bed, with sheets or blankets clipped to the bunk above; a clothes airer; rearranging some pieces of furniture (chests of drawers, chairs, etc); a large cardboard box from something like a fridge or washing machine; underneath a table (inside or outside); underneath a rotary washing line or garden parasol outside.

Then cover your chosen framework with sheets, blankets, duvets etc, to make a completely enclosed space. You want it to be comfortable to sit in for a reasonable length of time, so cover the floor with pillows, cushions, beanbags etc.

Now you get to decide how to decorate your den inside! People that have tried this have particularly liked having fairy lights, or a lava lamp in the den. Or you could take a torch in with you. Just be careful only to use a low wattage lamp that doesn’t get hot, to avoid any risk of fire.

You may also want to add other things - maybe items from your prayer corner, bunting, or a rug. Make a space that feels snug and secure, somewhere you will enjoy sitting in and that feels very personal to you.

Once you have built the den, it is time to start using it to pray in. Just go in, sit down, and imagine that God is in there with you. You can either just sit quietly imagining yourself in God’s presence, or talk with him, or say prayers that you know such as the Lord’s prayer. Or why not try combining this experiment with others, and doing one or two of the other prayer activities suggested here in the den? 


Here is what Anna and Rachel had to say about trying this:

10/10

When I tried this, a friend and I had already built a den in my room, that we’d filled it with all our favourite things - soft toys, pillows, duvets. So we decided to use that to pray in together. It was quite a small space, so we were quite bunched up! It was very calming and atmospheric, and felt very warm, safe and enclosed. It was a really good environment for prayer. Praying in there with my friend, it felt like God was in there with us.

I really enjoyed praying in the den, this was definitely my favourite activity!

(Rachel, 15)

10/10

I loved praying in the den. It was much more comfortable than more formal ways of praying: I felt really safe, comfortable and enclosed in there. Also, being there with a friend made me think more about God as a friend, and that helped me feel a stronger bond of friendship with God. It felt very safe: God with us, the walls around us. Having fairy lights in the den was quite important too. They made it feel safer, as even the dark corners were lit up, and the fairy lights twinkling all around felt like they were symbolising God being in the den with us.

(Anna, 16)

Review of prayer beads

Nearly a year ago, we posted an experiment involving making a set of prayer beads: You can find it here.
For some reason it took us until now to get around to trying this one out! Here, finally, is Noah's review of it.

It was interesting making the bracelet - quite fun and interactive. It was easy to make just following the instructions, and finding the different kinds of beads. Making it didn't really feel like a prayer, though, just a fun craft activity, but the whole experience of making and using it was good.

It was quite easy to remember which bead was which because they were all different - for example, I'd chosen the biggest, shiniest one to represent God.

When it came to praying with it, I went round holding each bead in turn, and then praying about the thing that bead was for. I usually found I spent about the same amount of time on each one, except I spent more time on one of the mystery beads, which I'd decided was representing places in particular conflict and need.

At the God bead, I found I mainly prayed for the big things, the big topics that I thought God should do something about - world peace, natural disasters, that sort of thing. At the silence beads,  I just sat in silence for a while, but I did find that my mind tended to wander to other things.

At the bead for me, I prayed for myself, asking for good test results at school, help through life and so on. Then at the baptism one, I didn't really know what to pray for, so I tended to leave that one out. I wondered if I should pray for other people to be baptised, but that's their choice so it didn't seem right to pray for that.

The desert bead was a chance to pray for the rough times in my life, times when I've been bullied or felt a failure. I don't normally think of praying for those things because they are in the past, prayer isn't going to reverse time and change the fact they've happened. It was good to have the bead to tell me to pray for those things.

For the blue carefree bead I just sat there in carefree mode and prayed for peace for me, and others, and the world. I wonder if  I should have done that for the silence beads?

At the two red ones, for God's love and Jesus's death, I was confused - because praying for Gods love was kind of what I'd been doing all the time. So I prayed that God would have more love and look after the world better! Then at the second one I prayed - well, you know how Jesus died to save us from our sins? Well, I prayed that that contract hadn't run out, so to speak, and that that still was the case for everyone nowadays.

I decided that for me, the first mystery bead was for my friends and family, the second one was for places experiencing bad things and conflicts, and the third one represented nature and the environment. They stayed the same each time.

I was really confused about the Night one - it seems odd to pray a 'Dark Prayer', it sounds like something from a fantasy or sorcery TV show! So I had to think for a while about what to do there the first time I used it. In the end, because it was black I prayed for people in dark times to 'see the light'.

For the Resurrection bead, I found myself not thinking so much about the resurrection itself but more about Jesus ascending into heaven after the resurrection appearances. I prayed that everyone could get into heaven and that God would forgive them - I was thinking a bit about myself, but mainly praying for atheists and other people who aren't Christians.

Overall, I liked using the beads. It was really interactive because I'd made it myself, I was wearing it, and I could use it whenever I wanted. It was really good that it was something you could wear in public without looking stupid. Because the God bead was the biggest, I had to wear it with that on top of my wrist (or it was uncomfortable when I put my hand down), and I found that every time I glanced down and saw it, it reminded me of God.
8/10

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.]