Praying With the Church
Posted on March 27, 2008
Filed Under Deeper Walk |
Well, we have come out of Lent, and now we are in Eastertide, the 50 day of Easter. Yes, it’s a season; not a day. (there are actually 7 Easter Sundays, but no worries, I don’t know of any local parishes that do 7 sunrise services.)
For any interested in continuing the practice Lent might have encouraged, joining the global church in communal spiritual practices, I have a book for you. Praying With the 
Church by Scot McKnight provides an introduction to what he calls the distinction between “praying in the church” and “praying with the church.” Mcknight gives us the history of the church’s long practice of fixed prayers at fixed times, telling us why we might consider incorporating the discipline as well as ways we might meld the practice to our own rhythms. He even roams into the arena of several particular traditions (Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican) have lived out these practices.
If you’d like more instruction in how to allow God to order your time and your days, this might be a good place to start.
Easter peace / Winn
Comments
2 Responses to “Praying With the Church”
Leave a Reply
Hello,
I guess my questions is, what is holding you back from converting to a tradition that have “lived out these practices” rather than trying to incorporating these disciplines “into our (your) own rhythms?”
Great question, JB. And a really good answer would probably require a large pot of coffee and a telling of my life’s story.
The short answer would be two-fold, I guess: (1) I would say that I am, in a broad sense, in a tradition seeking to live out these practices - or at least the spirit of them (2) Best I can tell, I am where God has placed me.