Relational Journaling: The Open-Ended Conversation

While I was in Kiev in February, one of my colleagues introduced me to a practice that he called spiritual mapping. Related to prayer walking, it is a discipline by which a prayerful observer can begin to document his observations in a logical and hopefully strategic format for later reflection. By posing “why” questions to those around him (ie. passersby, fruit salesmen, benchwarmers, etc.), he can find out information like why people walk in certain directions, why more people come this way or that, or why certain buildings were built. These questions can often lead into more spiritual conversations and hopefully open up into THE conversation about Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. But even if the questions don’t get that far, any information gained is invaluable to understanding the area for later strategic evangelistic engagement. I really liked this practice, so I began to undertake more intentional prayer walking ventures personally. I’m trying to document my experiences for any co-workers who might come later to follow-up with that area.

But this discipline also led me to synthesize another practice introduced to me in Houston- prayer journaling. Some of my colleagues there make an intentional effort to write in prayer journals about what God is saying to them on a daily basis. This practice is very useful in seeing how God answers our prayers over time, and it is also helpful to see how our spiritual lives grow.

Taking the best of both practices, I began a relational journal that would document any time I had an even slight spiritual conversation with someone. I had been concerned for a while that I needed to be even more intentional about having face to face time with lost people. So this seemed to be a good idea.

Since early February, I’ve been carrying a small notebook (4”X6”) everywhere I go. I made 3 columns: date, names, explanation. Any time I had a face-to-face encounter with someone, I wrote down the date, their names, and what I could continue to pray about for that person. Not only did I list evangelism encounters, but I also listed an entry anytime someone asked me specifically to pray for someone. It took some discipline to begin to carry the notebook with me everywhere, but habits form easily enough. It has been absolutely amazing to see what God has already done and how being intentional has led to an increased awareness of the potential for spiritual conversations all around me every day. For that reason, I’ve begun to call this discipline “The Conversation”; it’s just my personal way to document and pray each day for the ongoing dialogue God is having with men & women in my presence. Talk about being on mission with God!

One brief example of how God has already used this revolves around a spiritual conversation that began with 3 young guys on the street in Kiev. They were from a remote village in southern Ukraine. They gave me their telephone numbers, and I promised to continue to pray for them. After returning to Moscow, I discovered that one of my friends in church was traveling to that very village. So I told her the story about my encounter with these guys, and we planned more followup through a local church that her cousin attends in that village. My prayer is now not only for the salvation of Dima, Slava and Sergei, but for the local church in their town as they call them and invite more conversation.