Prayer Walks and Postures

It took me a while to make a prayer walk page for our church kids to use this past Sunday.

I don’t usually like to reinvent the wheel, but I couldn’t find one that seemed just right for our church or our neighborhood.

Some passes were simply logistical—a scavenger hunt that included a bridge or plane when or neighborhood doesn’t include those or pages that were for a school specifically—while others had problematic theology embedded in their invitations to walk and pray.

The one that stood out to me the most was a prayer scavenger hunt that encouraged kids to take a picture of their shoes and “thank God that he promises to give you wherever you set your foot (Joshua 1:3).” Besides being bad Bible interpretation, this subtle language of conquest and colonizing is really troubling. It communicates to even children that our neighborhoods are places without God that we, those on the inside, need to claim (or win).

When we were walking around our home neighborhood praying with our friend and pastor Jake a few years ago, I remember him pointing out a morning glory coming up through a crack in the sidewalk. We spoke about how God was already present, bringing new life amidst challenges and hard places.

I want to keep my eyes open to what God is already doing while we pray, and I want to teach my children to, in the words of Mary Oliver, “ Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

Now, prayer by definition means “to ask or beg or plead,” so I do think there’s a place for interceding for our neighbors and friends and community. I just think we need to do it with at least these three postures:

Eyes Open: I’ve appreciated using these Community Observation Guidelines (from Faith Community Church in San Diego):

Community Observation Guide

On your walk look for evidence of the following:

• People groups: Who is standing at bus stops, hanging on street corners, going into businesses, playing in parks, waiting in line at the store? How much do people interact with one another?

• Places of activity: Cafes, shopping plazas, heavily trafficked intersections, playgrounds, schools?

• Structures: What are the types and conditions of the structures (homes, businesses, roads, parks)? How much “free space” is there in the community? What is the mix of private and public space?

• Services: Where do people go to shop, eat, study, worship, and receive assistance? What appears to be the quantity and quality of available services? Who provides services, and who is receiving?

• Signs of change: Note businesses opening or closing; housing under construction, for sale, or being demolished. See languages on shop signs, and buildings used differently from their original purpose.

• Signs of hope: Where do you see evidence of God’s grace and God’s people at work? Look for churches and nonprofit organizations, playing children, uplifting artwork, faith symbols, social gatherings, gardens. Look especially for local assets that could be connected with neighborhood needs.

• Signs of need: Look for evidence of hardship, hurt or injustice. Is what you see specific to particular areas or affecting the neighborhood as a whole? Be aware that marginalized people and social problems are often hidden, especially in communities that appear well-off.

2. Ears Open:

I think our best praying is done with listening UP to God, IN to the folks we’re traveling with, and OUT to the stories of the past and of our neighbors.

A few of the questions we asked as we walked with the kids and prayed was, “What gives God joy in this neighborhood?” and “What makes God sad in this neighborhood?” Asking these allow us to tap into God’s heart for people and God’s hopes for making all things new. Asking, “God what do you want for this place, these people?” assumes we don’t have all the answers for our friends and that God’s imagination is far more vast and nuanced and powerful than our own.

As for IN, prayer walks, especially with kids, allow for questions about identity and history, Scripture and spiritual practices. On our short walk, we talked about why people put up scary Halloween decorations, the reasons that might keep someone from keeping their home fixed, what makes a home look well-loved, why some of our church friends choose to live in the neighborhood, the way sister churches exist in our community, Jesus walking and talking with God, the ingenious ways immigrants bring home here, the history of segregation in our city, and more. Keeping our ears open to those we’re walking with (as well as to our own inner thoughts, hesitations and hopes) allows us to be transformed while we ask blessing on our neighbors.

Every place we walk is steeped in history that informs and weaves into the present. Scripture acknowledges this (think Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman and the same well where Jacob and Esau reconciled). One of the greatest gifts I think we have at Immanuel is a pastor with a history background, one who can lead walks and prayer times that tells the stories of places and people from our neighborhood’s past. As we step OUT into our streets, it’s so important to hold in one hand history and the other hand, hope. Our prayers will be different knowing wrongs done and lives of resistance lived where we see present challenges and joys. We’ll also pray differently as we hear the stories of our neighbors and what THEY want and dream for their neighborhood and come alongside how they have already been praying or working. I’ll have to have Pastor Matthew share his prayer walk guides from this past week as well, since I only got to experience the kids version this time!

3. Heart Open: I’ll admit that sometimes when I walk and pray, I can feel like I’m going through the motions and that the lives of the folks I see and the homes I pass are either not in need of any help or in need of so much help I can’t imagine any change.

In our neighborhood a few years ago, we prayed about God’s light to break into a house kitty corner from ours where there was definite signs of drug use and lots of people coming in and out. We saw over two years how the house they found over 30 hypodermic needles in was purchased, renovated and turned into an Air BnB. Now I know there are issues with gentrification and rental properties but I also saw with my own eyes a place I never thought would change (and that we had to give a wide berth because of chained pit bull on the sidewalk outside it) turn into a place of beauty. It was less a message to me about renewal and more about possibilities, about places and people I could imagine being free, safe, and well.

The New World Encyclopedia outlines the commonalities between many religions and denominations beliefs on prayer:

The belief that the finite can actually communicate with the infinite;

The belief that the infinite is interested in communicating with the finite;
The belief that the prayer is listened to, and may, or may not get a response;
The belief that prayer is intended to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, rather than to influence the recipient;
The belief that prayer is intended to train a person to focus on the recipient through philosophy and intellectual contemplation;
The belief that prayer is intended to enable a person to gain a direct experience of the recipient;
The belief that prayer is intended to affect the very fabric of reality itself;
The belief that the recipient expects or appreciates prayer

The ones that stand out to me here are belief that prayer changes the one praying rather than influencing the recipient but also paradoxically “the belief that prayer is intended to affect the very fabric of reality itself.” With our heart open to the Holy Spirit, we can both experience inner transformation and also be expectant for external transformation coming from our participation with God in the world.

Community Observation Guide

Leaf Lessons

Help Kids Engage With Worship Service (Church muscles)

Rivoli