What if prayer isn’t all up to us?
In this episode of the Pivot Podcast, host Dwight Zscheile sits down with the Rev. Dr. Wesley Ellis, pastor of First Congregational Church in Ramona, California and author of Abiding in Amen: Prayer in a Secular Age. Wes makes a case that will reframe the way you think about prayer: in a world that turns everything into a project, prayer has been quietly swallowed up by the same logic. One more discipline to optimize. One more area where we’re not doing enough.
But scripture, Wes argues, tells a different story. Prayer is primarily something God does. What we’re invited into is not an achievement but a participation, and that changes everything about how we lead, how we rest, and how we understand the Christian prayer life.
In this conversation, Dwight and Wes explore:
- Why so many pastors and church leaders carry guilt about their prayer lives
- How the culture of optimization has reshaped the way we think about prayer
- What “pray without ceasing” means when prayer is God’s action, not ours
- How a local congregation can become a praying church in the deepest sense
- Why prayer may be the one thing that gets us off the hamster wheel altogether
Whether you’re a pastor, a lay leader, or someone who has quietly given up on prayer, this conversation is worth your time.
