Faith Works 9-5-2025
Jeff Gill
Prayer and evangelism
___
One of the areas of pastoral care I think I'm worst at is teaching people how to pray.
Part of the problem may be that people are hoping for a simpler method than I am able to offer. They'd like a "30 days couch to 5K" kind of step by step program, and honestly I don't think there is such a thing.
People are different, and I really don't believe prayer is exactly the same for one person than another. Some of us pray better in motion than at rest, and I don't see anything in scripture to say that's a problem. Walking prayer has a long tradition in spirituality, and it's very different from having a chair and a cup of tea and quiet time with God in front of a window: which is a spiritual discipline I know has great value for some lovely people.
Prayer books, like the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer" going back to 1549 in England, have an honored place in many spiritual traditions. I do most frequently, I think, direct people to the Psalms in their Bibles; it's both hymnbook and prayer book, with a range of models for addressing God with one's heart and mind. Others strongly call for extemporaneous prayer as the most sincere, best form of personal prayer. I think those can be heartfelt, but I also know how "impromptu" prayers can turn into a familiar cycle of phrases and statements as unvarying as the pages of any old book.
One book I do often recommend, but not always (because people are different!), is a very slim volume called "Beginning to Pray." It was written in the 1970s in England by a Russian Orthodox archbishop, whose name is usually found in title and author listings as Anthony Bloom.
There's no method outlined, really, in "Beginning to Pray." Bloom tells stories about his journey to faith and spiritual practice, and the lessons come indirectly, inductively. His story is one of adventures only obliquely referenced as well, but he was a doctor before his ordination, serving in the French Resistance during World War II. He is familiar with tragedy and questions about God's purpose, even existence, which you'll also find I might add in the Psalms. But as a pastor and priest and bishop and finally a metropolitan in his tradition (something like a Catholic cardinal) he is still "Beginning to Pray."
I tried years ago to write a pamphlet for local church use modeled on this little book, an even shorter treatment I titled "Praying on Asphalt." But so much of prayer is like riding a bicycle; it's the kind of thing you learn by doing. You fall down a bit, there's no helping it, even with training wheels. And the real question becomes whether or not you get back up and try again after skinning a knee or scraping an elbow.
You don't need a teacher or coach or an archbishop to tell you that if your praying is just asking for stuff, you may not be approaching the whole matter in the right way. On the other hand, your relationship with a parent may not be all it can be if you just come to them when you need help, but that doesn't mean they don't still love you. They're just waiting for the relationship to develop and mature. That's pretty much what the Bible says God is thinking as we muddle along, calling only occasionally and perfunctorily when we need something.
All of which makes me think of evangelism, but we'll save that for another week.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's still beginning to pray, too. Tell him what resources helped you learn to pray at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
Jeff Gill
Prayer and evangelism
___
One of the areas of pastoral care I think I'm worst at is teaching people how to pray.
Part of the problem may be that people are hoping for a simpler method than I am able to offer. They'd like a "30 days couch to 5K" kind of step by step program, and honestly I don't think there is such a thing.
People are different, and I really don't believe prayer is exactly the same for one person than another. Some of us pray better in motion than at rest, and I don't see anything in scripture to say that's a problem. Walking prayer has a long tradition in spirituality, and it's very different from having a chair and a cup of tea and quiet time with God in front of a window: which is a spiritual discipline I know has great value for some lovely people.
Prayer books, like the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer" going back to 1549 in England, have an honored place in many spiritual traditions. I do most frequently, I think, direct people to the Psalms in their Bibles; it's both hymnbook and prayer book, with a range of models for addressing God with one's heart and mind. Others strongly call for extemporaneous prayer as the most sincere, best form of personal prayer. I think those can be heartfelt, but I also know how "impromptu" prayers can turn into a familiar cycle of phrases and statements as unvarying as the pages of any old book.
One book I do often recommend, but not always (because people are different!), is a very slim volume called "Beginning to Pray." It was written in the 1970s in England by a Russian Orthodox archbishop, whose name is usually found in title and author listings as Anthony Bloom.
There's no method outlined, really, in "Beginning to Pray." Bloom tells stories about his journey to faith and spiritual practice, and the lessons come indirectly, inductively. His story is one of adventures only obliquely referenced as well, but he was a doctor before his ordination, serving in the French Resistance during World War II. He is familiar with tragedy and questions about God's purpose, even existence, which you'll also find I might add in the Psalms. But as a pastor and priest and bishop and finally a metropolitan in his tradition (something like a Catholic cardinal) he is still "Beginning to Pray."
I tried years ago to write a pamphlet for local church use modeled on this little book, an even shorter treatment I titled "Praying on Asphalt." But so much of prayer is like riding a bicycle; it's the kind of thing you learn by doing. You fall down a bit, there's no helping it, even with training wheels. And the real question becomes whether or not you get back up and try again after skinning a knee or scraping an elbow.
You don't need a teacher or coach or an archbishop to tell you that if your praying is just asking for stuff, you may not be approaching the whole matter in the right way. On the other hand, your relationship with a parent may not be all it can be if you just come to them when you need help, but that doesn't mean they don't still love you. They're just waiting for the relationship to develop and mature. That's pretty much what the Bible says God is thinking as we muddle along, calling only occasionally and perfunctorily when we need something.
All of which makes me think of evangelism, but we'll save that for another week.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's still beginning to pray, too. Tell him what resources helped you learn to pray at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
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[and for next week...]
===
Faith Works 9-12-2025
Jeff Gill
Twenty years of unbinding the gospel
___
We're coming up on twenty years since "Unbinding the Gospel" was published in 2006.
As is the case with research and analysis, which is at the heart of Martha Grace Reese's book, the data which is underneath "Unbinding the Gospel" is even older now, collected between 1999 and 2003. Martha Grace, or "Gay" as she's known to her friends, sat down and wrestled her data into the book on evangelism among mainline Christian churches over the next two years, calling and visiting in person when she could churches where the "e-word" was visibly, demonstrably being put into practice.
So as a friend and associate of Gay Reese, I know it was in 2005 she was putting the finishing touches on her study, a slim volume still very much in print. Evangelism is still interesting to many people, but intimidating. This book says it doesn't have to be.
Times have changed since 2005. We've had some overseas turmoil, domestic politics in an uproar, a global pandemic since then. But I think the fundamental insights of Gay's book still hold.
"Unbinding the Gospel" is not a cookbook with a simple set of steps for every church to follow. It's more a description of how some outstanding restaurants's finished products looked and tasted, with a look into the back of the house as to how the dishes were prepared and served.
One of the reactions — even strong reactions — we got as Gay Reese organized a group of us to help field test and roll out the process loosely described in the book, from church leaders in multiple denominations, was incredulity that there wasn't more of a step-by-step process outlined. The book, and some supporting volumes that came out in the next few years after 2006, offers a series of exercises out of which each congregation would develop its own unique approach to sharing the good news, the Gospel, with others in their area.
As I said last week about books on prayer, that's not a subject that really supports an approach like "30 days from couch to 5K" but that's what people are used to looking for. Give me a methodical model which will work for me like it does for almost anyone else. Judicatory heads, regional ministers, district superintendents, synod bishops, executive presbyters: they wanted a clear consistent model with predictable outcomes.
What Gay's research showed us, drawn mostly from a few hundred congregations out of some 30,000 in the initial data set, those who had shown the fruit, the outcomes of evangelism in their settings, was three characteristics they had in common. It wasn't just that they were new church plants, or of a single generational or ethnic cohort, or any of the other usual assumptions about evangelistically effective churches.
Three elements the evangelism-centered congregations had in common: a lively sense of the presence of God, a deep knowledge within the church of each other's faith stories, and prayer was a profound and persistent element of all they did. That's it. Those three things. Presence, personal faith stories, and prayer. And note: that's not about telling strangers your faith story. It was the context of how sharing faith stories within the fellowship was the apparent engine, the driver of how invitation and inclusion became norms for the evangelistically effective churches.
You can practice these things; I'm not sure you can teach them, exactly. This is why Anthony Bloom's thin volume, and Gay Reese's little book, both come to mind together for me. Like riding a bike, or sailing a boat, you really have to be willing to just jump on, jump in, and do it. Teaching just tells you in advance which rope to pull on, and that you'll inevitably end up overboard a few times.
But once you get moving, you'll be glad you did.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's glad he read both of these books. Tell him what's inspired you recently at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 at Threads or Bluesky.
Sociological study used for the book:
http://unbindingthegospel.com/documents/Wenger%20Reese%20Survey%20Report.pdf
Jeff Gill
Twenty years of unbinding the gospel
___
We're coming up on twenty years since "Unbinding the Gospel" was published in 2006.
As is the case with research and analysis, which is at the heart of Martha Grace Reese's book, the data which is underneath "Unbinding the Gospel" is even older now, collected between 1999 and 2003. Martha Grace, or "Gay" as she's known to her friends, sat down and wrestled her data into the book on evangelism among mainline Christian churches over the next two years, calling and visiting in person when she could churches where the "e-word" was visibly, demonstrably being put into practice.
So as a friend and associate of Gay Reese, I know it was in 2005 she was putting the finishing touches on her study, a slim volume still very much in print. Evangelism is still interesting to many people, but intimidating. This book says it doesn't have to be.
Times have changed since 2005. We've had some overseas turmoil, domestic politics in an uproar, a global pandemic since then. But I think the fundamental insights of Gay's book still hold.
"Unbinding the Gospel" is not a cookbook with a simple set of steps for every church to follow. It's more a description of how some outstanding restaurants's finished products looked and tasted, with a look into the back of the house as to how the dishes were prepared and served.
One of the reactions — even strong reactions — we got as Gay Reese organized a group of us to help field test and roll out the process loosely described in the book, from church leaders in multiple denominations, was incredulity that there wasn't more of a step-by-step process outlined. The book, and some supporting volumes that came out in the next few years after 2006, offers a series of exercises out of which each congregation would develop its own unique approach to sharing the good news, the Gospel, with others in their area.
As I said last week about books on prayer, that's not a subject that really supports an approach like "30 days from couch to 5K" but that's what people are used to looking for. Give me a methodical model which will work for me like it does for almost anyone else. Judicatory heads, regional ministers, district superintendents, synod bishops, executive presbyters: they wanted a clear consistent model with predictable outcomes.
What Gay's research showed us, drawn mostly from a few hundred congregations out of some 30,000 in the initial data set, those who had shown the fruit, the outcomes of evangelism in their settings, was three characteristics they had in common. It wasn't just that they were new church plants, or of a single generational or ethnic cohort, or any of the other usual assumptions about evangelistically effective churches.
Three elements the evangelism-centered congregations had in common: a lively sense of the presence of God, a deep knowledge within the church of each other's faith stories, and prayer was a profound and persistent element of all they did. That's it. Those three things. Presence, personal faith stories, and prayer. And note: that's not about telling strangers your faith story. It was the context of how sharing faith stories within the fellowship was the apparent engine, the driver of how invitation and inclusion became norms for the evangelistically effective churches.
You can practice these things; I'm not sure you can teach them, exactly. This is why Anthony Bloom's thin volume, and Gay Reese's little book, both come to mind together for me. Like riding a bike, or sailing a boat, you really have to be willing to just jump on, jump in, and do it. Teaching just tells you in advance which rope to pull on, and that you'll inevitably end up overboard a few times.
But once you get moving, you'll be glad you did.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's glad he read both of these books. Tell him what's inspired you recently at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 at Threads or Bluesky.
Sociological study used for the book:
http://unbindingthegospel.com/documents/Wenger%20Reese%20Survey%20Report.pdf
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