Prayer setup

If you are planning a longer prayer time, or would like to create a good ambience for a more discussion-based event, your setup is a vital part of the smooth running of the experience. Prayer is more often about creating an atmosphere that allows your group to relax and be open to God than about what you actually do with that atmosphere. If you can’t get hold of some parts of equipment, or need to improvise during the experience, that’s fine – but make sure you put adequate attention into the initial setup, which will cover a multitude of omissions!

Sound

Make sure there is gentle background music playing throughout the session – you can do this most easily through an iPod or a laptop with speakers attached. That way, you can determine a playlist, and won’t be swapping CD’s with awkward pauses in between. Make sure you listen carefully to the music beforehand, and choose something that isn’t offensive or will make people giggle. Taize or ambient music can work ok, but young people often find it easier to relax to chillout music with a beat. If you buy any Cafe del Mar album (look under ‘chillout’ in your CD shop, or search for Cafe del Mar on iTunes), there will be plenty of music that’s appropriate.

Light

Ban all strip lighting or glaring lights. If you’re meeting during the day, consider hanging cheap voile curtains over the windows to soften daylight (you can buy these from IKEA). If you’re meeting in the evening, grab two or three desklamps and point them towards the wall to diffuse the light. DON’T cover them with material, as it might catch fire! Table top lamps work the best, as they give more light, but are generally more ambient. You might like to light some candles, but make sure they are out of the way of the group and can’t be knocked over or accidentally set light to anything.

Focus

Anybody walking into a room will focus on something. Your challenge is to encourage the group to focus on the prayer experience, rather than other things in the room. The thing that usually helps the group to focus where you want them to is to remove or hide alternative focuses… This might mean draping cloths over distracting visual displays, or pointing lighting in a particular direction (you can always slightly unscrew overhead bulbs to avoid lighting an unsightly area of the room, provided you rescrew them back in at the end of the evening). It could also mean getting rid of chairs and tables, and asking everybody to sit on the floor. Cushions and carpet squares can help with this when the floor’s cold or dirty.

Anticipation

To help designate your prayer experience as a sacred space, ask people not to enter until it is set up. This will help build anticipation, and will give you the chance to explain to them what will happen before inviting them in.