Why Don't We Pray for Business? Part 3 (Mark D. Roberts)

Mark D. Roberts: Why Don't We Pray for Business? Part 3

In the last two days I have begun to consider why it is that Christians do not pray for business, at least not very often in the context of corporate worship. So far I have suggested two reasons:

Reason #1: We don't pray for business because we don't pray for business.

Reason #2: We don't pray for business because those who lead us in prayer have not been trained to do so.

Today I offer a third reason, one that helps to explain Reason #2:

Reason #3: We don't pray for business because our worship leaders have been trained in settings that are indifferent or negative to business.

For the most part, seminaries, divinity schools, and pastor-training churches do not teach students to pray for the marketplace and its people. This seems odd for many reasons, including one of the most obvious: Churches are filled with people who invest a major proportion of their lives in business. Sure, our sanctuaries include plenty of people who work in the public or non-profit sectors of the economy. But a high percentage of church members work in business. If churches are seeking to help people be disciples of Jesus in their daily lives, and most churches would say this is central to their mission, then it seems only natural for churches to address marketplace concerns, in teaching, preaching, and prayer. ...

Read the whole thing. Good stuff!

Comments

[Quotidian Grace]

This is a great series from Mark Roberts. I agree with your comments on the first post and highlighted them on my blog here: http://quotidiangrace.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-dont-we-pray-for-business-mark-d.html

I look forward to the remaining posts in the series and your comments, too.

My husband has made the same observations about the lack of economics understanding of pastors that you did on many occasions.

[Travis Greene]

I appreciate the effort to look into a neglected area, but at the same time, there are some implications I'm not sure I like.

1. Praying is the job of certain professionals called pastors
2. Church communities are primarily chaplaincies for supporting people in their "real" life.

I agree we should challenge the dichotomy of "church jobs, and maybe the helping professions, are of lasting value, and everything else is at best irrelevant", but I don't want to see it replaced by another dichotomy that says "churches are institutions that exist to support people in the 'real world'"

[Michael W. Kruse]

I share your concern about professionals doing the prayer

I don't know that chaplaincy is the right characterization but I do think missional is about being the body of Christ in the world, which means equipping and encouraging them in their particular callings. There is work we do as a gathered community and work we do in our sent capacity. Both have to be held together.

[David]

Church is after all the People. We are a community (and or should be) and in that context Churches do exist in part to support it's people in the community in all they do and are.

One way to do that is certanily pray. In this case for those in Business, and about business.

I think thats good and something that has been neglected.