What is "Guerilla War Prayer?"

A funny thing happened while I was at a game night with friends! May I share it with you?

Recently I was at a friends house for a get together. Yes, they’re friends from church, and, it’s technically a small group. But, when it's a long weekend that isn't Christian holiday - like Easter or Christmas - the whole church takes a break. There's no service and the small groups rest for the week. Our group still meets to play board games. (So cool!) So, my husband and I packed up a couple of our “games for a crowd,” he made a delicious lasagna for the potluck, and we moseyed on over to enjoy our evening of rest and board games. What does this have to do with “Guerilla War Prayer?” I’m getting there, I promise.

As we were discussing things that we were doing over dinner, I was excitedly sharing a new project I’m working on. An idea I called “Empowered Faith.” Basically, I’m creating a 6-seminar series for those who have experienced religious trauma or spiritual abuse. I looked to the woman on my right, a part of the Bare Marriage team that is changing the face of Evangelical marriage readings (thank God!), because I was sharing how I will include trigger and content warnings. As part of the series I want to include spiritual practices. However, I’m going to have them at the end of each session and that there would be an announcement. That way, for those who are still uncomfortable don’t feel pressured, and have the opportunity to exit. Then I jokingly said, “Yeah, there's going to be no ‘Guerrilla War Prayer’ in my seminars!” We all broke out in laughter, but the saddest part is that we could all relate to what I meant, whether through personal experience or hearing the stories of others.

I define Guerrilla War Prayer as those instances in your life where someone springs prayer on you. That’s not to say they're a bad person or they're intentionally doing it in a harmful way. However, the result may be feelings of condemnation or shame on the part of the recipient. It’s those moments when you think you’re doing really well, and then someone says “God told me,” or “The Spirit is moving me to pray over you,” and when they’re done you feel so defeated. Maybe it’s the manipulation of Scripture, or the manipulation of your emotions, or you feel coerced to “fall back in line.” You’re getting too far away from what the church believes. You’re asking too many questions. The list goes on, but typically includes the words “slippery slope.”

Isn’t this cartoon from the NakedPastor perfect?! It’s one of my favourites. Please note: I had a subscription and purchased this image. I recommend you do the same.

Guerrilla War Prayer sneaks up on you, jumps out at you when you’re least prepared, and now, because of past experiences, it causes a strong reaction within you. My friend, pay attention to what your body is telling you. She (I’m using this pronoun because I’m a ‘she,’ but feel free to sub in your own pronoun) knows you better than anyone else, she has supported you through it all. Even when you were ingesting harmful teachings. Even when you were pushing down internal reactions that something just wasn’t quite right. Maybe you were taught that your body is broken, that emotions are untrustworthy. That you would go to hell if ______. As a result you stopped listening to her, and that’s heartbreaking, but you can listen to her again. (I’ll share a practice here in a bit.)