We on the Anchor worship team once had a habit of saying to the congregation, “Let’s all bow for a quick word of prayer.” Or something like that. The important word was “quick.” Pastor Tim told us he would prefer that we not use “quick” and “prayer” together. It sounded like we wanted to rush through “prayer” to get to more interesting stuff. And he was exactly right.

And so, for the past couple of years, we’ve tried to wean ourselves away from that, and we’ve succeeded pretty well. But it’s fascinating how easily the word “quick” wants to keep inserting itself.

• “Before the service starts, let’s get the worship team together for a quick prayer.”
• Prior to a potluck: “Let’s all bow for a quick prayer, and then you can line for up for your food.”
• “Before we launch into our board meeting agenda, Bill, would say a quick prayer for the meeting?”

Tonight, eight of us from Anchor went to the Union Chapel United Brethren church for a performance of Godspell by a group from Huntington University (my alma mater). It was very good. My brother Rick saw it last week and wrote on his blog that he enjoyed it, but found one of the performers to be annoying. Several of us were on the lookout, but couldn’t determine which one Rick was talking about. None of the cast members struck us as annoying.

Chris Kuntz, Anchor’s former worship leader, is now worship leader at Union Chapel. He introduced the group, and when they finished, he came up again to say a few words before the group did one last number. And Chris said something like, “In a moment I’m going to say a quick prayer, and then we’ll hear one more song.” Tim Bauman and I made contact and just smiled. Chris, who had, with Tim’s promptings, helped us nearly eradicate “quick” from our prayer lingo, had relapsed. He was still doing “quick” prayers.

Pastor Tim would be appalled.