In most CD groups in which I have participated over the last seventeen years, the group's covenant has included a commitment to pray for one other daily or regularly. This usually takes some time to develop as part of the discipline of mutual accountability. Making promises and keeping them are part of a process of forming the faithfulness of Christ in the flesh and bone of our lives. In my current group — made up of United Methodist agency staff, a pastor, and a youth director in Nashville — we admit that often we have prayed only in a perfunctory way for one other or that we did pray several days during the week but failed to do so on other days. Admitting that I didn't do very well in remembering them is admission that they did not occupy a place of priority in my life that week.

If we are endeavoring to climb the heights of grace and ford the valleys of discouragement "together," such admissions reveal a great deal about how we perceive our connection. It is inconceivable that climbers scaling Mt. Everest would not keep connected to the rope that is their lifeline should one or another fall.

Part of the hindrance to this consistent prayer for one another is the energy it takes to pray a "fresh" prayer each day. Most of us need a groove to move in. I know that praying memorized prayers is not popular among most present-day United Methodists. We cherish, in concept at least, extemporary prayer. This is certainly one of the means of grace that was practiced by the early Methodists. Contemporary Methodists are often enamored with an inflated notion of our creative capacity or a bias against praying formal prayers and so discount memorized classic prayers, perhaps because we are ignorant of John Wesley's naming such practice also to be a means of grace.

For example, in Surrendering to God (Paraclete, 2001), Keith Beasley-Topliffe helpfully encourages us to pray — really pray — with memorized prayers. He shares his insights on this way of praying using the Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan tradition. (See The United Methodist Hymnal, no. 607. Please note that the 5th line of the prayer, as it appears in the Hymnal, should read: "exalted for thee or brought low for thee.")

My groove in praying for my group is a prayer I learned many years ago when I began to the use the Order of Saint Luke's "green card" daily prayer. I have found that this regular prayer for the others in my CD group frees me from the extremes of not praying for them at all and of struggling to find the fresh and right words each morning. I use a simple memorized prayer with variations.

This prayer begins with an adaptation of lines from a prayer of the British Methodist Sacramental Fellowship:

Almighty God,
who in a time of great need raised up your
servants, John and Charles Wesley,
to proclaim anew the gift of redemption
and the life of holiness...

Then I usually continue with language from the General Rule of Discipleship:

pour out your Spirit upon [here I include the
     names of each in the group]
so that we may love you with acts of
     devotion and worship and
care for our neighbor with deeds of
     compassion and justice,
and so live out the teachings of Jesus
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Then in silence or with mental prayer I remember more specific needs, intentions, and struggles of each member of the group.

My intent here in sharing this practice is twofold: (1) to offer this prayer as a model and resource for guiding your own prayer for the members of your CD group, and (2) to suggest that you consider choosing or forming another prayer that will be your lifeline of prayers of mutual oversight for your group.

Other prayers that you might choose from could include The Lord's Prayer, The Covenant Prayer (UMH 607), The Prayer of Saint Francis (UMH 481), or some other classic prayer. The point is to have a prayer that launches you into holding the lifeline to and for your group's members.

Daniel T. Benedict is Worship Resources Director for the General Board of Discipleship.
He is an ordained elder in the California-Pacific Annual Conference of
The United Methodist Church.