“We got to pray just to make it today…I said we pray, ah, yeah, pray…
We got to pray just to make it today. That’s word we pray!”
– M.C. Hammer
A lot has changed since 1990, when M.C. Hammer stepped onto the stage with his iconic parachute pants and rapped the song, “Pray”. However, his words are no less true. “We got to pray just to make it today!” We are in a moment of significant change. What was, in the world and the church, prior to the pandemic is no longer. What will be is still yet to be determined. This kind of world change leaves our heads spinning and wondering what we are supposed to do. If we try and do everything we used to do, well, it is probably not going to work…because the world has changed.
In addition, we don’t quite know where we are going yet, so it is hard to know how or what to do right now. Here is the great thing: we are not alone. First, we are not alone at this moment. Many other churches are experiencing the same struggles: how to respond and what things will continue to look like post pandemic.
Second, we are not alone in the history of the church. We have a book of stories that we read from every week about people who didn’t always know where they would end up when God called them to something new. Our companionship with the history of faith doesn’t end there: church history is replete with people who have struggled in wilderness moments between what was and what is to come, but have stepped out in faith, nonetheless.
Finally, and most importantly, God goes with us. We are never alone in the task and journey of faith. In the history of our faith, when times have shifted rapidly and we find ourselves between what was and what will be, faithful people have turned to prayer.
Sometimes we expect prayer to make immediate changes in the world. And maybe it does from time to time. However, what I do know is that prayer is not a commodity to be traded to ‘get what we want.’ There have certainly been faithful folk all over the world praying for an end to COVID, and yet it is still with us. This is not what I am talking about when I talk about turning to prayer.
What I mean when I talk about turning to prayer is less episodic – praying because we have a specific event in a specific moment – and more consistent and regular. It is an ongoing, intentional stepping into the presence of God to express our hopes, fears, experiences, our very lives to God, and have God respond in shaping and working with us in the world.
The early church, as Thom S. Rainer describes in his book, “The Post Quarantine Church”, received no other instruction from Jesus as he left them than: “You will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” That’s it! No strategic plan. No organizational chart. No budget.
None of the trappings we have come to know of church. So, what did they do when they didn’t know what to do? They prayed. I want to call us to prayer. As churches in the region and across our denomination, we should pray more, especially in this moment! We should pray for the leaders and future leaders of our congregations, our members, the sick, the joyful, the ones who are suffering, our neighborhoods, our state, our country, our world…everything!
And, as a part of our prayer, we should open our ears, our hearts, our eyes, and our hands ready to be shaped and used by God.