It has been some time since I have been on a group retreat. There are many wonderful aspects of getting away together – the peaceful surroundings, the fellowship, the Bible study – but the thing I like best is the large chunks of time set aside just to pray.
Somehow it is always harder at home to make prayer an I-have-the-whole-afternoon kind of activity. Jesus instructed us to go to a room and shut the door to keep out distractions and to ensure that our motive is to be heard by God rather than to be seen by others (Matt. 6:6). Yet even Jesus found it helpful from time to time to leave the crowds and daily ministry in order to focus his prayer. Sometimes he went alone; sometimes he went with his disciples. And Christ’s disciples learned from him that gathering for prayer, in a set-aside time and place, is where we should be when we face uncertainty or have need of strengthening or guidance. For that is where they were for the ten days between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost and at many other key times in the early years of the church.
Yet I have not found this coming together for prayer a pressing concern among the Christians I know – not within our congregation, not within our presbytery. When I joined a local church in 1977, the Wednesday evening prayer meeting was already a thing of the distant past. And at those times when groups have met, it is for a short time and most of the concerns are for the health of individuals; seldom does our grave weakness as a denomination become a focus.
Regardless of our beliefs on particular doctrines, PCUSA members on all sides see the continual decline in the number of Presbyterian disciples; we know that the New Testament reality of the Gospel is “adding daily to the numbers,” not losing daily. Do we see and weep? Like Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), like Nehemiah wept over the trouble and disgrace of those returned from the exile in Babylon (Nehemiah 1:3-4)? For the PCUSA, like Jerusalem, does not seem to know “what would bring [us] peace,” and, like the returned exiles, is in “great trouble and disgrace.” Do we see and gather in prayer as Christ’s early disciples did and in focused petition as God’s people in all times have?
We have the same need to gather and humble ourselves before God and pray and seek his face. We also have the opportunity – March 17-19, 2005 in Houston.
That is when the Presbyterian Coalition, led by a team of people from a broad range of viewpoints in our denomination, is calling us all to a time of praying together – assembling not for speechifying or rallying any particular group, but for coming as a community broken in any personal pride before the strong name of Jesus. The only finger-pointing will be those that we point at ourselves in repentance, acknowledging our sins before him who is without blemish. It will be a time for asking God to keep the promise he makes throughout Scripture – that if his people will return to him, he will relieve their wretchedness and bless them.
“Re-turning” is what “repentance” is all about – turning around, heading in the right direction, God’s direction. His desire and plans for us are to give us a hope and a future.
I feel the need to get away to pray about the PCUSA. I feel the need to do so with other Presbyterians. I am praying that you do, too. I look forward to joining with you in Houston this March.
Peggy Hedden, a ruling elder in Columbus, Ohio, is the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.