Today’s author is Prince of Peace member and music coordinator, Milt Warkentien.
The song Together We Pray was written during the Covid shutdown and inspired by Prince of Peace member, Karlind Moller, who said: “we used to be apart together and during the pandemic, we are now together apart.” Covid hasn’t been easy to get through, but there has been some good to come out of it. One of those is the ability to live stream (a huge thanks to Chris Thornton and all those who helped get us to where we are now and for our dedicated volunteers who run our video on a weekly basis and to Bill Thornton and all the sound people who continue to volunteer and run sound every Sunday.)
The shutdown also gave me time to work on composing music, and many people, like Karlind, wrote, or said, many things that inspired my composing. Together We Pray is one of those pieces. I originally intended for the whole piece to be sung around the Prayers of the People, but the other church staff thought just one verse would be better used. I was amazed at the number of people that said that the song was a comfort for them, or that their kids were singing it regularly after we used it for a church series.
The first verse is “Together we pray, together we’ve stayed, for God’s love keeps us strong, and together we sing God’s song.” For me, the Prince of Peace community, my church family, is such an important part of my life. It was VERY hard not to be able to be around my church family during Covid, but thru zoom meetings, recorded services, etc, I was able to stay virtually connected and was able to keep praying together with all of you. God’s love kept us strong, and together we were still able to sing God’s song.
The second verse is “Together we pray, together we’ve stayed, for we all are God’s light, and together we will shine bright.” Individually we are all God’s light, but as a community of lights, we can, and will, shine brighter than we can imagine. How brightly we shine remains to be seen, but through our visioning process, we can hopefully be a very bright light.
The third verse, which is the one we sing, is “Together we pray, together we’ve stayed, we’re together apart, joined together through our hearts.” Most of us are now back worshipping in person, but there are still people in our community worshipping online, and I’m grateful for the technological advances that allow us to keep these people part of our community.
The last part of this song is “Together we pray, together we pray, together we pray, together”. Michael W. Smith wrote a song called Friends, and in this song, the refrain goes “Friends are friends forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of them, and a friend will not say never ‘cause the welcome will not end. Though it’s hard to let you go, in the Father’s hands we know, that a lifetime’s not to long to live as friends.” While this song talks about friendship, I find that the sentiment applies to our church community. How many people in this congregation are more than just friends at church, but they have become “family”. How many of these people have left PoP over the years, through death, moving, needing a fresh start, etc? How many of these people do you still stay in contact with, or deeply miss?
Today I want you to take time to think about what PoP has meant to you, and what you want it to be in the future. What’s your vision for PoP? I also want you to take time to think about those that are part of your “family” and thank God for each of them. For me, being in a community of faith is one of the greatest things that can happen to someone. I thank all of you for the support you give to the musicians of PoP and to me and my colleagues. God told Abraham and Sarah that they’ll have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. While the number of “family” we have in our lives won’t be the number of stars in the sky, we still need to give thanks for all the “family” that we have.
Dear God, may we always remember those that have become “family” and cherish the times we have spent TOGETHER in worship, having fun, etc. Help us work to be a brighter light TOGETHER than we ever could individually. Help us continue to reach out to those not in worship in person, so that TOGETHER WE STAY, and TOGETHER WE WILL ALWAYS PRAY. Amen