University Ministries Introduces New Midday Prayer Service

Belmont Vision Multimedia, Zach Watkins

University Ministries’ midday prayer services have attracted the attention of faculty and staff at Belmont University since its kickoff on Aug. 26. 

“It’s certainly a peaceful pause,” said Christina Ananias, Lilly Endowment faculty fellow in the School of Theology and Christian Ministry who has been to one prayer service and plans on going back. 

The prayer services are new to Belmont this semester, stemming from University Ministries’ desire to offer something that represented “a more liturgical and contemplative style of worship” while still remaining true to Belmont’s nondenominational approach to Christianity, said Steve Guthrie, a professor of theology who leads the services. 

“I think it’s a great offering for Belmont to have something that maybe provides insight into what Christians have been doing for centuries,” Ananias said. 

The services are centered around the book “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals” by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro. Guthrie had previously used the book for a morning prayer service that he led around 2014 when the Janet Ayers Academic Center first opened, he said. 

The book is a daily prayer book that centers each day around a different saint, something Ananias said she loved. 

“We were able to learn a little bit about other Christians, even within the context of worship,” she said. 

Despite the settled structure and seeming enthusiasm from faculty and staff, there is one thing missing from the midday prayer services: student participation. 

The group, usually made up of about 20 people, consists of “almost all faculty and staff” with “one or two students” in attendance, Guthrie said. 

Despite the low turnout, students are interested in the services, he said. 

“I have had different students say to me, ‘Oh, I saw that you’re doing a midday prayer service, that looks great, I’d love to come,’” Guthrie said. “So, I think there is some interest in that.” 

He plans on reaching out to different campus ministries in the next couple of weeks to try and get students from those groups to come, he said. 

Adam Perez, assistant professor of worship studies, uses announcements at chapel to get the word about midday prayer services out to students, he said. 

Chapel is University Ministries’ “flagship worship program” where most students go to enrich their spiritual lives, said Perez, who oversees those services. 

“It’s mostly students,” Perez said of chapel. “There’s maybe five faculty and staff on average, and if you take out the folks who are involved or part of University Ministries somehow, that number goes down even further.” 

While he thinks students could benefit from the prayer services, Perez doesn’t see an issue with them being mostly attended by faculty and staff, he said. 

“I think that actually having a space that faculty and staff are maybe catered to in a certain kind of way is actually something that’s been missing as we think about University Ministries serving all of campus,” he said. 

Ananias, on the other hand, thinks student participation is “necessary,” and that the way to drive it up is through influential professors, campus leaders and student leaders that students want to pray with, she said 

However, no matter who’s there, the focus remains the same, she said. 

“Numbers aren’t the goal,” Ananias said. “The goal is worship.” 

Midday prayer services are held every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-1 p.m. in the Gabhart Chapel, located on the ground floor of the Janet Ayers Academic Center. 

- 

This article was written by Rachel Suggs