Leadership Journal

The political situation was tense when the Continental Congress met for the first time on September 5, 1774. It was moved that the Congress should be opened with prayer. Following debate, the motion carried, and two days later, Jacob Duche, an Episcopal clergyman in Philadelphia, read Psalm 85 and prayed. John Adams wrote later that to see George Washington and others kneeling and praying for Boston, whose port had been closed by British troops, "was enough to melt a heart of stone."

Today, the tradition of prayer at the opening of Congress is carried on by James David Ford. Ford became chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1979 and has been re-elected every two years since. He also counsels and calls on members of Congress.

Preparing him for that role, Ford served as pastor of a country church in Minnesota and as chaplain, for eighteen years, at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was the youngest person and the first Lutheran to hold that post.

Leadership editors Kevin Miller and Marshall Shelley met Ford in his Washington office, once occupied by Henry Clay, to talk about being faithful in the midst of power and conflict.

What do you hope your invocations for the House will do?

Ford: I have a problem with trying to measure these things. My mother died at age 60, and I had prayed she'd be healed. I lost a brother at age 5.

I don't pray to God because of the results. I pray to God because I know God. God created me. I pray with Christ who redeemed me. That's what's important.

In the spring of 1976 I sailed the Atlantic Ocean with a couple of friends. In a thirty-one-foot vessel, we sailed from Plymouth, England, to New York-5,992 miles. During the trip, we hit a real hurricane-some of the waves were thirty-five feet high-and frankly, I was scared. My father had said, "Don't go. You have five children. Wait till they're grown."

The hurricane went into its third day, and I thought of my father's words about the children. I thought, Why am I out here? Was this thing that I thought was courage and adventure really just foolhardy?

The skies were black, and clouds were scudding by. I wanted to pray for God to stop the storm, but I felt guilty 'cause I'd voluntarily gotten into this. I didn't have to go across the ocean. We've got airplanes to do it now, and I was going across at six miles an hour.

So is God obligated to save the foolhardy?

Thank you for putting it in a nutshell. Finally I came up with a marvelous prayer, seven words: "O God, I have had enough. Amen."

Within half an hour of that simple prayer, the sky in the west lifted like a screen in a theater, and there was blue sky.

Was my prayer tied to the opening of the sky? I don't worry about it.

Wait. What made you decide to sail the Atlantic?

On my fortieth birthday, I was with friends, and somebody said, "What are your goals?"

I said, "I'll give you four goals I'll meet in four years." Without thinking about it, I listed four things I ...