METHODOLOGICAL REPORT! ! !
This part of the report has the aim of uncovering the applied work procedure and methodology of research.!
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The full study was compiled empirically insofar as the data was verifiable and objectively collected, processed and published. Some rigorous scientific and academic components was omitted in order to make provision for a more representative, understandable and topical and current report.
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SURVEY! ! !
The survey was composed by Mynhardt van Pletsen and Pierre Engelbrecht, under supervision of and with input from Prof Stephan Joubert.!
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The questions were set up to test these five subcategories:!
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The demographic identity of the respondent! How prayer is practiced daily! Where and when prayer is practiced! What is prayed for in general! What the expected result of prayer is!
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The survey consists of 19 multiple choice questions (included herewith), with some opportunities for respondents to give text input.
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DATA COLLECTION! ! !
The survey was made available in both printed and digital formats.!
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Surveys were printed on both sides of a single A5 page, and handed out to respondents at the following events:!
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• Bible schools at local congregations! • Church services! • Local faith congregations!
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Digital surveys were composed on the SurveyMonkey platform, after which the direct link were published on many other platforms, including:!
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• The ekerk.org webpage! • Social media platforms, including the ekerk Facebook and Twitter communities! • The ekerk weekly email newsletters
RESPONDENTS! ! !
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“Respondents and communities were not randomly chosen, but the demography is being carefully communicated, in order to give consumers of this report the opportunity to judge for themselves.”
No respondent was withheld from completing the survey, just as no specific respondent was targeted.!
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With single exceptions, the survey was exclusively distributed among both traditional and informal communities of faith, during meetings, in order to measure the views and opinions of ordinary believers. Respondents and communities were not randomly chosen, but the demography is being carefully communicated, in order to give consumers of this report the opportunity to judge for themselves the relevance of the data and the possible applications.!
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After the two-month collection period, 895 respondents successfully completed the survey. The combined demographics of all respondents are as follows:!
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How old are you?! What is your gender?! Where do you live?! Are you actively involved with a local congregation?
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DATA PROCESSING! ! !
The research team processed the raw data, and given the four main groups of how, where, what for and when, sorted the data to answer the questions stated at the beginning of this report as thoroughly as possible.!
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The SurveyMonkey electronic platform was used to compile the data and to calculate numbers and percentages correctly.!
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During the data analysis process an effort was made to identify the underlying patterns, trends and tendencies of the participants. The insights gained through this process in turn served as guidelines for the formulation of specific deficiencies in believers’ prayer habits.!
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The identification of these gaps was informative, and it enabled the research team to propose some practical applications for local congregations and spiritual leaders, in order to better direct believers’ prayer habits for more effective life change and spiritual growth.
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PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION! ! !
The final text was compiled by the entire research team, and all those involved contributed to the final wording of both the data and its applications.!
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The report was construed to facilitate an easy reading experience, and is published in an electronic format to make it easily downloadable and sharable. The report is also accompanied by a set of infographic illustrations that portray each component of the research simply and understandably. These graphics can also be separately downloaded by users and thus used in the presentation and dissemination of the report.!
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The publication is available on ekerk.org, and will be widely marketed and presented on all ekerk’s electronic communication channels, as well as during any and all ekerk meetups, seminars and other offline events.!
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The report and the graphics are subject to a Creative Commons copyright license, which means that any user can download and use the material free of charge for noncommercial purposes, as long as the character and scope of the report is not changed or adjusted.
INTRODUCTION! ! !
Regular prayer is one of the most obvious ways to grow in your spiritual journey. “Read your Bible, pray every day,” we learned at a very young age.!
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Yet many of us are frustrated with our prayer life, or we find that our prayers don’t have the desired effect — whatever that effect might be. Sometimes, we hope that our prayer works like a magical word that will bring us closer to God, make our dreams come true, or unlock supernatural power in our own lives or the lives of others.!
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While these things always remain a possibility, it might be time that we think in fresh ways about the role and function of sincere prayer in our lives.!
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Our starting point is a comprehensive research report sketching us the complete picture — through surveys, data processing and interpretation — of how ordinary believers today think about prayer and experience it in their lives. Hence, it’s our hope that from there you’ll look with new eyes at your own prayers, and will rethink the place, time, content and intention of your prayers, and make adjustments where you deem necessary.
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How do we pray?! !
The ways in which we pray often betray the ways in which we believe God can or want to listen to us.!
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The research shows that believers pray regularly. 64% of respondents pray several times a day, with 31% praying daily and only 5% of respondents praying several times a week. When praying, 90% of the respondents use their own words in their prayers, 3% pray the Our Father and 2% pray prayers of devotional books or a passage from the Bible.!
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We also need to consider the length of prayers. The majority of respondents — 48% — pray for between 0-5 minutes. 28% of respondents’ prayers are between 5-10 minutes, where 13% pray for between 10-15 minutes long. Only 4% of respondents pray for 30 minutes or longer.
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Where and when do we pray?! !! !
! Jesus prayed in the strangest places, at the strangest times! !
At least, it’s strange to our modern understanding of how prayer is supposed to happen. Once he climbed to the top of a mountain, and spent the whole night there in prayer. On another occasion we read that He prayed a desperate prayer, and that his sweat was like drops of blood dripping on the ground.!
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If we look at Jesus’ example, we need to ask ourselves: how does my own prayer life look? Do we have the same confidence as he had when he spontaneously spoke to God in the marketplace, or at the city gates?!
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The research shows that the majority of believers pray at home (97%). 62% of prayers happen in a car, 49% in the church, 47% at work while only 22% of respondents pray at a restaurant and only 15% in stores. Still, 53% of prayers happen during the day — 27% in the morning and 20% in the evening. 80% of these prayers are quiet and 87% of respondents prefer to pray alone.
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What do we pray for?! ! What do your prayers usually consist of?! !
Do you pray with a list of daily necessities? Do you also feel the urgent need to continuously remind God of all your physical, financial and relationship needs? Perhaps the circle of your prayers expand to include local, country or world affairs. Some of us pray regularly for spiritual matters, concerning the church, for our friends who don’t know Jesus, and even for our own spiritual growth.!
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The nature of our relationship with God is influenced by the content of our prayers! It’s the things we regularly discuss with God that shape our impressions and perceptions of Him.!
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The research shows that 63% of respondents pray for their family, 46% pray for their friends, 26% pray for their colleagues and 24% for fellow believers. The least number of prayers are for and directed to strangers. Also, 58% of the respondents’ prayers are equally focused on themselves and on others, while 34% do not often pray for themselves, but often for others. If we look at what events in the lives of respondents make them pray most, we see that 36% pray when someone close to them are experiencing a difficult time, 28% when they experience a personal crisis, and 21% when an important decision needs to be made.
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What happens when we pray?! ! ! ! !
It’s important to know what outcome we expect from our prayers.!
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Our research indicates how respondents associate with the following statements: 60% trust the Lord in their prayers for the best outcome. 46% see their prayers as strengthening of their relationship with the Lord. 30% have a spiritual need to see their prayers come true. 20% pray for the sake of another’s spiritual growth and the small remnant don’t always know why they pray.!
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Similarly, our research also considers how often the respondents’ prayers come true. 74% of respondents’ prayers often come true, 14% always come true and 11% rarely come true. Likewise, 15% of respondents always adjust their behavior or lifestyle according to their prayers. 68% often adjust their behavior or lifestyle, and 16% of respondents rarely adjust their behavior or lifestyle according to their prayers.
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BASIC CONCLUSIONS! ! From the data we can make several conclusions.! !
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These conclusions will help us to suggest possible applications, which in turn can help believers make prayer a more meaningful part of their spiritual makeup.!
The opposite of this would be to use prayer like a suicide— bomber uses his explosive kit. In this case he walks into the midst of his target, and when he presses the button he becomes an inherent part of both the cause and the effect of his prayers.!
Although there are many things to mention about the available data, we chose the following as the most applicable for the purposes of this report:!
The major difference between these two examples has to do with the basic involvement and dedication, of the person who prays, with the topic and subject of his prayer.!
1. We pray every day! 2. We pray for short periods at a time! 3. We pray at home! 4. We seldom pray with others! 5. We would rather pray for others than for ourselves! 6. We don’t really care what happens after we prayed!
The data shows that there are significant shortcomings in our prayer—life concerning the following:!
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In short, we can say that modern believers in general pray every day, for a few minutes, alone, at home, for someone or something other than themselves, before they continue with the rest of the day.!
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If we can choose a metaphor, we use our prayers like a sniper would use his gun. We fire off sporadic and calculated prayers from a distance, that are supposed to bring about a result that is removed from ourselves, and don’t necessarily influence us.!
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* Prayers concerning ourselves as the subject! * Prayers with our own transformation as the purpose! * Prayers prayed in fellowship with other believers! * Prayers followed up with real action! * Prayers with personal development as a result! * Prayers that prioritize relationships and connections
POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS! !
What this research indicates is that many believers pray often. However, the prayers are very short, ‘one sentence prayers’ in times of emergency or when their patience is tested. The research also indicates that prayer is a private and personal thing, and that very few people pray with other believers.!
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We pray from our comfort zones and we don’t engage God in a dialogue that might perhaps alter our behavior, or might remove us from our spiritual comfort zones. Prayer isn’t seen as a part of our everyday Christian lifestyle. Prayer is seen as an emergency SMS or 911– call sent only when something comes up that needs our attention. Prayer is reactionary.!
If we look at what is prayed for, we see that objects like money and financial well-being is not often the subject of prayer, but the prayers are targeted at themselves. Concerning what believers pray for, the research shows: 90% pray for family; 67% pray for spiritual growth; 66% pray for friends; 65% pray for health; 58% pray for safety and security; 50% pray for relationship happiness; 49% pray for emotional humanity; 41% pray for their circumstances at work. This type of prayer is about ‘I’ or ‘we’.!
Thus, our prayers can be seen as a “Please, God!” Please, God! Help us! Grant us! We are the receiver sending a request for what we would like. Shouldn’t prayer rather be a way to grow in relationship with God through dialogue? Shouldn’t we be able to glorify God through our life of prayer? Shouldn’t prayer happen in community to enable God to work on us through fellow believers to adjust our life and behavior? Shouldn’t we rather be praying: “Please God!”
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It’s easier to pray for your family or friends near you than for a stranger. Further situations that cause believers to pray are when they have a tough decision to take (21%), or when bad times are experienced (28%), or when someone close to them is going through a tough time (35%).
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CONCLUSION! !
Along with Scripture, assisting those in need, and the community of believers, prayer forms one of the crucial building blocks of a healthy and growing life of faith.!
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Just as uplifting as prayer can be, so sobering and destructive it can become when used out of context or with the wrong intentions. Then prayer degenerates into a legalistic obligation overnight, one that creates expectation for unjust outcomes, and leaves hordes of believers in its wake who simply get tired of religion and those who preach it.!
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Of course we can approach prayer like children, declaring our dependence on God, and trusting Him in desperate moments for supernatural intervention in our lives. But when that becomes our exclusive mode of communicating with God, then we lose sight of the other equally important components of prayer — where we communicate with God constantly, and also in the presence of others, where He changes our hearts in conversation with Him, and where we practically become His hands and feet in the world.!
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Sometimes our prayers change the world exactly like we ask, but mostly our prayers are supposed to change us, and then we, in turn, can bring God’s change to the world.!
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It’s our prayer that you’ll experience both of the above every day, and that your prayer life goes from strength to strength go in such a way that you become a living, walking Kingdom–catalyst wherever you find yourself.
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