Author: Andrea Sanger

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Creative Prayer Coach

Why A Prayer Coach

Reminder that in prayer there can be unit in diversity.

I didn’t always love praying. In fact, to make the rote prayers more interesting, my sister and I competed to see who could say them the fastest without skipping words. However, I realized praying must be important since it was sprinkled throughout my day, at home, school, and church, with different prayers for different situations.

It wasn’t until I was in my teens that prayer began to change. In Youth Group my mom, the volunteer leader, started asking us to go off script and adlib “heartfelt” prayers. I went from being bored with prayer to being terrorized by it. Now, I had to dream up something to say that wouldn’t sound stupid in front of my peers. After a few weeks of the teens fumbling over words and passing the verbal ball to the next person in the circle, she switched to “God thank you for…” We each had to fill in the blank with at least one word.

After getting over the initial angst, the simple thank you prayers propelled me into a journey of hunting for things that God was doing. I never wanted to be caught without something to fill in the blank. The hunts for God eventually turned into longer conversations with Him as I moved through my day.

By the time I became a Director of Prayer Ministry at my church. I had developed a quiet communication with God that went far beyond the simple rote prayers of my youth. However, I was now the leader tasked with helping others move beyond the boredom and terror of praying.

I was confronted with various excuses:

  • I don’t know how to pray or what to say (fear)
  • God listens to that person more than me (comparison and abdication)
  • He doesn’t listen anyway (lack of faith)
  • I don’t have time for it (idolatry – putting something before God)
  • We should be doing not sitting around praying (lacking the understanding of the power of prayer)
  • Praying in groups is wrong – we should only pray when we are alone (using only a piece of scripture to justify a position)

As a result of the various reasons people gave me to keep from accomplishing my job, God started giving me creative prayer ideas and a greater understanding that engagement comes in various forms. In prayer, one-size does not fit all. Each of us is wired differently causing us to interact with God uniquely.

For the past twenty years, I’ve been on a quest to make prayer accessible and easy for everyone. I’ve gone to conferences, become a certified Spiritual Formation Coach, and got both a Masters and Doctoral degree in Practical Ministry. I’ve done 1-1 training, taught classes, spoken at conferences, and written articles, all with the underlying philosophy that God wants to spend time with each person growing relationship through communication.

There are four things that drive me:

  1. We are asked to pray without ceasing in the Bible, which includes praying alone and in groups. Jesus didn’t teach His disciples to pray: My Father who is in heaven, but Our Father…
  2. I believe that there can be unity in our diversity in prayer. My sampler quilt is my inspiration – every square is different but together they make something beautiful.)
  3. That God wants every street, every home, and every business prayed for. Though these are all land designations – they encompass people’s lives)
  4. I can’t accomplish the first three without a lot of people participating

Praying that God will give you boldness and increase your desire to communicate with Him.

Andrea Sanger
Creative Prayer Coach

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Creative Prayer Coach

Written Prayers

A Scriptural Rosary Book, WayMakers Seek God for the City Book and an Old Lutheran Prayer Book - all book that are on my bookshelf.
Prayer Books I’ve Reviewed, Written for, and Used

I love written prayers. After all, I’m a writer.

The prayer traditions passed down through the written word are priceless. They give me a sense of praying with generations of people. A sense of peace and comfort also comes with these prayers because that’s how I first learned to pray.

However, I sometimes think about what it would be like to be God listening to the same prayer over and over. Does He want to say, “Just move on already?” I probably would, which is why I’m grateful to my grandpa, a pastor. He showed me there was more to prayer. Every morning and evening, he started his conversations with God by using the red Lutheran Book of Prayer. However, he didn’t stop with just those written words. He used those prayers as a jumping-off point to pray for other vital things.

One night as we prayed together, the written prayer talked about blessing family. He used that idea to pray for his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the generations to come. It was a simple but profound prayer that each generation would love God and want to serve Him with their whole hearts.

It occurs to me he probably prayed a similar prayer each time he came to this prayer in his little book. Year after year, he’d been praying for me, my husband, and sisters, adding names as we got married and had children.

The remarkable thing about his prayer is that it’s coming to pass. Each generation, so far, loves God and is currently serving Him in some role (missionaries, pastors, A/V expert at a Christian university, Christian bookstore manager, students, nurse, etc.)  In each instance, they share their faith in whatever their sphere of influence. I can’t wait to see what happens with the great-great-grandchildren. How will my grandpa’s simple prayer that was sparked by a written prayer affect that generation and the generations to come?

I don’t think I will ever give up writing down my prayers or using prayers that others have written, but I want to model my grandpa’s example. I try to creatively go beyond what’s written, making the prayer personal and relevant to the moment in time.

God doesn’t care where you start. He wants to have a conversation with you. The longing of God’s heart is to hear anything you have to say. He wants to have a friend-to-friend dialog with you. One that isn’t perfect, but honest and raw with nothing held back. I encourage you to find a devotional book or prayer book that speaks to your heart and use it to start those conversations. God’s waiting for you.

Andrea Sanger

Creative Prayer Coach

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Creative Prayer Coach My City-My Valley What I'm doing

Sacrificial Act of Worship

On Tahquitz Canyon Trail

After twenty-four years of researching and thinking about Tahquitz Canyon, I finally hiked up to the falls. Sure, it’s only about a two-mile loop trail with about a three-hundred-and-fifty-foot rise. Still, the hundred-plus steps that were twelve to twenty inches high made the trek a real accomplishment.

Looking up at Tahquitz Falls

Back when we first moved out to the desert in 1998, I started spiritual mapping the area. I researched the history of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley to understand how the past is affecting our present and future. It was clear that Tahquitz Canyon played a significant role from the very beginning. The Cahuilla people have a deep spiritual connection to the canyon. It’s one of a couple of places where freshwater flows all year in the desert, so it sustains life.

In my historical quest, I found the story of Lonnie Frisbee, a drug addict hippie – by his own admission – who started the Jesus People Movement of the 1960s. The story I’ve read is that he went up to the Falls, dropped LSD, then had an encounter with God that so affected him that he started baptizing people that were with him. Then he went down to Orange County and connected with John Wimber and Chuck Smith, which catapulted the movement forward.

Writing about the Falls

As I sat on a rock near the water, it felt like I had entered a sanctuary. The high rock walls, echoing the water splashing into the small basin, and the creek’s burble flowing down into the desert surrounded me with a sense of awe and peace. The shade of the trees, with a slight breeze, allowed me to feel the joy of the trees clapping their hands, in Isaiah 55:12. I’m not sure I can adequately explain the deep spiritual connection I had to God at that moment, but I know something shifted in me. It was as if I had a destiny moment – being in the right place at the right time so that God could use me to do something He’d been planning to do.

Internally I shouted, “Hineni” – Hebrew for “Lord, I’m ready, I’ll go, I’m listening, tell me what You would have me know.” The idea that God can use me or anyone, no matter how messed-up, to start a world-changing movement, resonated in my being. Even though I was sore and tired by the end of the hike, I now know God  calling me to raise up people who are willing to go on prayer adventures with God – sacrificial acts of worship, where our presence is used to change atmospheres, spread love, and the joy of the Lord. The world needs us to listen to what we need to know, so that we can go and do what God wants at the right time. I’m confident this hike was to show me, and you, that anything is possible when we desire to be in the center of God’s will.

I long for your prayers as God continues to reveal my part to play in this new season. I’m praying that you will join me in the journey.

Andrea Sanger
@creativeprayercoach (Facebook and Instagram)

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My City-My Valley

WHERE IS GOD IN THIS?

Iridescent soap bubbles floating above a lawn.
What Happens When the Bubble Bursts?

We picked up a young man at one of the local sober living facilities because he wanted to attend our Sunday Morning Breakfast and Bible Study. Choosing to sit with me while we were eating, he begins to tell me his story. He is intense as he tells me about all the wounding and abuse, he has suffered at the hands of Christians in the name of religious practices. He says, “I hate all things, Christian.”

I have to laugh a little since he asked us to pick him up so he could attend this Bible Study. At the same time, I’m sad because I’ve heard a similar story from many of the people who come to this group. It’s difficult because I know that I’ve been part of the system that has caused the perceived pain.

My heart is broken for him. I wonder how to draw him back to the central truth of Jesus’s love for him. The desperate need for love and understanding pours out of him; his eyes are darting from person to person, jumping up to hug the people he knows from other places, his voice getting louder, drawing attention to himself. He’s passed his thirty-days clean and sober, but still struggles. I’ve watched this process over and over the past few years. Some make it to the other side — others don’t. I’m praying that he will.

He continues with this story. He is adopted from a foreign country. He struggles with ADHD and Attachment Disorder. He is classically angry with his adoptive mom. I have a weird sense of connection with him. I suppose it’s because I’ve lived through the love/hate relationship with my adoptive son created by early childhood trauma. I find myself genuinely enjoying this young man.

All of a sudden, he says, “I like the people here because they are real and care about others.”

That was the promising start to this story. Unfortunately, this young man couldn’t stay clean and sober, which means he was kicked out of his sober living home. Generally, we lose touch with people when this happens, and he is no exception. We did get a few text messages and a couple of voicemails, but we only saw him one more time. This past week, one of the other members of our group called to tell us that this young man had died at a party.

I find myself grieving the loss of this funny but troubled guy. I wish I could have done more for him. I wish I could say that he resolved his issues with Christ and his family, but I honestly don’t know — and that is frustrating. I’m wondering why God brought him into our lives for him to die so young. It’s strange because I don’t normally ask God why, but right now I just can’t help myself.

As a group, we are trying to process what has happened. Several people comment that this could have been them, others are sensing a need to reach out to people that they know so maybe, just maybe, they won’t end up dead. It’s hard.

That’s when I begin to see God in this mess. There is a renewed sense of urgency to touch the lives of others who share much of this young man’s story – angry with Christians, but desperately searching for God’s unconditional love that we have to offer through Jesus. I don’t want another soul to be lost because I appear to be representing Jesus as judgmental and angry. I want to live a sacrificial life that is vulnerable, considerate, and loving – allowing others to see Jesus through me. How about you? What is one thing you could do differently today?