In my journey I have NOT drifted from being one thing to being another spiritually. There might be some who claim they went from being Pentecostal to liturgical. (Like they gave up being Pentecostal.)
That is not my story. I am still Pentecostal. I still believe in the life of the Spirit. I still believe the gifts of the Spirit are active for today, even the ones that we think are weird today, but somehow made sense when Paul wrote about them. It’s a mess. Humanity is a mess. We may never figure it all out.
But just because I’ve grown up in a Pentecostal movement that has Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Benny Hinn in its branches doesn’t mean I am giving up on what I truly see as a biblical witness. I do, after all, have Jack Hayford, Tom Trask, and George Wood in that same tree! Families have their “issues,” do they not?
That said, I do not want to make it sound like I am moving FROM being Pentecostal TO being liturgical. My life has become more full, and more Pentecostal, as I have learned more about the ancient church. My M.A. work in Church History focused on Egyptian monks of the 4th Century. They had incredible experiences in the Spirit. My Pentecostal roots are stronger because of my search for ancient faith.
This journey has brought me to this place of using some form of common prayer. Daily prayer. The daily office. For Christmas I received Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. This is not a book review. I don’t think I’ll do a book review on this one.
Truth be told, I don’t want to know details about some of the editors of this work because that may scare me away. (I’m not a fan of emergent theology.)
But this book feeds my spirit. It is simply a call to daily prayer. It is to be used daily. The morning prayers are unique to every day of the year. The evening prayers are common to every day of the week. It has a great introduction for complete novices like myself, teaching me the definitions of words like “office” and “liturgy.”
I will certainly adapt it. Every morning there are readings from a Psalm, an OT passage, and a Gospel. I will be following Mark’s gospel for quite awhile and not their portion. I can adapt it. It’s nice.
To see examples of how this book works, you can also use their website, which posts the daily morning prayers. Tool around. Try it out. Worship. Reflect. PRAY!
Talking about prayer isn’t enough. PRAYING is the key. This book is helping me tremendously.
To set our minds on the things of the Spirit we need to be taking in what is good. If we allow our minds to be open sewer grates and give no regard for what goes in, we will have no control on how we think, or what we think about.
I have walked slowly through Eugene Peterson’s memoir, The Pastor. I have enjoyed the morsels. It has been a feast of steak dinners on a regular basis. When I finished last night I was sad. This part of my journey with Peterson has ended. His life is so rich. I want his mantle in my own life and ministry.
