Ten Deadly Trappings

The Evangelical Outpost writes an interesting post called,
Fads and Fixtures: Ten Deadly Trappings of Evangelism

Some will get nit picked, # 2, 3, 6
Some you may consider interesting #8
Some you may agree completely #10, 4

Number #8 is interesting to me.

#8 Protestant Prayers -- Last week one of my fellow coworkers, a young Catholic man, was asked to open our meeting with a prayer. Without hesitation he began reciting the "Lord's prayer." Afterward I joked that, having come up with such a fine prayer, he might want to write it down for future use. What I didn't say what how his recitation of the prayer made me uncomfortable.

First, I'm not used to hearing prayers that don't contain the word "just" (as in "We just want to thank you Lord…") so it had an odd ring to it. Second, it seemed to violate the accepted standards for public prayer. I had always assumed that praying in public required being able to interlace some just-want-to's in with some Lord-thank-you-for's and be- with-us-as-we's in a coherent fashion before toppping it all with an Amen. Third, I thought that prayers are supposed to be spontaneous--from the heart, off the top of the head--emanations, rather than prepackaged recitations. If it ain't original, it ain't prayer, right? Can I get an amen?

But where did this idea come from? We have entire books to teach us how to pray yet Jesus managed to wrap up the lesson in less than forty words. Why isn't that prayer good enough for evangelicals to use? Why do our prayers sound nothing like His example? (And if you are wondering what prayer is doing on a list of evangelistic fixtures then we are really in trouble.)

Don't get me wrong, prayer is wonderful and if you doing it, please add a few for me :-).

Catholics get a bad rap on repeating prayers. If something is theologically sound and it helps you to focus on God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), why is that a bad thing?

Are hymns prayers? Yes they are. So why do many congregations sing the same songs over and over, but you never hear them say the Lord's Prayer (Our Father if you're Catholic). Jesus taught it to us, why not say it while you are trying to live it? How many times do people listen to their favorite "praise and worship" song over and over, but say we should not be repetitious in our prayers?

I know many people that prefer the "free form" style of prayer exclusively. But they repeat the same thing over and over. One day they say a prayer and two days later they say almost the same thing. In many of these settings, "Jesus" or "Lord" temporarily replaces "ahs" and "umms" in their speech. Is it more reverent to use Jesus as a filler, or repeat something solid that you can meditate on?

Let me know what you think.