The Beautiful Disciplines

Helping young people to develop their spiritual roots

Martin Saunders

• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780857210555
• eBook ISBN: 9780857212474
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Packed with practical activities, engaging stories, and relevant explanation, this photocopiable resource will be a powerful tool to help young people develop a deep-rooted and lasting faith.

Martin believes that many young believers today practise a dangerously brittle faith. They need to be led deeper, to a faith rooted not in the personalities of their leaders or the hype of big events, but in a disciplined direct relationship with God.

This book will provide practical tools to help youth leaders to teach their teenagers to pray, study the Bible, live more simply, and discover the value in other ancient disciplines such as confession, fasting, solitude, study and worship. There will be 12 short chapters, each suitable for one session. Each will begin with background information for the leader, then provide a photocopiable study section with practical exercises.

Each will conclude with questions suitable for discussion in small groups.

Week One

Engage: The Discipline of Prayer

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

How do you really see prayer? As divine poetry, connecting you via a hotline to the Almighty? As a religious duty-cum-self-help mechanism that allows you to organize your thoughts? For most of us, the reality is somewhere in between these two extremes.

I have always disliked what some people call “open prayer”. Sitting in a circle of Christians, hands fixed to the sides of my head as if I’m trying to cover up a superglue accident, I often think this is one of the least spiritual places I can find myself. Here is an honest description of what I do in such a meeting. First, I listen to the inevitable list of prayer requests, and select one that a) I completely understand, and b) doesn’t sound too difficult to pray for. Then, as voices begin to fill the silence, I start work on my masterpiece: a poetic form of words that would have T. S. Eliot on his feet applauding. I work out my first line, then my second. Then I try to come up with some sort of sound bite for the middle part that will make everyone else in the circle make an affirming “hmm” noise, as if someone has just switched on seven food mixers. Then I make sure I know how I’m going to land, for fear of ending with one of those awful fudgy forms of words like “for the Father Jesus Christ’s holy sake”. Then I wait for a gap, and launch into my dramatized poetry reading. And, of course, I have listened to and engaged with none of the other prayers.

Is that what prayer is about? Of course not – in fact, in Matthew 6:5–8, Jesus suggests that prayer should take place in an inner room with the door closed. It’s the very opposite of the hideously dysfunctional situation I’ve just described, and a helpful counter to the act of “horizontal prayer”, which is more for the benefit of the people you’re praying with than the God you’re supposed to be praying to.

Prayer because I ought to…

There is a scene in Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which the hero decides to kill off his no-good father, the king, but when he arrives to do the deed he finds him at prayer. Concerned that by killing him during prayer he’ll send him to heaven (rather than the hell Hamlet thinks he deserves), he stands down. But, after he has walked away, the king makes an admission: “My words fly up; my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go” (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3, 99–100).

While this isn’t biblical theology, it’s a good illustration of the limitations of “religious” prayers. If we’re praying out of a sense of duty, then we’re praying for the wrong reasons. Prayer is about relationship, not obligation. In fact there are a whole host of ways in which we can find ourselves praying for the wrong reason. Praying for the sake of our own reassurance, like chanting a self-help mantra; praying so others will hear our words; praying out of guilt or duty. None of this is what prayer is about – yet, when I consider my own prayers, so many of these motivators can be present.

Corporate or individual?

What’s really interesting about Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 is that they suggest that prayer is an activity for individuals, not communities. Going into a room and closing the door is a rather antisocial antithesis of much of the prayer that goes on among Christians. And this isn’t a verse out of context: again and again in the Bible, we see prayer described as an individual, one-on-one activity. Throughout His ministry, and culminating in Gethsemane, Jesus retires to be by Himself to pray, and Paul repeatedly gives accounts of his own prayer life. There are a few examples in the New Testament that recommend communal prayer (e.g. Matthew 18:19), but overwhelmingly, it seems to me that prayer is intended largely as an inner discipline.

A common criticism of the modern church, and particularly the modern worship music movement, is that it turns Christianity into an individualistic faith when it is meant to be a corporate journey. The picture of the church in Acts 2, where the believers share all their possessions to ensure that no one goes without, is an indictment of the twenty-first-century Western church to which we have no answer. The description of God in John 1:1 shows a Trinity which itself lives in community. Contrary to many of the songs we sing, the Christian faith isn’t about “me, me, me”, but “us, us, us”.

It’s almost amusing, then, that in the context of an often-individualistic faith, prayer is one of the mechanisms by which we join together in community. It’s as if we’re holding the instructions the wrong way up: the biblical picture is one of a fully-functional community which divides only to spend time in personal prayer and devotion, yet often we act as a group of individuals who come together for meetings to pray!

“Pray continually”

So enough, then, about what prayer isn’t. Time surely to ask: what is prayer? If we analyse the blueprint for prayer that Jesus lays out in Matthew 6, we find a lot of the subjects we should cover – confession, praise, thanksgiving, requests – but even that doesn’t answer what prayer is. To answer that question, we need to look at Jesus’ example and Paul’s application.

In Luke 5:12–16 (a passage we’ll return to several times), Jesus heals a man of leprosy. Then, as the word gets out about Him, and the crowds gather to celebrate Him, Jesus turns and runs in the opposite direction. And not just then – verse 16 says that “he often withdrew to lonely places and prayed”. What does that tell us? That when things are happening around Him, when the heat is on, when everyone is running towards Him and saying “This is your moment”, He retreats. He doesn’t run head first into a crowd of adoring fans; He withdraws. And we read that He often did this. He withdraws to pray because, for Jesus, prayer is home. Not just when things are tough, as in the Garden of Gethsemane, but also when things are good. Prayer is Jesus’ default setting; He continually returns to it because it is where He recharges and makes sense of things. We should surely follow His example.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about prayer not as something we “go off and do”, but as a constant state in which Christians should seek to find themselves. In chapter 6 he says: “… pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (verse 18, my italics). His language here isn’t a coincidence, nor is he being emotive and over-the-top. He is suggesting that prayer (just as in the verse from 1 Thessalonians that begins this chapter) is an ongoing process. Changing our view of prayer from a series of moments to a continual journey is vital as we seek to engage with the Spiritual Disciplines.

Prayer as the foundation

Prayer is the Discipline that underpins all the others. It is the first and most important Spiritual Discipline, because it is the one that connects us directly to the heart of God. All the other Disciplines draw on it deeply; if the others are flavours of the spiritual life, then prayer is the life-sustaining water to which they are added. Prayer is therefore the first stop on our journey through the Disciplines. Before we can ask young people to throw themselves into a range of prayerful activities, we must first challenge and develop their notion of what prayer is and can be. And, of course, we should never grow tired of asserting that prayer isn’t just about speaking words into thin air, but that it involves great and mysterious power. 1 John 5:14–15 says: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Prayer is home. Prayer is continuous. Prayer is power. How might truly understanding these truths about prayer transform the way young people view their relationship with God?

Engage: Resources

First steps – The discussion starter

THE 100-YEAR PRAYER MEETING

Though born into German royalty, eighteenth-century Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf did not go down in history as a famous aristocrat. Instead, he was known as a man who, propelled by his Christian faith, cared for the poor and opened up his palatial property to refugees. The first ten arrived in 1722, and just three years later there were almost a hundred living on the site. He named the community that was forming there “Herrnhut”, meaning “the Lord’s Watchful Care”, and saw it grow further, to almost 300, by the end of 1726. By then it had become a small town, run entirely on Christian principles – like a seven-day church where everything was shared and no one went hungry. The refugees brought and shared crafts and skills; these once-homeless people had begun to create a sustainable life for themselves, because Zinzendorf did not turn them away.

Even this was not the most remarkable part of Zinzendorf’s story. After divisions and fighting began to break out in the Count’s community, he organized the people into a sort of rota of prayer, so that at every hour of every day at least someone was praying. At the end of each hour, the baton would be passed to the next person to pray for one hour more. All day long, all night long. For a week, then a month, then a year. Every moment, of every hour, there was always someone praying in Herrnhut. This continuous prayer went on, uninterrupted, for a hundred years. During that time the community became the centre point of a revival in the European church, and sent more than 300 people off as missionaries around the world. They arrived as homeless peasants; they left as ministers on a mission. All because Zinzendorf opened the door to them, and taught them how to pray.

Opening up

Read the story above, then ask the following questions:

• Do you believe that the prayer meeting really continued uninterrupted for 100 years? Why?

• How do you think this small community kept the momentum going for so long?

• What does Zinzendorf’s story make you think about prayer?

Digging deeper

• Why do people pray? What are some of the different reasons?

• What is prayer – if you had to describe it to someone who had never heard the word, how would you define it?

• What do you think happens when we pray? Are there some kinds of prayer, or people praying them, that you think might be more or less likely to be “heard”?

Taking it to the word

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

• Why do you think the things listed here are “God’s will for us”?

• The words “all”, “always” and “continually” appear in these short verses – what does this tell us about prayer?

• What would it look like to “pray continually”? Could you imagine how that might be possible for you?

• Consider experimenting with prayer together. What different methods of communication – writing, drawing, speaking, etc. – could you use to pray? Feed back later – what happened as a result of your prayers?

The adaptable meeting guide

Meeting aim: To explore the Discipline of Prayer by giving the young people new ways to think about and practise direct communication with God. To help them to see prayer not as a series of moments with God, but as an ongoing conversation that lasts a lifetime.

Before you start: You will need flip-chart paper; black pens – two to three per group (or at least lots of the same colour); highlighter pens – one or two per group; stopwatch; small chocolate prizes; Bibles; paper and envelopes.4

Just a minute (10 minutes)

Begin the session by playing the classic radio game Just a Minute. You can do this either in small groups or, preferably, all together. Explain that there are prizes on offer for anyone who can talk to the group for one minute on a subject of their choosing. The twist is that, if they hesitate or repeat themselves, they lose the game and have to stop. It’s harder than you might think, so call for a volunteer and time all your contestants with a stopwatch. If anyone gets to a minute without hesitation or repetition, give them a prize; if none of your volunteers make it that far, award prizes to those who managed to speak for the longest.

Hard prayer (10 minutes)

Divide into small groups, and ask them to discuss the following questions:

- What is prayer?

- How and when do you tend to pray? What form do your prayers take?

- Do you find prayer, or making time to pray, difficult? Why or why not?

Just another minute (5 minutes)

Ask the group to find some space, and then explain that everyone is now going to attempt the “Just a Minute” activity – but this time we won’t be talking about a favourite subject; we’ll be praying. Depending on your group and on the young people involved, you may want to suggest that this happens in silence, in quiet with some music playing, or with everyone speaking loudly at the same time. Give them no time to think about what they will pray about, and give them no prayer requests or suggestions. Afterwards, get feedback from the whole group. Was that easy or difficult? Why? Ask those who also took part in the first game whether it was easier to pray non-stop for a minute, or to talk in front of an audience about a pet subject. Why do they think that is?

How many ways? (15 minutes)

Give your groups large sheets of flip-chart paper and ask them to write down with the black pens as many methods of communication as they can think of: e.g. face to face, social networks, email, semaphore(!). If you encourage them to think a little laterally, they should be able to come up with dozens. You could award a small prize for the group that thinks of the most. Then, without getting them to “do” anything to the lists, ask how many ways they think there are of communicating with God. How many ways are there of praying? Ask them to go through their lists again, and, using the ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• By the same author
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Week Zero: Introducing the Spiritual Disciplines
• Part One: The Core
• Part Two: Outward
• Part Three: Together
• Appendix – God Audit