Prayer Summit reflections
Several members of the Calvin community—faculty, staff and students—attended the first-ever CRC Prayer Summit held April 16-18 at All Nations Church, a a predominately Korean Christian Reformed congregation in Lakeview Terrace, Calif. Recently, Russ Bloem, the vice president for enrollment management, John Witvliet, the director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and Calvin professor of religion David Crump talked about the summit and the Korean prayer tradition:
What was your experience of the CRC Prayer Summit?
Bloem: It was just an invigorating, engaging, uniting event … I think a lot of people had moved out of their comfort zone, but most people found a comfort zone there within the environment and left just refreshed and energized and enlightened.
Witvliet: It was a time for both encouragement and prophetic challenge. The hospitality of All Nations Church was contagious!
Crump: I enjoyed a wonderful time of worship and prayer within a multi-cultural body while at the Prayer Summit. The dawn prayer meeting was actually a typical worship service with some additional prayer time included … . The prayer in unison put me in mind of what synagogue prayer may have been like in the time of Jesus, where time was set for each individual to pray for his/her own personal concerns.
Was there one thing about the summit that stays with you?
Witvliet: Korean Christians have such a firm commitment to faithful prayer. One of the breakthroughs at this conference was experiencing this strength not as something being brought to the CRC from the outside, but from within.
Crump: It was fun to spend some personal time with my colleague, Won Lee, hearing his perspectives on the various cultural, historical and sociological factors that have long been at work in shaping the Korean expressions of piety on display at the summit. What can I say—I'm an egghead. What else would you expect from a professor!
Bloem: There were so many aspects to it, but the most encouraging aspect was the spirit of unity. It wasn’t “us and them”; it was all “we.”
What do you think the CRC can learn from the Korean prayer tradition?
Crump: I believe that it would be a mistake to imagine that reproducing anyone's particular "style" of prayer might provide the key to church growth or personal spiritual growth. But, that being said, I certainly appreciate the emphasis given to prayer in congregational life.
Bloem: I grew up with this little phrase, “Prayer changes things.” The Koreans really believe prayer changes things. They practice prayer deeply and intentionally. You can pray a brief prayer—and I believe God hears you—but there’s a place to practice prayer deeply and intentionally and meaningfully … It felt like this could be the start of, or part of, something for our age.
