David:     “These are the playoffs”, says the coach. “Must I tell you that we need to up our game if we expect to win?”

Karen:     Hmm, in real life do coaches actually say things like that?

David:     I guess they do. In the movies they do anyway, but I really don’t know for sure.

Intro:      Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife, noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.

David:     I would assume, Karen, that in the playoffs the team members already pretty much know what their coach does. This is not a game to take just casually.

Karen:     So, where are we going with this podcast?

David:     Well, our last podcast we kind of called it a moment of truth and we used the emperor’s new clothing and the little child saying the king doesn’t have any clothes on. To say that as a democracy, are we going to survive? Well, some of it’s going to be where the church is and is the church rallying to the time or not?

Karen:     We were talking about the culture influencing the church more than the church influencing the culture. And that we see as a huge problem in this day and age.

David:     There are going to be people probably listening to us maybe who say what’s happening? The church’s going to be fine. It’s weathered these kinds of times before.

Karen:     Yeah, we’re going to make it. There’s no reason to be concerned about it. We’ve gone through rough times before.

David:     Where we are in a sentence is to say this basically in this podcast: The time has come for hundreds of thousands of American Christians to up their praying to a whole new level.

Karen:     Specifically, what we are saying is that it’s time for us to up our game. We need to be upping our game when we’re using the whole concept of prayer as the church’s power machine, which is under activated these days, we believe. And I think most Christians would agree that they don’t have a prayer base. And particularly those of our age who remembered those past when churches were built on prayer.

David:     We said that we need to get beyond just personal prayer and get into a group. I talked about that and won’t talk about anymore this time. But this time, basically, what we’re saying is another way to up your game, your prayer game, is to write out your prayers.

Karen:     To be really intentional. I think sometimes we pray on the hoof as we’re going. There’s nothing wrong with that, that’s fine. But we also need to maybe keep a record other than lists. Now I keep a prayer journal, I’ve said that before and I make lists of the things I’m praying for. But I like your idea of taking a particular prayer and writing it out so that it’s full, it’s complete.

We have the “Dear Lord…” and the content and the amen afterwards. And then to go back to it again and again, put it in a place where we see it. I have a little business I go to when I want small cards made up. And sometimes I have prayer cards that I put around the table when we have dinner guests over. But that would be a great place to go and have a particular prayer that I’ve written. Let’s say a prayer for our extended family. The kind of people I’m praying that they will become as they age and mature and their depth, hopefully, in faith grows and grows and grows. And I think that would be a great idea to type something up. Send it to my little signage place and have them give me printed cards that I then could share with them.

David:     With all the prayers we know Karen, just because given leaders, individuals have written out their prayers, “Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace.” That would be a good example. A lot of the praåyers are put to music.

Karen:     And when we look at the lives of Christian leaders or some places that would be called Christian saints of the past, we know about their lives very frequently because they have left records. That prayer that you just mentioned is the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi. Somebody read it for us.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

No wonder that has lasted through the centuries. It’s beautiful.

David:     That’s a great thing.

Karen:     Interesting thing when I research this to pull the copy down, there are some people who say they don’t really know that Saint Francis wrote this. They can’t find it in any of his writings, but it has through the years been attributed to him. And so, when it doesn’t really matter. It’s that someone wrote it down and recorded it and entered into the great body of spiritual life that’s gone on for decades. And it’s an extraordinary prayer. I mean, it reminds you of the way you should be praying. So, what we’re saying is we want people to take that step, up their game, and then to begin taking their prayers and writing them out in a way that has some lasting format.

David:     Well, I would put it this way. I think the church, I’m talking Protestant church, which is my background, they’re relatively good as spontaneous prayer. Some people remarkably good at it. But I think we can learn to write out prayers in a new way and it would be helpful that we’ll up the game of the church at this point in time. In fact, if I hook into the prayer group of which I’m a part, we meet just once a week for about 45 minutes. We do it by phone. We had one member of our group this last week. There are seven or eight of us always on the phone. This man said, “I have a list of 10 things I want to say to the Lord, and you can follow them with me.” He’s number one, number two. He had them all written out and I thought, bless his heart. He knew exactly what he wanted to say, and he got it all out.

Karen:     Isn’t he a scientist of some kind?

David:     He’s a PhD. He and his wife of both PhDs. But anyway, number one, number two, number three.

Karen:     It is wonderful.

David:     But he wouldn’t have held that in his head.

Karen:     Yeah, no.

David:     But he was using a pen and pencil to make sure that he got all of his thoughts out. I’m thinking, Karen, of writing out an actual prayer and I tried that this week. And I said, “Okay, what would I write the prayer out for?” And I decided that I would write out like a pastoral prayer. “This is what I feel, Lord.” If I’m, say, called on spontaneously, it hasn’t happened, but if I am, I’ll have it in my Bible and I’ll be ready.

Karen:     Well, you would think that way because you have had years in the past, where you wrote pastoral prayers and prayed them over the people. And these were not formulaic, David, ever. I mean, they were pertinent, but I think that’s a great idea for people who are invited to give pastoral prayers, to take time ahead of time to decide what they want to say, what the Holy Spirit is moving in their heart to pray about. And then to write it out. But make those prayer cards available. There would be all kinds of ways to do that in a church bulletin. Or sometimes I’m thinking of one church that has a bulletin board and people could put their prayer needs on that bulletin board.

David:     People could have had prayers on the bulletin board as well. And put…

Karen:     People could put their prayers on the bulletin. What an extraordinary thing that would do in a community of faith.

David:     Let me pray this prayer that I’ve written out. I would say again that I’m not satisfied. It’s a work in process. I’ve found that it’s meaningful to me, quite meaningful.

Lord, I love your kingdom in this land and around the world. Not as much as you do, I’m sure, but I believe I honestly long for your church here and elsewhere to be strong and vibrant and loving, even as your son Jesus was, and rightly expects his followers to be.

To get right to the point of this prayer, in my opinion, a powerful church is not where I perceive the majority of congregations in the USA to be. In making such an evaluation, I’m quick to recognize that too often I have probably been part of the problem. Once again, I confess to you, past sins, but I’m also pleased to sincerely thank you that during my eight and half decades here on earth you have repeatedly forgiven me of my all too many faults and failures and matured me in your disciple making. I sensed you would also say that I was somewhat slow in learning your ways, ways such as holiness, humility, brotherly love, truth, telling. Even so, over a lifetime of learning, I have become convinced that walking and daily obedience to your promptings brings great peace and fulfillment and freedom.

Conversely, choosing alternative routes results in sadness, guilt, humiliation. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that many in our churches haven’t yet reached these conclusions. And that’s why I continue praying for an extended season of brokenness to soon mark all followers of Christ throughout America and for a spirit of soul-searching, repentance, and when necessary, restitution. That’s what I personally believe needs to mark ever so many congregations throughout our country. And I would ask that not one state would be missed in such a spiritual awakening.

Historically, such seasons of individual and corporate soul-searching have come quickly and powerfully. Then on other occasions they have manifested themselves at a pace that’s slower and easier to absorb. Holy Spirit, I leave all that up to you. I don’t need to further define what I believe should happen. You know the specifics far better than I do. What I’m requesting is that you begin this work of renewal sooner rather than later, touching down in ever so many places across the nation, rather than in just a few scattered locations here and there. And I’m asking this for all branches of Christendom, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and even in whatever congregations are not covered by the three major categories mentioned. Thinking that on our own we could pull off this special heavenly vision would be foolhardy. But then I believe you, God, are the miracle worker. On top of that, Scripture records numerous such times of heavenly visitations.

And may I also add that through the centuries, various writers have left us with accounts of truly remarkable moving of your Holy Spirit. So do it again, Lord. Can you please make your powerful presence known in your churches? I implore you to do it once again. As one of your elderly servants, still active with my wife and the ministry you have assigned us, I thank you for the continued divine love we experience. We sense it daily, yes. You have blessed America in so many ways, but I believe we need you to once again make your awesome presence felt. Touch down in America, please, Lord. Once again, stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above. Please let your Holy Spirit be powerfully felt, Jesus, and certainly in our places of worship.

We need, Lord, for you to make your presence known in a most forceful way. That’s my opinion anyway. And thank you for once again listening to an old friend and pardon me for so often making the very same request. Amen.

Karen:     And I think that’s a beautiful prayer.

David:     Well, it’s where my heart is, and it’s neat to write it down, and I’m not happy with it yet, but I find there’s power in being able to articulate it better than I could a week ago.

I think, Karen, that whether it was Bob saying, “I got 10 things to say to you”, he had written them down or writing out a prayer. I think you write out or at least you sign each in some ways. Signing is a part of what you’re doing, and I admire you for it.

Karen:     Well, I do write my prayers out, and we’ve mentioned this before. I have prayer journals that I’ve kept for 40 years. And I’m just starting to go back through them thinking I’ll toss these. But there’s such a record of God’s work in my life that I’m not sure I’m supposed to toss them, just to clear out the mess before the kids have to come in here when we die. One of the things that I’ve started to do, we live across from a community that was being built as we bought our home. And our home, as we’ve said before, surrounded by woods on all sides. The community across the street, there are at least 200 and some homes there over there. We went and passed out little cards at one time, and I counted up the homes.

So, I would like to start a neighborhood something. And one of the signs I’ve had made up to start that something, to see what comes of it. These are laminated signs, they’re cardboard signs, they have those wire things that go up through the corrugations, and then down into the ground. I have done things like, love your neighbors, yes, that means all of them. This will be an invitation to come and maybe talk about issues of faith. Come one, come all, come and have a dinner, we’ll talk about our faith journey, something like that, and just see who the Lord brings into our lives.

There are Christians over there, so that would be great to get to know who they all are. But I’m thinking there are people who, at this stage in our American current contemporary dilemmas, feel a need for prayer, but don’t have any people to pray for them in their lives, and would be comforted and embraced if they knew they had a prayer group nearby of their neighbors that they go to. So, I’m designing those signs in my mind, and I’ll send it off to my little signage place. And we’ll put them up at a time date yet to be designated. And then just see what kind of response we have.

David:     I think that’s beautiful. Yeah. So, we’re talking about upping their game, going a step further. I know you used to talk about let’s have a meal in the driveway, bring what you want, and we’ll see who shows up.

Karen:     Yeah, I have those signs up, put those out probably in July, and then we’ll just see who shows in. And out of that, then maybe come a group that says that we really would like to pray together for our neighbors and friends and for our own lives. So, we’ll see what God does with it.

David:     I think we’re at an age where one of the things I’d like to do is to write a prayer that the family would have after I’m gone.

Karen:     Prayer of blessing or prayer of intercession for them. Oh, I think that’s wonderful.

David:     Yeah, I want to do that. There are a lot of thoughts that way, but taking it into actually putting it on paper, typing it out, whatever means you use, means that you’re thinking about it a lot more. And I said it earlier, and I say it again, I think the church is relatively good at spontaneous prayers, but not as good, at least in the Protestant churches I’m acquainted with, in writing out prayers. But there is great power in writing out those prayers. And I think it’s one of the steps ahead that the church needs to be looking toward doing.

Karen:     One of the things I can see out of this conversation is the church bulletin board. All churches have bulletin boards. And just having a prayer corner or a prayer bulletin board, where people say these are the things, I need prayer for. And then others would respond. And you would put up the prayers, or as prayers get answered, have a communal way of showing that God is at work in the prayers of the people. So, something like that.

David:     So, I think if I have some time to do a pastoral prayer, I could put that pastoral prayer on the bulletin board.

Karen:     Yeah.

David:     I think Karen that there would be a lot of prayers that can be up there. I think a prayer from the music ministry, there would be a prayer from the youth leaders. Here’s a prayer from a senior citizen. Here’s a prayer from a schoolteacher. Here’s a prayer from a nurse in our congregation.

Karen:     That’s wonderful.

David:     Those would all be wonderful, and it would move prayer up to a new level within the congregation, which is what we need to do. So how we need to build that prayer base once again.

Karen:     A corporate prayer base that’s strong once again. I agree with you wholeheartedly.

David:     Yeah, anyway, I’m not done yet.

Karen:     Okay.

David:     To the place where we’re saying, how do we up our game? It needs to be done quickly, not in any rash way, but just giving suggestions as to how we may move in that direction, and let the Lord see how he prompts people through our words to come up with even better ideas.

Outro:     You’ve been listening to the Before We Go Podcast. And if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address, hosts@beforewego.show. That’s all-lower-case letters, hosts@beforewego.show.

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