Covenanted Prayer
Resources for Members of the Emerging Scholars Network
The Emerging Scholars Network is a long-haul endeavor that depends
on God's gracious guidance and providence. In other words,
it's the perfect subject of serious prayer.
Some ESN members
— including the national leadership team — have
covenanted with one another to pray regularly for God's purposes
to be realized for the Network. We hope, too, that more and
more local campus gatherings of ESN members may begin this
academic year to meet one another and make prayer a central
part of their community.
To that end, we offer here a seven-part cycle of prayers and
Scripture readings as one resource for your personal and corporate
life of prayer. |
Some notes about the use of this cycle of prayer:
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The division into seven sections suggests a weekly cycle
of use, so feel free to use them daily. But the cycle can
also be used in other ways (to structure the calendar for
a weekly campus prayer meeting, for instance).
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Scripture readings and a more formal written prayer are
included as suitable for public or private use. They are
intended as models to guide our prayer and structure corporate
prayer. Certainly, they should not be viewed as any limitation
on your normal prayer practices, nor are they offered to
set up a legalistic requirement.
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Most of the prayers written here are adapted from the
Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. No effort has been
made to update linguistic usage, nor is any claim made
for the superiority of the language of this resource. Translate
freely into your own idiom. Certainly other devotional
resources are equally useful and should be drawn upon.
1. Seek the Lord for the peace
of the university; the flourishing, wholeness, justice, harmony,
truth, and leadership of higher education; and the particular
campuses and issues of immediate concern to us.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 85
Jeremiah 29:1-23
Matthew 23:37-39
1 Timothy 2:1-6
A Collect for Schools, Colleges, and Universities
Almighty God, we beseech thee, with thy gracious favour
to behold our universities, colleges, and schools, that knowledge
may be increased among us, and all good learning flourish
and abound. Bless all who teach and all who learn; and grant
that in humility of heart they may ever look unto thee, who
art the fountain of all wisdom; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
2. Ask the Lord to renew the
truth of vocation among his people in the academy, helping
us to see its foundational place in the life of discipleship
to the Lord Jesus, renewing the calling of those who are flagging
in zeal for the Lord's purpose for their lives, making his
particular calling clear to each Christian student and faculty
member, and calling many into the academy.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 104
Mark 2:13-17
1 Corinthians 7:17-24
A Collect for Vocation
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who declarest thy glory
and showest forth thy handiwork in the heavens and the earth:
Deliver us, we beseech thee, in our several callings, from
the service of mammon, that we may do the work which thou
hast given us to do, in truth, in beauty, and in righteousness,
with singleness of heart as thy servants, and to the benefit
of our fellow mortals; for the sake of him who came among
us as one who serveth, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
3. Ask the Lord to provide and
assemble all the needed resources of people, ideas, relationships,
institutions and organizations, and funds to accomplish the
goals of ESN. Our long-term goals include:
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Twenty percent of the total membership of each division
of the academy are members of ESN.
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A body of Christian scholarship will exist within each
academic discipline of such quality that it is required
reading and reflection for all scholars, even when they
dissent from its informing Christian foundations.
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All ESN members will have a biblically formed understanding
of vocation and the resources at every stage of their professional
development to realize their own vocation within the university.
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ESN members will be present throughout the structures
of service, administration, and leadership in higher education,
serving the peace of the university.
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ESN will contribute to the social diversity of the academy
and serve the quest for justice with the academy, overcoming
the historic legacy of underrepresentation due to social
class, gender, and ethnicity with the academic world.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 127 and 145
Luke 11:1-11
Ephesians 1:15-23
A Collect for the Ministry of the Emerging Scholars Network:
Sovereign God, whose plan it is to redeem, renew, and unite
all things in your Son, we ask you to work in the ministry
of ESN to accomplish this gracious purpose. By the power
of your Holy Spirit raise up men and women to be a blessing
to the academy, working in them to be a light of gospel truth,
beauty, righteousness, and grace in every aspect of academic
life to the praise of your great name, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Amen.
4. Seek
the power and faithfulness of the Lord to overcome the durable
spiritual challenges and barriers we face in accomplishing
the goals of ESN. Pray about the following challenges and barriers
to our work:
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Overcoming privatized, and therefore self-censored and
silenced, faith.
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Overcoming individualism, and therefore the isolation
from Christian community in our vocations in the academy.
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Overcoming a culture focused on novelty, therefore creating
the fidelity we need to carry on a thirty-year effort.
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Overcoming the loss of the concept of vocation among those
who follow Christ, therefore renewing this concept as basic
to our discipleship to the Lord Jesus.
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Overcoming the racism, ideological captivity, and culture
of suspicion all too characteristic of the university,
therefore demonstrating a Christian life of justice and
peace within the academy.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 124
Matthew 10:24-39
Ephesians 6:10-20
A Collect for Those Who Would Overcome in the Academy
Almighty Father, whose creative power made the worlds and
raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, and is at work in the
lives of your redeemed people, work in might through ESN
to overcome our weaknesses, ignorance, and sin. In particular,
we implore you to make us faithful for the full thirty years
of our ESN vision and beyond, toward the consummation of
the kingdom of your sovereign love through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
5. Intercede for the concerns
of our immediate circle and circumstances, focusing on the
ministry of ESN on the campus to which we have been called.
Reflect on the five goals of ESN and five challenges and barriers
that are identified above and seek the Lord for the ways they
are a reality in your local ministry and among your circle
of friends and co-workers.
Scripture Readings
[Choose readings from the Bible suited to your local situation.]
A Collect for Our Local ESN Ministry
[Write a prayer you could repeatedly offer to the Lord in
your local situation.]
6. Give thanks to the Lord for
his goodness. Think about the ways he has answered your prayers
for the peace of the university, for the goals of ESN, for
the strength to overcome challenges and barriers, and for the
development of ESN in your campus community. Give him thanks
so that he receives all the glory.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 103
Luke 17:11-19
James 1:16-27
A General Prayer of Thanksgiving
O Lord, we offer unfeigned thanks for all thy mercies; for
our being, our reason, and all other endowments and faculties
of soul and body; for our health, friends, food and raiment,
and all other comforts and conveniences of life. Above all,
we adore thy mercy in sending thy only Son into the world,
to redeem us from sin and eternal death, and in giving us
the knowledge and sense of our duty toward thee. We bless
thee for thy patience with us, notwithstanding our many and
great provocations; for all the directions, assistances,
and comforts of thy Holy Spirit; for thy continual care and
watchful providence over us through the whole course of our
lives; and particularly for the mercies and benefits of the
past day. We thank thee for the progress of thy word and
truth in our universities and for thy blessings on the ministry
of ESN, beseeching thee to continue these thy blessings to
us, and to give us grace to show our thankfulness in a sincere
obedience to his laws, through whose merits and intercession
we received them all, thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
7. Sabbath celebrates the foundation
of faith and rest in the grace of our God. Enter into this
rest consciously to find renewal for the work of our vocations.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 95
Mark 2:23 - 3:6
Hebrews 3:7 - 4:13
A Prayer for God's Rest and Peace
O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and
rest we shall be saved, and in quietness and confidence shall
be our strength; by the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray
thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that
thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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