Lynne Baab

Praying about the flow of time: The overlap of the sacred and the ordinary

Lynne Baab • Tuesday November 12 2024

In 2013, I heard a speaker who changed my perspective on how congregations help people grow in faith. Nancy Ammerman is a sociologist of religion. In two talks just over a decade ago, she described her recent research, published a few months later in her book Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life. She and her team of researchers interviewed dozens of people in two major American cities, talking with them at length. The interviewees included Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and people committed to various other forms of spirituality.

The researchers found that people with the deepest spiritual commitments — whether to a Buddhist meditation practice or the Christian faith — frequently talked with others about the spiritual dimensions of everyday life. Ammerman described the focus of these conversations as the overlap of “the ordinary and the non-ordinary” or the intersection of the “sacred and the secular.” [1]

These conversations allow participants to explore divine action in human life, to encounter faith in everyday life, or to talk about “something that calls us beyond ourselves,” in Ammerman’s words. According to this research, most people learn to talk about this intersection of the sacred and daily life in faith communities, and these conversations take place most often in homes, congregations, and workplaces. [2]

Ammerman’s research gave me a new understanding of what happens in many settings within congregations. For example, I have always seen small groups as a place for many good things: friendship, support, encouragement, Bible study, exploration of faith issues, and prayer with others. This research highlighted one more purpose and blessing of small groups: participants can talk about the overlaps of the Christian faith and their everyday lives.

I remember a small group I attended where one participant raised questions like these: Where is God when my teenager does nothing except play video games? Why doesn’t God seem to be answering my prayers? Are there other ways I could be praying for him? Should I pray for God’s peace for me, or should I focus most of my prayers on him? People who listen and draw us out as we explore these topics provide a valuable service. They give us space to process where God is present in our daily lives and what it looks like to trust God day to day.

In addition to small groups, I might find those people in my home, neighborhood, or workplace. Congregations are a common setting for such conversations, perhaps while washing dishes in the church kitchen, playing with babies in the nursery, or chatting in the parking lot after a meeting. “I prayed for you last week about your job. How’s it going with your colleague? Did you feel God’s help with that important meeting?” “What happened at your appointment with the medical specialist this week? Did you experience God’s peace there?”

Ammerman and her researchers found that the frequency of such conversations in Christian congregations was not correlated with any particular position on the theological spectrum. Instead, more conversations between faith and daily life took place in congregations with more activities of any kind. [3] Many people talk about the impact of their faith in their everyday life whenever they meet with other Christians, whatever the purpose of the gathering.

Therefore, providing opportunities for classes, seminars, musical rehearsals, arts events, working bees, mission projects, committees, and other activities makes space for people to talk about this overlap. Ammerman’s research gave me the language to describe this significant aspect of conversations with Christians that I had noticed all my adult life but had never singled out for attention. Christians get together for many reasons, and one significant reason — almost always unstated — is so we can talk about where God is in everyday life.

How fascinating that people in just about every faith tradition find it meaningful to discuss the intersection or overlap of their faith and ordinary life. When Christians engage in these conversations, we explore our convictions and experiences related to God, the Bible, prayer, the holy, the sacred, or other aspects of a faith commitment — and the connections with daily life.

This research is excellent fuel for prayer, dovetailing with the discipleship theme of Ordinary Time. We can pray for ourselves and others that we will have places to explore the intersection or overlap between the holy and the ordinary—and that our conversations will fuel our ability to observe where God is present. We can pray to grow as listeners who give others space to talk about that intersection.

This research brings an interesting perspective to Ordinary Time's focus on evangelism. One way to view evangelism is helping people identify how they already experience the presence of the sacred or holy in their everyday lives and give language to it.  

Immanuel, God with us, you are present in every moment of our lives. Please give us people with whom we can talk about where and how you are present. Please help us to give others space to explore the overlap between the holiness of your presence and the responsibilities and activities of daily life—whether those people already know you or if they experience glimpses of your presence that they don’t yet know how to name.

֍ ֍ ֍

Next week: praying about the Kingdom of God. Illustration by Dave Baab. This post is adapted from my book, Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the 21^st Century.

Helping people explore the intersection of the holy and the ordinary requires good listening skills. Some of my favorite articles about listening:

• To be a neighbor must include listening
• Letting go of agendas so we can listen to God and others
• Growing in loving conversation

֍ ֍ ֍

Two ways to subscribe.

If you’d like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up below under “subscribe.” That email and the posts on this blog are free and accessible for all.

If you’d like to help me cover the expenses for this blog and website, plus get a bonus post every month, you can subscribe on Patreon for $3 or $6 per month. My bonus posts focus on one or more of the hundreds of vivid quotations I’ve collected over five decades.

[1] [2] and [3] I heard Nancy Ammerman talk about her research in her two keynote addresses on June 29 and July 1, 2013, at the Australia New Zealand Association for Theological Schools annual conference, held at Laidlaw College in Auckland.

Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »

Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups. 

Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian  Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.

You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.

Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills. 

Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.

"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader

"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping