We invite you to prayer in the custom of Taizé and Iona on Monday nights at 7:00 p.m. This service of Contemplative Musical Prayer is a contrast to the traditional Baptist worship style. While we already enjoy rich worship and prayer traditions on Sundays and Wednesdays, the intent is to continue to expand opportunities to approach God, to open our hearts to God and to demonstrate obedience to God.
This prayer service is not intended to be a complete worship experience. It is not a replacement for a traditional worship diet, but a supplement to it. It is intended to enhance understanding of the nature of God and thereby to enhance ability to worship God in spirit and in truth.
The prayer service helps us pray. We grapple with the very nature of prayer. We pray through song, through silence, through scripture and other readings, through sights and sounds, and through meditation.
Music permeates the prayer service. It helps us to pray. It helps give voice to our contemplation. It helps us to focus on the Trinity -- God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There are several intentional aspects to the music used in the prayer service. Its beauty is settling, yet its unfamiliarity somewhat unsettling. It is necessarily congregational -- its beauty relies upon community. It is decidedly different from that used in most Baptist venues. It is intended to be easily learned, yet not simplistic. It is repetitive, and the forms are short to invite everyone to meditate on the message of the song and on how God speaks through it.
Silence is another aspect of the prayer service. For some the silence may be jarring. The silence is intentional even though it may at times be uncomfortable. Like the music and the other aspects in the service, one is encouraged to contemplate through it. In the silence especially, please be more God-conscious and self-conscious than you are aware of other things. Please remain still and contemplative. Remember, even if you do not sense God speaking to you, God may be speaking to others.
May we all give our utmost effort to welcome God's Spirit among us in all that we attempt.
