A Prayer for the Churches We Love and the Churches That Disappoint Us
Each week, after I write the main post, a few days later, I send an accompanying prayer related to the topic. Selfishly, I am doing in this in part for me: I always am on the hunt for more written prayers. I use written prayers often in my work to pray for larger groups, but I also love written prayers for my personal piety. Sometimes it is nice when I do not have the words to use someone else’s.
The below prayer is in response to my latest post on raising kids in church.
Dear God,
We love our churches:
The unlikely mixture of people, from gray-hairs to babies to tattooed, motorcycle riders to hat-wearing, Lily Pulitzer clad ladies.
The way we come together to eat and laugh and sing and dip tiny styrofoam-like wafers of bread into Tawny Port.
The prayers we say together at worship and on our own, so that we palpably feel that we are holding one another.
We even smile at the strong opinions about flower arrangements and furnishings and longtime traditions because “we have always done it this way.”
But there are times that my church disappoints us, too.
People do not acknowledge when we have been through something hard, maybe because they do not want to embarrass us, or maybe because they do not know what to say, but then we just feel more alone.
People have side, parking lot conversations about church business and friends and gossip and secrets circulate.
People say cruel things behind closed doors or post incendiary comments on social media, and they seem different from the prayerful, loving volunteers who show up for weekly worship.
Churches are full of messy, flawed human beings. We all know this. Sometimes we may expect too much from church, but God, we do believe you call us to keep striving to get a little closer to being like Jesus. We are the Body of Christ, after all. Broken, yes, but also deliberately scattered throughout the world to help sustain your people. We come together and then depart, over and over again, infused with your presence.
The church is special, precious, a gift. May we never take it for granted, and may we never give up on it either. Amen.