Thomas Bush of Vision San Diego promotes group prayer of "Our Father"

By T.C. PORTER

Certain tasks are delegated to those gifted. Take teaching and hospitality, for example: Your pastor is probably a good preacher, but that does not mean you would want him cooking your meals.

Other gifts, such as love, are to be shared by everyone. The pastor is not the only person in the church who loves. We all do that.

Thomas Bush is spreading the news that prayer – group or corporate prayer in particular – is a burden to be shared by all. His recipe calls for a God-centered orientation. In an individualistic culture where speaking in public at all is a number one fear and prayer is perceived as something to be left to those ≥gifted,≤ Bush has a lot of work to do.

His message has been well received by those who love God and are open to a counter-cultural yet biblical vision of prayer. Others more slowly respond to an approach that recasts old habits.

The essence of the approach is two-fold: Intimacy with God and revelation that comes with it.

≥Letπs get together and pray and then God can give us joint wisdom,≤ Bush says. ≥But we need every part working. As national prayer leader Cheryl Sacks says, åWe all must pray our åprayer share.π No one else can do my praying for me.≤

Bush worked in church ministries for several years before it became a vocation. A former programmer and systems analyst, his lay involvement began in 1993. Two years later he became prayer coordinator for the San Diego Task Force for Promise Keepers. Since then he has been coordinating various citywide prayer efforts.

In 2007 Bush became director of prayer ministry for Vision San Diego, a regional effort aimed at strengthening existing churches and planting new ones. Bush also coordinates local prayer efforts for the San Diego Southern Baptist Association. His work is done trans-denominationally, leading various groups regarding the discipline of private and group prayer.

≥We assume that people are already praying,≤ says Bush. ≥As a church or ministry dependent on Godπs leadership, do you sort of let that happen, or do you want someone to coordinate, organize, and strategize your prayer efforts? You do that with evangelism: What does an evangelism director do? Well, they kind of coordinate the work that is done. A prayer director does that for those who pray.

One of the first obstacles Bush faces is a general malaise and lack of involvement in group prayer. Our prayer practice needs a jumpstart. Bush explains that the Scriptures are built on an ancient Hebrew culture where group prayer was a given. There was no need in the Scriptures to establish the necessity of praying together. The people were already doing it.

In our context, group prayer is not embedded into the daily routine. There is a necessity to redefine it in biblical terms. This means shifting the emphasis from ourselves toward God, and emphasizing the community aspect of prayer.

Bush points to the disciples coming to Jesus and saying, ≥Teach us to pray,≤ rather than ≥Teach me to pray.≤ Jesusπ response was ≥Our Father, which art in heaven.≤

≥He was teaching to a group, and we donπt even look at it that way,≤ said Bush. ≥We think of my Father which art in heaven, and so weπve completely missed the group dynamic of that. I think we suffer from a lack of corporate wisdom that comes from a lack of community or a lack of sense of this as an us thing.

≥Weπre not typically coming together in prayer. Even in our joint prayer gatherings it ends up being 20 individuals in a room praying their own prayers not related to the åusπ part of what God is doing.≤

A typical group prayer in our culture might find a leader who asks, ≥What are your prayer requests?≤ A list is compiled and someone recites to God the felt needs of a cast of individuals. Bush encourages something more.

≥This is worship-focused prayer that says, åGod, you are everything,π and then, åWe are in relationship with you,π and then, åNow, you being who you are, and us being who we are, what is on your heart for us to pray about as a group?π≤

Such an approach, Bush says, comes out of Jesusπ response to his disciplesπ request: Teach us to pray. And it begins with the orientation of our Father. Immediately we have a collective perspective (not an individual view), and we are facing the Father (over and above ourselves).

As Bush guides groups through prayer, he follows four steps modeled after the Lordπs Prayer, as described in Daniel Hendersonπs book, Fresh Encounters. The group approaches a biblical passage ≥and then we walk it out,≤ Bush says.

(1) Who is God, and (2) who are we in relation to Him? ≥We go to the passage and say, åwho is God in this passage,π have them identify it, and then we praise God for who He is in prayer. And then we go to the passage and say, åwell, who are we in that passage,π or åwho are people in this passage?π≤

Given who God is, and who we are, the next step is to (3) repent of our collective sins, which should be more self-evident having come face-to-face with Godπs glory and our relation to Him as loved and obedient followers.

Repentance then leads to (4) insight. Disarmed of our sins we are in a position to receive the spiritual insights about His kingdom that He reveals during the process. These spiritual insights fuel our continued prayers and direct what we do after we pray.

Many biblical passages fit this four-step process. Bush has used Acts 17:24-28, Philippians 2:1-11, and Colossians 3:12-17, and numerous others – including, of course, the Lordπs Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).

A Bible in hand, any Christian can not only grasp this concept but guide a group through the prayer. In the process, everyone can feel called to prayer, shedding old fears and discomforts.

≥Letπs say somebody whoπs a 25 year old mother who has two little kids and a young husband or whatever, Iπm not trying to get that person up on Mt. Soledad to pray down the demons in the city. How about praying for kids and families? Thatπs kind of your natural passion. And letπs put you together with all the other people who have that interest. But there are some people in the city who God has called to pray for the city.

≥We want to raise the level of prayer in this region. So wherever you are, look at the next rung up from where you are. So if youπre an introvert and you donπt like praying in groups, Iπm going to speak to you directly and say, åGod wants you to move to the next rung, but itπs toward the goal that God has in mind.π

≥Start by asking God to give you one other believer to pray with regarding a ministry passion that God has already placed on your heart. As someone has said, åWhat we value we pray about and what we pray about we value.π You will grow in your prayer life and build Godπs kingdom at the same time.

≥There are two primary goals to prayer. One is intimacy with God. Everyone needs to grow closer to God. So the goal of a regional prayer gathering is not to get from God. As we draw closer to God then we are going to have a better view of what His heart is, no matter what He shows us next. But then the second goal is revelation (attaining Godπs perspective), is to say, åSo now that weπre closer to you, what are you saying about what we need to do next?π

≥So if weπre all at whatever level, weπre all working towards the same goals, intimacy and revelation.≤

We each have a prayer share, and as we exercise our prayer gifts we attain greater intimacy with God and greater awareness of His plan for us.