Are you hating chili? Image from Flickr

A couple weeks back my daughter gave me one of those moments that will entertain me long after senility sets in. During bedtime prayers my 4 yr old prayed, “Jesus, I pray for all our priests, for all the people who smoke…and for all the people hating chili.”

Her intention was to intercede “for all the people in Haiti and Chile.”

She prayed it with passion. She prayed it with reverence. Her purity was evident and her heart was focused on others. Rather than correct her, I kissed her, blessed her and exited the room with a smile on my face and a fire in my heart that lit up the room. My wife and I collapsed on the sofa in our prayer room in a joyful celebration of parenthood. It was a great moment for me as a father and, in the weeks since, I’ve reflected on the moment often. It was an important reminder, too, not only as a youth minister but as a son of God.

In our personal prayer we’d be wise to remember that God doesn’t grade us on diction. Words matter little if our intention is pure. Likewise, when leading prayer with our teens or Core it’s vital to remember that less is often more. Simplicity is a direct route to sanctity.

Remember that scene in Meet the Parents when DeNiro puts Stiller on the spot to lead grace at the family dinner table? Ben Stiller begins a flowery verbal mess that begins with invoking imagery of “fountains” and ends by quoting the previously heard muzak version of “Day by Day” (from Godspell).

Real-life versions of that scene often play out in youth rooms and parish halls around the world. I’ve seen them. No, the scene might not end up as insane and far-fetched as the movie, but I’ve watched Youth Ministers and Core Members inadvertently do something very similar when they begin leading prayer with their teens. I’m embarrassed to admit that I even did it when I started in youth ministry. It wasn’t conscious, but it did happen.

It’s as though when the sign of the cross ends, wires get crossed in the leader’s head. Many times the catechist leading the prayer becomes an English orator from the 19th century. Diction becomes elongated, multi-syllable words are slowly and dramatically enunciated and virtually every word within the Queen’s English is employed to ask God for the simplest of things. Leaders are more apt to “beseech the Sovereign God to sanctify us” than to ask the Father to help us become more holy.

If your “prayer tongue” is poetic and, even, flowery, that’s beautiful. Praise God for that gift but praise Him with it at more opportune times. When up front we’re not only leading prayer, we are modeling it. Christ, Himself, could have been far more ethereal, far more verbose, far more theologically “high-minded” when He gave us the Our Father. He was not. He was simple. He was succinct. The depth and breadth of the God’s majesty and mystery were communicated in simple verses of adoration and petition.

The same should be true of our approach. Being a little more intentional about the simplicity with which we pray will not strip group prayer of its Spirit-led glory, it will enhance it. It will empower more Core Members and teens – some of whom might be shy about praying aloud because they feel they lack the vocabulary – to attempt to pray more (and even lead prayer) themselves. The simpler, more practical and more direct you can keep it when leading a prayer aloud, the more powerful the times of silence, praise and worship, intercession and petition will ultimately become.

Teaching our young people to pray is not merely important it must be primary. Prayer is more important than oxygen. Think about it: if you stop breathing, you’ll see Jesus. If you stop praying, who knows who you’ll see?

Don’t allow your youth group settings for prayer to be like the Classifieds, where you are paid per word. Embrace moments of silence. Empower others to pray aloud. Lead your flock by not only teaching them the times to pray but what prayer is not. As my daughter reminded me (on the night she hated chili): it’s not about the words as much as it is about the posture of the heart uttering them. That night in my kids’ room, my heart was left burning (Lk 24:32), but not from the chili. Leave your teens with hearts burning, too…but not with heartburn.

Eric Martin has served for the past few years at Covecrest as a summer camp director and now the director of the Covecrest missionaries. If you’ve been to Covecrest anytime in the past three years, you’ll remember Eric: shaved head, glasses, much stronger than you.  Eric joined youth ministers on a mission to Jamaica in 2007. He led the Life Teen Mission to Ghana for college students last summer. Plus he’s traveled to Mexico numerous times over the past few years.  He’s as hardcore of a Catholic dude as you can get.

Some of you know Stephen Smith a member of our Board of Directors, others may’ve seen him running about Camp Covecrest fixing buildings or praying in the chapel. Still others of you know him as a retired school principal who became a Life Teen youth minister. Me? I just call him Dad. He’s my hero.

The one thing these two men have in common is their love for God and their desire to serve. That is why it should not have been a surprise to me when my father called me from my hometown in Georgia to share with me what God put on his heart during prayer time–to travel to Haiti and help the broken. Dad has been in a “missionary mood” over the past several years. He served in Post-Katrina New Orleans and ventured to Mexico twice with the Life teen’s college-aged missionaries (scroll down for photos.)  After Dad explained that he’d spoken to Eric at Covecrest and the two were convinced they needed to travel to Haiti, I knew that this was a done deal. These guys are fearless.

Like many of you reading this, I’ve heard horror stories about how the lack of infrastructure in Haiti makes it difficult for well-intentioned relief workers to give proper care for the people whose lives are in ruin after last month’s earthquake. I love my father and do not want him to be in harms way. But through the several conversations that followed in the last few weeks, it became clear to me that Dad and Eric had no intention of staying put while brothers and sisters suffer in the aftermath of the earthquake. God called and they said yes.

So now the time has come. Tomorrow Eric and Stephen will board a plane that will touch down in Port-au-Prince. The two will not be in contact with us for the next two weeks. I am asking you to join me and the rest of the Life Teen staff in praying for Eric and Stephen. I look forward to sharing their stories with you all upon their return.

Below: Life Teen Missionary Eric Martin greets a new friend in Ghana, Summer 2009.

Below: Life Teen Missionary Pam Savoia (left) and Life Teen Board Member Stephen Smith (yellow shirt) work together on a 2009 mission to Mexico. Read more about Life Teen Missionaries

Below: Stephen Smith stands in front of a gift from his Life Teen group. They created a quilt from T-shirts from many youth conferences and summer camps they have attended together.

Our brothers and sisters in Haiti are hurting, the teens in our own parishes are questioning. While we might not know how to restore what was lost in this disaster or even how to answer all the questions, we do know that we are called to prayer and to action.

We at Life Teen have created a Life Night for you and your teens to help respond to this tragedy in love, hope and prayer. We pray that this resource will help you empower your teens to live out our Gospel call and respond with prayer and action to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In solidarity and hope,
Your brothers and sisters at Life Teen

UNSHAKEABLE FAITH: Haiti Earthquake Response Life Night

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Goal of the Life Night

The goal of this Life Night is to discuss the recent events in Haiti and help teens understand why it is important that we, as a faith community, respond. The night will help the group process the event, the needs of the community in Haiti and plan a group response.

About this night

This Life Night was written to provide youth ministry programs a means to discuss the situation in Haiti after the January 12, 2010 earthquake and to assist teens in responding to the situation. The night starts with a sense of world turned upside down, literally. Images from the Haiti – prior to the earthquake and afterwards can be displayed. In the teaching, teens will learn why our faith calls us to respond and how that response is an outpouring of Christ’s love for others. There is time in the night for small groups to discuss the situation in Haiti and offer ideas and plan for how they can respond. The night closes with a prayer service for all those affected by the earthquake.