BRIAN ZAHND PRAYER SCHOOL

What an amazing trip to the Point Church in Seymour Indiana to experience Prayer School with Brian Zahnd.

Our TKC crew loaded up in the Sprinter bus and drove 5 hours to experience this pursuit of prayer. We got back last night, and I was excited to wake up by 4am this morning to start his 40 day prayer challenge!

Throughout three sessions, he encourages using historic written prayers—both to learn from the church’s past and to strengthen our own extemporaneous prayer. Brian compares these prayers to a guitarist practicing scales: you may not perform the scales themselves, but without practicing them, you won’t be ready when it’s time for the solo.

Brian discusses contemplative prayer, which he simply calls “sitting with Jesus,” drawing from a long tradition of contemplatives like Thomas Merton.

The class centers on a daily liturgy he challenges everyone to follow for 40 days. It includes daily Scripture readings, weekly prayers from a book of prayer, classic prayers such as the Prayer of St. Francis, and then finishes with time for personal petition and contemplation.

I appreciate the emphasis on using prepared prayers. The Book of Common Prayer is filled with rich, beautiful language (and theology) that today’s church would benefit from rediscovering. This is followed up by a more free-form transparent / intimate free flowing or spirit led intercession between you and God.

Zahnd makes a strong case for using liturgical prayers by pointing to Acts 2:42. The NIV says the early believers devoted themselves to “the apostles’ teaching… the breaking of bread and to prayer.” But in Greek, it actually reads “the prayers” (προσευχή proseuchais)—definite article, plural. Devotion to the prayers carries a very different weight than a vague devotion to prayer. It also becomes more communal uniting the complete church before the Lord.

There were several great teaching moments throughout the three sessions. He started each session by reminding us that the primary goal of prayer is not to get God to do what we want Him to do, but to allow Christ to be formed within us. He made several references to an upside down or backwards kingdom ideology – the first shall be last kingdom… Christ (the meek) inherited the earth & we are sons and daughters of God and therefore we also inherit His kingdom; and he reminded us that structured prayer can bring better theology for enhancing shepherding prayers that enrich not restrict. I also enjoyed his heart warming and compelling stories.

TKC students will complete the 40 day challenge, read one of his other books and write a paper or do a project on the book they have chosen. We will finish the cohort class with a zoom Q&A with Brian.

I also wanted to say a special thank you to Jon and Matt at the point, we were so blessed by your amazing hospitality. It was also nice to finally meet my good friend Paul Dazet in person.