Earlier this year I launched a hyperlocal prayer book for Grand Rapids, called PRAYERS FOR MY CITY. It is an amended version of The Book of Common Prayer with twenty-one unique prayers I wrote specifically for Grand Rapids. I am happy that it has been well-received by people here and look forward to hearing how it takes people deeper into relationship with God and their city through prayer.

From the beginning when I set out to create a prayer book for Grand Rapids I had interest in creating three separate hyperlocal prayer guides for West Michigan, not only for Grand Rapids but also for Muskegon and Holland, too. When I started pastoring in Muskegon a month ago I saw so much need and just knew I had to release this well-received prayer guide for the Muskegon community as a way to rally the Muskegon Church to pray for the renovation of her city.

I’m pleased to announce that today I am releasing a similar prayer guide for Muskegon. It takes the same format, many of the prayers from the first book, and includes a few other prayers I wrote specifically for the Muskegon community. It is available as an ebook for NOOK and Kindle today and should be available in print online in a few days. I am also working with a local bookstore in Muskegon to carry it, as I did here in Grand Rapids.

As I mentioned before, I discovered the ancient practice and power of fixed-hour prayer myself while working as a pastor of sorts on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Some staffer friends and I used this practice during the Season of Lent. It was a life changing experience for me, an experience that inspired me to create a website for iPhone and iPod users to access this condensed, amended version of the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayer, which became the foundation for this series.

Our world is speeding up, people are busy, and worship is considered a waste of time. I hope this book will be an oasis in the middle of this chaos, and help people in Muskegon reorient their lives around God and their neighbors, together in community, for the glory of God and good of our city.

Below is the preface I wrote for this second version.

About a year ago I was using a fixed-hour prayer guide from a website I created over five years ago, http://dailyoffice.novuslumen.net, when it hit me: Why should this prayer guide remain contained only on the internet? Why not create a book using this condensed prayer guide that has helped thousands of people connect to God on-line, with the hopes that it will have as great of an impact off-line? So I thought, Why not?

But as I began the editing process of turning my on-line project into an off-line one in print, I wanted to do something more. I have always had a passion for my “place”—whether Hudsonville growing up, Cedarville at college, Washington D.C. after I fled West Michigan, or Grand Rapids after I returned five years later. So I thought, why not create this prayer guide specifically for my place, my city? So I did, by writing twenty-one unique prayers specifically for the contemporary needs of Grand Rapids to sit alongside the ancient prayers of this historic Church practice.

Almost a year later I published my first prayer book for West Michigan, PRAYERS FOR MY CITY: A Fixed-Hour Prayer Guide for Grand Rapids. I published this prayer guide to coincide with the City of Grand Rapids’ “Year of Interfaith Understanding” as an ecumenical prayer book that I had hoped would help bring people together by transcending denominational dividing lines and barriers. I’m thankful this prayer guide has been warmly received and I am eager to hear how it takes people deeper into relationship with God through discovering—or perhaps rediscovering—the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayer.

The book you are holding here is a second version of the original book, only tailored for the Muskegon community. Many of the same prayers that were written for the original book appear in this second book, along with some other prayers I wrote specifically for the needs of Muskegon.

As I have begun pastoring in this city, I have noticed several deep, heavy needs: people need provision in the form of jobs, food, and housing; families need stability and marriages need to be strengthened; kids need good schools to help them flourish as productive, creative citizens; God’s beautiful creation needs to be cared for and protected; lots of people need to find new life in Christ; and we need to conquer any and all historic dividing lines—economic, racial, religious—in order to create a vibrant, hospitable, safe community once again.

So the needs are great, but I believe they can be solved through prayer. I believe strongly in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the Church of Jesus Christ prays, things change. Both individual and social problems are transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit working through prayer; the needs of people and community are met through the faithful prayers of God’s people.

More than ever we need God’s people to faithfully come together, in one voice, and pray for their community. As I begin to pastor in Muskegon, I will look forward to seeing prayer after prayer answered not only in the lives of the people of my church community, but also in the life of my new city, Muskegon. I trust this book will provide as much of a starting place for the Muskegon Church to come together and pray for themselves and their city as much as it has for the Grand Rapids Church.

—Jeremy Bouma • June 1, 2012