by Reilly Gaunt, Abby Harvey, Coleton Pratt, Nick Windsor and Isaac Wolf
Prayer is being prioritized across the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University. Students
and faculty alike are taking part in the effort to prioritize prayer.
John Drury, professor of New Testament and spiritual formation, has created several
initiatives to integrate prayer into IWU’s daily routine. One of which is daily office in the Williams
prayer chapel.
“It seemed fitting to practice daily office in the Williams prayer chapel because it’s right
here next to my office,” said Drury. “It kind of came out of nowhere.”
Students and faculty are invited to meet every morning and evening to take part in
prayer.
“You would come in before 6:15. There would already be a number of people there in
total silence. At some moment, someone will just start chanting,” said Drury.
Following the chanting of Psalms 95, attendees read from several bible passages.
Lastly, they enter into a time of petitions, praying aloud for whatever they feel the Lord calls
them to pray for.
“I’m a pretty anxious kind of person, I always have to be moving too,” said Aubrey
Hurlbert, youth ministry major at IWU. “Since I’ve started this daily office, sitting in silence, being
still, I’ve noticed that I have felt more calm.”
The concept of morning and evening offices come from the Book of Common Prayer,
which has been used by the Church of England and its offshoots for hundreds of years.
“I find the routine of it to be a comforting thing,” said Matthew Lacy, English education,
Writing, and Honors Humanities major at IWU. “These are the same things that John Wesley
was doing 200 years ago in England. The same prayers that the Archbishop of Canterbury was
doing 200 years before that.”
Outside of daily office, Drury has also been part of initiating Consecrate the Week.
Consecrate the Week is a weekly meeting where individuals pray over all of IWU.
“In May, there were about a dozen key spiritual student leaders on campus,” said Drury.
“They were exposed to this consecration room practice.”
Implementing the consecration room was difficult at first, according to Drury. “It is not
sustainable. We can’t, you know, spend five hours every morning unless you skip all of your
class and the band never rehearses.”
After several meetings, the daily consecration was changed into Consecrate the Week,
which meets each Sunday at 8:26 in the evening.
“It’s just this time where we all get together. We call it kind of an open meeting kind of
style,” said Hurlbert. “You just come with no plan and we listen for where the Holy Spirit would
take our meeting.”
These programs were created to demonstrate the high regard that Indiana Wesleyan
University holds towards prayer. “Prayer is just the heart’s true home,” said Drury. “It’s what
brings substance and spirit to everything that we do.”
Community members around IWU also hold prayer as an important practice for
Christians to partake in.
“I think it’s our best avenue to have an untamed relationship with our Heavenly Father,”
Said Jeff Thompson, executive director of Compass ministries. “I think what prayer really is, is
it’s an opportunity for us to enter into what He desires for us to do.”
“I always call it a stabilizing force,” Said Drury regarding prayer. “It’s stead. Scripture,
Psalms. Set prayers for the season, set prayers for the day or the week.”
