Fender Guitar, Silent Guitar

Guitar music (well, electric piano too) has been the driver for America's prayer movement over the last decade, along with prophetic singing. It needs to keep happening. I like it. Mostly.

I'm finding that there is also something to be said for silence and solitude in encountering God, searching scripture, and meditating on it. In trying to love God with my mind as well as my heart, I think better if a loud Fender playing repetitious cords isn't dominating the atmosphere, and if singers repeating the same phrase over and over for 10 minutes aren't within hearing range.

Don't get me wrong. The musical focus has its important place. But a quiet place with the "still small voice" can be very powerful too. I think of John the Baptist in the wilderness with no guitar. Or Jesus. Or the desert fathers.

I hope expressions of the prayer room continue to emerge where silence is welcome, along with "voices only" intercession. It's cost effective, easily multiplied, and eliminates a stage hero worship culture.