#KeepPraying – Creative 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:

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…
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.)
That God wants every street, every home, and every business prayed for. Though these are all land designations – they encompass people’s lives)
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

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