facebook – Bearded Theologians

Rev. Katie Bishop

It is 8:30 pm on Thursday night and I am sitting on my living room couch. My iPad has the latest Upper Room devotional open and my laptop computer is open to a post from my Facebook feed. In the palm of my hand, my phone is open and after a deep breath, I press “Go Live.” It is Thursday night. Prayer time.

About six months ago, amid some real struggle in our broader community – real heartbreak – I started this Thursday night prayer time. Out of a desire to speak HOPE, I flipped my phone’s Facebook app open and started to pray. As people gathered to watch, the movement of the Spirit was palpable. Tangible. Powerful. Even across the screen.

Since then, I have posted an invitation soliciting prayer requests on my Facebook page every Thursday morning. And every Thursday night – sometime between 7 and 10, I hop on Facebook Live to gather God’s people.

We start with the Upper Room’s daily scripture reading and then move into the prayer requests that people have posted on my feed. People are invited to add requests to the Live Feed, and most do. To finish our time, I remind people why we pray.

First, prayer helps align our hearts to God. We step outside of ourselves and center ourselves in God’s Spirit.

Second, prayer activates the Big God Family – the community of believers. As we lift up prayers and concerns, we can witness the ways God has blessed us, testify the power of resurrection in our lives, and stand with each other in brokenness. This has been one of the greatest blessings about Thursday night prayer. Since we have been praying overtime, we have been able to celebrate how God is work in our world. We have celebrated answered prayers. We have celebrated changed expectations. We have celebrated God’s grace even in the brokenness.

Finally, prayer witnesses God’s action in the world around us. We recognize that God is not done with us yet. That God is still moving in the world around us. That God uses us as God’s hands and feet to usher in the Kingdom.

After I speak these truths out loud, we pray. I pray with words, those watching pray with me. Comments continue to fill the screen as a chorus of “hearts” and “likes” join the words that are uttered. We pray. Across phones and iPads, computer screens – we pray. Sometimes by ourselves – sometimes with others.

And when I say “Amen,” a chorus of Amens join in.

I remind everyone they are loved – and it is done.

In total, most weeks, it is about 5-7 minutes. Sometimes – if I have more prayer requests, or if my two daughters “help” then it is longer. But really, it is just a few minutes – across screens for prayer.

The big question is – why?

And for me, it gets back to my Methodist roots. Wesley, when starting a movement of revival in England, went to where the people were. Why do we, as the church, wait for people to come to us? Wesley went to where the people were, “submitting to be more vile” – a quote from his April 2, 1739 journal – so that people would come to know God’s love and grace. He was willing to meet them in their brokenness, in their everyday, in their ordinary, in their heartache. Why do we, as the church, refuse to move to where the people are?

Facebook – it is where people are. And love it or hate it, there is a huge segment of our population that are always on Facebook. It is where we share stories of our greatest joys and our greatest struggles. It is where we “connect” – however inauthentic or authentic it may be.

And taking time every Thursday to pray, seeks to meet people where they are, resurrecting the brokenness, the heartache, the ordinary.

It is not much – by any stretch of the imagination. It is very simple. It takes hardly any time and very little effort.

But it is powerful. It is Spirit-filled. It is resurrecting.

So, if you are feeling a burdened, or broken, lost or weary… If you feel like you need some Family time… If you have seen God move and can’t keep it to yourself… come and join us some Thursday. We are but a click away.

Katie Bishop is a United Methodist pastor serving in Frederick County, Maryland. She is married to Chris, also a pastor in the UMC, and they have three children- Eden (10), Bethany (5) and a son they are waiting on from Haiti.