When churches decide to renew or establish a relationship with their neighborhood and neighbors, the tendency is to go immediately to action. We may launch a listening campaign, organize a service project, or host a community event. While these are all good and holy things, I suggest that churches should begin their community connection work with another essential practice – prayer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book “Life Together”, says “Those who deny their neighbors prayers of intercession deny them a service Christians are called to perform.” Prayer is not just a practice for the formation of our own faith, but a service we owe to one another. When we remember that prayer forms the ground of all of our community action, we deepen our awareness of God’s presence in the midst of our relationships and call on God to give us courage, patience, and a hunger for justice.
Prayer, as a foundational practice, encourages us to go slow and to pay attention. When we meet to craft plans and strategies, we will often move swiftly to the tasks before us. But when we commit to beginning with prayer, we can model the kind of slow pace that long-term community engagement takes, while naming and rejoicing in God’s presence amid our work.
Additionally, intercessory prayer is where we bring our neighbor and ourselves together in the sight of God and take note of our shared identity as beloved. We see one another as essential pieces of a community that God is making new. And, as Bonhoeffer says, “In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner…As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife, that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer.” It’s in our prayer that we begin to overcome what divides us.
If you and your congregation are taking steps to build relationships in your neighborhood or community, resist the urge to move quickly. Begin with prayer. Ask God to walk with you as you make connections. Rest in silence and listen for God’s voice of presence and accompaniment. Speak to God concretely about your neighborhood and the hopes you have for building community. And pray for your neighbors. This is the first service we owe to one another.
Questions to Consider
- What are the prayer practices that you and your congregation engage in most often?
- How might your congregation include your neighbors and neighborhood in the Prayers of the People on Sunday mornings?
- Do you have any existing tension or dislike with neighbors in your community? How might you offer this relationship to God for healing?
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible: 5 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.
