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After spending 8 days in Korea hosted by our sister conference, the South Conference of the Korea Methodist Church, my most lasting impression is of prayer.

On Tuesday April 1 we were invited to attend the early morning prayer service at Sun Wha Methodist Church in DaeJeon, a city of 1.5 million people 150 miles south of Seoul, which was our home base for the time we were in Korea. Sun Wha is served by Rev. Kibok Lee, who also serves as bishop of the South Conference, which has 550 churches in DaeJeon and the surrounding area. Bishop Lee greeted us when we arrived at 4:45 am and indicated that we would sit in the second pew, just behind some of the church's lay leaders. In the few minutes before service started, I looked around to see the church filling up with men in suits and women in dresses and pant suits, coming to church before work and before getting the children off to school. It appeared that the church which seats approximately 300 was going to be nearly full that morning.

The service started with a call to worship by a Lay speaker, followed by a hymn which was familiar. There was an opening prayer, and then an anthem by the choir which had about 35 people. Our delegation which was made up of David Argo, Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, JW Park and myself, were then invited to come up front to sing. We had been prepared for this and sang "Sanctuary" followed by a bow. The bishop then read the scripture lesson for the day which was Revelation 2:1-7 with the title "Return to Your First Love".

Bishop Lee preached his entire sermon with a line in English followed by the same line in Korean. It was clear that he had prepared his sermon in English as a way of offering radical hospitality to us. What was even more astounding was that April 1 was the opening session of their Annual Conference which would be convening at 10 am that same morning at one of the large Methodist churches in the city and Bishop Lee would be presiding.

The theme of the sermon was that the church in Ephesus had grown strong in programs, deeds and perseverance. Yet they had forgotten their first love. And for that reason, their light on the golden lampstand was in jeopardy of being taken away. The first love refers to when we first came to love Jesus Christ. Bishop Lee reminded us that without the love of Jesus in our hearts, all of our deeds are empty and would be better not to have been done. He implored the congregation to return to loving Christ and not get caught in all of the things of church. It was a powerful message for 5:15 in the morning!

Then the prayer started. Wow. The congregation shouted Lord! Lord! Lord! in unison, the lights flickered and then went dim, and the organ began playing hymns. Bishop Lee prayed from the pulpit into the microphone while everyone else began praying out loud at the same time. This is a Korean way of praying called Tongsung Kido (see page 445 in the United Methodist Book of Worship).

The prayer was loud, in Korean and I believe in spiritual tongues also, and went on for about 10 minutes. Many people came forward to kneel during this time on the platform in the chancel near the cross. Then the prayer wound down, there was a brief benediction, and everyone practically ran out of the church to go to work and other activities of the day. It left me full and breathless at the same time.

One of the women wrote a letter to me in which she spoke in part about the power of the daily morning prayer.

I feel the love of God everyday. The Lord understands me best and God understands my weaknesses and accepts me as I am. God prepares very good things for me. I meet the Lord who heals me everyday in the early morning service. The Holy Spirit comes to me as the Spirit of joy. The Spirit puts wonderful thoughts in me. The Holy Spirit supplies me life energy so I can go on living. My spirit is transformed everyday so I can share God's love with others.

Receiving from God - drinking in the presence of Christ - basking in his grace - is opening to what God has for us each day. Andrew Murray in his book The Inner Life calls this the morning watch. This is simply receiving from God in the morning what God desires to make directly to us. Grace which is all in all.

One of the strengths of this kind of worship in which everyone prays out loud for an extended period and then heads out to the days' activities is that the awareness and learnings of the morning are locked in. This form of prayer is a symbol or a structure which deepens the experience and forwards the action. I wonder what we could be doing in our churches to deepen the experience of worship and lock it in to our understanding and action for the day or the week?

I have come back home with the mark of prayer in my life in a profound way. Prayer unites us with each other and with God so that we can move from asking God to help us do our tasks to asking God to help us to be about what God desires each day. It is a time to bring together the separated parts of our lives into an undivided unity of thought and purpose. And, I am going to be looking for ways to lock in the learnings and the experiences we have with God so that they have the kind of ongoing influence and life-shaping transformation that is possible.