{"id":23526,"date":"2019-06-19T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T16:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=23526"},"modified":"2019-06-19T09:30:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T16:30:14","slug":"prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Chapter One of Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching, <\/em>Christian Coach and leader Tom Camacho states, \u201cPrayer is the real transforming force in ministry\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In the section on Building a Coaching Leadership Culture, the first key concept listed was \u201cPray.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

In the \u201cPotential Action Steps\u201d section at the end of each chapter, prayer was often cited as the first step.<\/p>\n

But I have confession to make. When I read lists like this and see \u201cprayer\u201d as Step One, I often move quickly on to Step Two. Yes, yes, I know, we are supposed to bathe everything in prayer. I know all the clich\u00e9s. But I\u2019m a woman of action. I want to know what I need to DO. Okay, pray. But then what?<\/p>\n

And worse, should I ever choose to implement the recommendations from such books, I don\u2019t just quickly read over the \u201cprayer\u201d step, I don\u2019t even do it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not the only one. I\u2019ve been in many a Christian meeting where we say a prayer at the beginning that is more rote than real, and then end by asking God to simply put His stamp of approval on all the decisions that we\u2019ve made. \u201cBless our work. No matter whether it\u2019s the work you want us to do. Bless our plans. Make us succeed.\u201d Our Kingdom come, our will be done.<\/p>\n

Prayer is mentioned 43 times in Camacho\u2019s book\u2014compare that with Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership: How to Become an Effective Leader by Confronting Potential Failures<\/em>, by McIntosh and Rima, where prayer is mentioned 10 times.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

I was recently met a man who had just returned from a trip to South Korea, where he had the opportunity to meet with a group of pastors. He said that the pastors with whom he met took the apostle\u2019s commitment to the \u201cprayer and preaching of the Word,\u201d[4]<\/a> as an example to be followed quite literally. To that end, they spent exactly half of their work week in sermon prep, and the other half in prayer. While I know of many American and French pastors who spend about twenty hours a week on sermon prep, I don\u2019t know of any who spend twenty hours a week in prayer. Not that this in an example to be taken literally; however, the cultural difference reveals an underlying principal. If I may generalize, it seems that Western pastors have more faith in the transformational power of their sermons than they do in the transformational power of prayer.<\/p>\n

And you can count me among their numbers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of the haunting question from Chand\u2019s Leadership Pain<\/em>, which he asked to heal the reader determine if he or she might be a Pharisee: <\/em>\u201cDo you pray more in public than in private?\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

For far too long, I fell into the trap of believing that information would lead to transformation, thinking, \u201cIf people just KNEW the Truth, if the UNDERSTOOD the message, surely they would change.\u201d But it doesn\u2019t work that way. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I believe information matters. I love the Word and I need the wisdom it provides. But I need intimacy with the living God more. And that happens as I draw near to God in prayer.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the people to whom I am called to minister, the many women that I coach and mentor\u2014they need me to be a woman of prayer.<\/p>\n

Oh, but this is hard for me. For most of my life I can honestly say that an hour at the dentist seemed more appealing than an hour in prayer\u2014and I HATE the dentist.<\/p>\n

This is where technology has become my friend. While I aspire to digital minimalism, one app that consistently survives the \u201ccost-benefit analyses\u201d[6]<\/a> that Cal Newport recommended in his book on that topic is an app called Inner Room, developed by the ministry Prayer 24\/7 (https:\/\/innerroom.app\/<\/a>). Using Inner Room, I can upload photos along with the prayer requests of the people I am coaching, and I get sent reminders to pray. There is \u201cquick pray\u201d option that allows you to pray for three people in three minutes\u2014I use this all the time on the metro, in waiting rooms, or even when waiting for water to boil for a cuppa.<\/p>\n

I DO believe that \u201cPrayer is the real transforming force in ministry\u201d[7]<\/a> and I want my actions to reflect that belief. I have a long way to GROW in this regard, but the InnerRoom App is like training wheels for me in this endeavour. I look forward to the day when prayer is my first reflex, my great joy, and my source. Until then, I\u2019m going to make a commitment to muddle along awkwardly, with my wobbly training wheels, learning to be a person of prayer.<\/p>\n

Join me?<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Tom Camacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders Through Coaching, <\/em>Review Copy (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 2019). 16.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Camacho. 60.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Gary L McIntosh and Samuel D. Sr. Sr Rima, Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership: How to Become an Effective Leader by Confronting Potential Failures<\/em>, Ebook (Grand Rapids: Baker Pub. Group, 2010).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Acts 6:4<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Samuel Chand, Leadership Pain: The Classroom for Growth<\/em> (Harpercollins Christian Pub, 2015), 177.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World<\/em> (New York: Portfolio\/Penguin, 2019), 28.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Tom Camacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders Through Coaching, <\/em>Review Copy (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 2019). 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Chapter One of Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders through Coaching, Christian Coach and leader Tom Camacho states, \u201cPrayer is the real transforming force in ministry\u201d[1] In the section on Building a Coaching Leadership Culture, the first key concept listed was \u201cPray.\u201d[2] In the \u201cPotential Action Steps\u201d section at the end of each chapter, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1555],"class_list":["post-23526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-camacho","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23527,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23526\/revisions\/23527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}