One thing I hate about being a minister

Don't get me wrong. I love being a minister, even the challenges.

There is one thing, though, that bugs me. People think that I have God's secret cell phone number. They think that someone, as a man of the cloth, my prayers ring louder in God's ears than anyone else's.

Not true. Not true at all. Everyone has equal access to God because of Jesus Christ. With that thought in mind, our church has banished the "pastoral prayer" time in worship. (I remember as a kid and teenager, the agonizingly long pastor's prayers that would seem to drone on for hours, as he prayed for the Millie's sore toe, and Jethro's finger, and so on in a monotone that would put the worst insomniac to sleep.) We have returned to the prayers of the people. Instead of me droning on about this and that, people can write in prayer journals. They can be as personal as one would like. It gives everyone equal access to God.

Also instead of a free-form closing prayer, we pray in unison a prayer. Some of these prayers come from The Book of Common Prayer, others from The Oxford Book of Prayer edited by George Appleton. Everyone prayers. Everyone processes the words of the prayer.

Prayer is for the people. It's not just for the minister.