This past summer, by far one of the most important places I visited, and the one I miss most, is Taize in France. I made a bunch of posts about my experience in Taize (go check out July 2010) and since returning back to the states, I've been trying to figure out what it was that made Taize so special, why did it make such a difference on me?

Well this morning I was listening to a sermon and my pastor made the following point - Jesus didn't say my house will be called a house of music, or a house of worship. He didn't say that my house will be called a house of teaching or preaching. What Jesus did say, is that my house will be called a house of prayer.


It's not worship or preaching; prayer is what radically defines a place to be filled by a spiritual presence. It's not the walls of a beautiful church or the trickling water of a flowing stream - it's the prayer (our conversations with god) that fills those spaces which invites god into our presence.

While at Taize, I was struck by the simplicity and beauty of community in this small town hidden in the rolling french countryside. There was something that felt so 'magical' and 'holy' about this area, but what was it? I thought it was simplicity, but I think simplicity was simply a byproduct of the real reason - their focus on prayer.

Spending the majority of your day in prayer (we're talking multiple hours) inevitably creates a sense of simplicity. And I thought it was the simplicity that was missing from my home churches, but I don't think that that was the differentiating feature.

I've never really had a single church I call home - that's probably largely due to my tendency to travel the world and never be in one place for too long. So I tend to have different churches that have different strengths, and their combined efforts are what have a significant impact on me. I think the key aspects of church - prior to Taize - for me were teaching, worship, community, and service. And each church back home covered one of those areas quite well. But traveling to Taize - another church to add to my list (and I use the term church to refer to any community of believers together, whether it's in a traditional church building or not) - I realized that I was missing an important component - prayer. And it's funny that prayer is the one thing Jesus says will define his house - a house of prayer. I seemed to have missed that one in all my searching.

So it's not that the other components aren't still important, they are, it's just that prayer plays a significant difference in how I rely upon the other four areas. I'm slowly learning how to "raise the priority of prayer" in my own life, but I'm quickly realizing it's importance. I pray that I will never remain content or comfortable with my faith - that it will continue to expand and grow and uncover new truths - it's one of the most exciting journey's I've been on yet!