In the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, Christopher Gardner continues to ask his son, "Do you trust me?" At the time, Gardner was trying to do whatever it took to provide and take care of his son. Even though they were homeless, Gardner made sure that his son was safe. This meant that at times they would sleep in places that were safe such as a bus, subway car, a homeless shelter or a subway bathroom. The trust that his son gave him was important, because it was all they had.

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 54:4 that the Lord was who was upholding his life. While this is wonderful sentiment, anyone who has tried, knows how difficult it is to accomplish. Yet, there is a power when you are finally able to honestly say, "My life is in your hands." There is a power when you can say "Yes, I trust you" even if you don't understand why you are in the situation or circumstances you are.

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It is a question that has been rolling around in my head for a while. The only problem is, how can I get an honest answer? The question is: How much do pastors pray, practice silence and read scripture? It is a simple question, but one, I fear, that many pastors try to avoid. As pastors we believe that we should be spending time in these practices, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we do not spend very much time in either prayer, silence, or formational scripture reading.  

I shared this with a pastor friend of mine and his response was, "Well, we have a lot to do and not a lot of time." I believe his answer was honest and real, but he did not go into detail about how much time was spent in these practices. Other times I have brought it up have been met with a quick subject change. I'm not sure how to understand all of this. 

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If you are reading this, then you found the new UMSource.net page. Yes, there has been complete redesign and even a move to a new server. I hope in the months to come UMSource will be a place to fuel your imagination and vision on what your church can become when it shifts to a missional mindset! 

Over at Allelon there is an article about missional prayer. As a UM, I have a feeling that while we might talk quite a bit about prayer, we talk more than we pray. My experience is that most of the UMs I’ve run into don’t seem to pray that much. Instead, we are way too busy. We are also way to pragmatic to pray. After all, most would say that spending 30 minutes doing something is much more effective than taking 30 minutes to truly pray. For some reason we have fallen for the idea that prayer is something that is good, but there are more important things we could do with our time. How many times have we decided that instead of having a board meeting we will meet and pray?

I know these are broad and general statements, but I believe they hold true. We say all the right things about prayer, but my question is, do we really pray? Of course we might spend time sharing our ‘prayer lists’ with God, but what about deep conversation with God? What about prayer that goes beyond words?
Perhaps it is time for all of us to take prayer more seriously; in our private life, our family life and especially our church life. I’m convinced that to live missionally we must first rediscover the power and practice of prayer. When we do, who knows what we will discover.

Found Hacking Church: How to attend services 52 weeks in a Row about how to go to church 52 weeks in a row. Lifehack is a productivity website that gives tips on how to do things, or do things better. I was surprised to see the list, but it is pretty good. I’m even thinking about saving it back.

The nice thing is that it isn’t written by a pastor, but someone who had struggled to go to church, but has found a way to do it. I love the honesty. Perhaps my favorite ‘hacks’ are the first and third ones.