A Third Way?

How Can We All Pray Together?

A Divided Church
Multitudes of people from around the world are Christ-followers. In spite of Jesus’ tender prayer for us at the Last Supper, we still are not “one.” We are many. Even if we reduce our vision to just the Church in America, the divisions are “deep and wide,” altering the meaning of that precious child’s song most of us sang growing up. The reasons for this fill chapter after chapter of our Christian history books. Every year students at all levels, from undergraduate to graduate to the doctoral level and beyond, as they study the church, this is what they find—division, division, and still more division.

As one who studies the Kingdom of God from a worship context, I have sought since I was a teenager to find the original way, the Jesus Way. I was alarmed to examine the church around me and compare it to the one I saw in the Bible. I wanted to close the gap between the two. At a youth convention in Hot Springs in November of 1966, the preacher preached on Elijah and Elisha. I identified with Elisha for I felt the mantle of anointing falling on me. How would leaders in my generation lead? Could we maintain and even advance this powerful blessing passed on to us? The prayer of that prophet-apprentice became the cry of my heart. “Where now is the Lord God of Elijah?”

He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. 2 Ki 2:13-14 NIV

I was shaped by a strong family heritage in the Pentecostal tradition. My grandfather, Rev. John D. Phifer, was a leader in the founding generation. My father, J.D. Phifer, was a lay leader in our local church. My older brother, James, had been called to preach and was then in Bible College in Texas. Where was I in all this? I felt I had found my calling in music, but the Lord threw me a knuckle ball and called me to preach. As my culture demanded, I gave up music but through miraculous events, he opened the door for me to go to college to study music. It made little sense in the late 1960s but I was supposed to be both a preacher and a professional musician. Only the Lord could see how the church would need someone like me when the Praise and Worship Renewal followed the Charismatic Renewal in the coming years. Innovations and change were happening so fast—who was going to discover from the Scriptures what the Lord wanted from worship? That became my mission, and it remains so to this day.

With all of that biographical stuff out of the way, let’s get to the challenge that faces the church now as much or more than it did back then. We need to come back together. We need to hear Jesus’ prayer in John 17, and we need to obey his command in the Sermon on the Mount.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:15-23 NIV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48 NIV

Instead of praying for our enemies, many Christians are busy hating them. We have more methods of communicating with others than ever before and so many believers are using them all to propagate their hatred for their enemies. This is not what Jesus taught!

The Constitution of the Kingdom of God
We Americans are guided by our Constitution. With a government based on the truths in our Constitution, we have become a leader among all the nations of the world. Why? I believe it is because the foundation for our founding fathers’ thought processes was the Judeo-Christian ethic. At the heart of this ethic is the Jesus Story. At the heart of that story is the Sermon on the Mount. In this mountainside message Jesus presented a way of living that is both counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. In other words, “It ain’t natural!” This is a spiritual way of life based on the teaching and example of Jesus. His way of life should be our way of life. If we are to have the impact on our nation the Lord intends, we must follow Him!

In recent conversations with people I love and respect but whose political passions are different from mine, I have developed a deep need for something that can unify all of us in our obedience to the words of Jesus. We may disagree on political matters, but we can focus our prayers on the commands of Jesus: “Love your enemies and pray for them!” In this process, we can also draw closer to one another. A few years ago, as the horrible events of January 6 were unfolding, I wrote several essays, trying to make sense of all this. I felt we were witnessing the prophecy of Isaiah written 700 years before the Jesus Story unfolded. One of those essays included a meditation on the negative power of hate. Borrowing from the prophet, I called hate a “lion in the streets.”

Truth Has Fallen in the Streets, Part Four – Steve Phifer

Here is a summary of that meditation:

No matter how angry we might be with our political opponents, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, hate is not an option for us. There are plenty of others, unhindered by the commands of Jesus, to fill the air with hatred. What America needs from the church is more prayer not more poison, deeper intercession not divisive insurrection, and principled compassion not pedagogical cruelty. America needs a praying church, one who comes together in a unity of purpose if not in every detail of doctrine.

Back Then and Now
I was a college student in the days of the beginning of what become known as The Jesus Movement. I was a music student, a Christian, and the president of our Assemblies of God Student Group, Chi Alpha. One Saturday night I was sitting around with a group of brothers and sisters of the Southern Baptist stripe while a wild student dance was shaking our little South Arkansas world with the noise of their hedonistic celebration. It occurred to me that we were just sitting around the BSU being saved and righteous while the devil was having his way in the Armory. I also realized that what we agreed on was enough truth to change the world so why should we major on our disagreements? At my suggestion, those other guys, who were eternally secure, decided to go to the dance and witness. I had never been near a dance, but I felt I had to go. I could not take a single step up to the doors of the Armory, but I could look inside to see the strobe lights making quickly disappearing scenes of late 1960s dancers going at it. It looked like scenes from brawl. I felt like my whole life and testimony was crumbling before me as I stood on those steps, and I never did go inside. My “eternally secure” brothers had no problem at all.

Run the calendar of my life up about 30 years and I felt led to the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies to do my doctoral work. I found there a dance of a different kind. Sincere Christ-followers of all kinds, liberal and conservative, had gathered to humble themselves before the Lord Jesus to hear His words anew and to obey them. I felt that same connection that visited me back in college: “What we agree on can change the world!”

This is the standard of unity I long to see in the American Church. Across all political divisions, let us—in the Secret Place of Prayer, at least—come together to pray the words of Jesus and other scriptural passages to intercede for our country. One thing is sure: no one else will do this!

So, I seek a Third Way to pray, not liberal, not conservative, but biblical. Surely, we can all agree here. Join me in prayer each day!