RIVERSIDE'S ANSWER HAS GREAT APPEAL

Can Peoria pray itself out of its problems?

Beats me. But it's worth a shot.

I don't mean just blanket pleas like, "God, please don't let Peoria
go to hell in a hand cart." I mean specific, targeted prayers for
people who need them most.

I saw this on Sunday at Riverside Community Church, which took over
the Shrine Mosque in 2000. I've popped in only a few times, but it
must be a pretty decent place: in just six years weekly attendance
has gone from 300 to 1,500.

Riverside is one of those annoying churches that actually expects the
faithful to do more than just go to a church on Sundays. It's a
service-crazy place, with missions ranging from rehabbing churches in
the Amazon jungle to giving away backpacks stuffed with school
supplies to Peoria's poor.

Through it all, Riverside's leaders stress the power of prayer:
nothing is impossible with divine intercession. You can ask God to
move mountains, but sometimes you just need a little lift.

That's what happened two days ago, on Riverside's second annual
Education Sunday. The aim: encouraging educators with thanks and prayer.

The pastor asked all educators (teachers and administrators of all
levels, public and private) to stand. Then the crowd applauded - long
and hard. Next, the pastor asked the educators (some of whom had no
prior idea about all of this) to join him up front.

The pastor then had the congregation join him in praying for the
educators: for strength in the classroom, for help with difficult
challenges born outside school, even for aid in stretching teachers'
notoriously tiny paychecks.

The whole deal took only five minutes, but the statement was
powerful: Riverside respects teachers to the point of holding them up
for special assistance.

Even if you think spirituality is hocus-pocus, the overture has a
secular value. A teacher can't help but get a boost from a cheering,
loving crowd.

What's special about Riverside's approach is its specificity. It's
one thing (though a good thing) for a church to offer broad prayers
for our school systems. It's another to single out teachers, say
thank you and shower them with prayer.

Afterward, I asked pastor John King if any other local churches do
anything like Education Sunday.

"I don't know," he said. "We just knew we had to."

Note what he said: The church didn't just want to pray - it had to.
Such is the state of our educational system, especially District 150.

Can this idea catch on? Are other churches of all types bold enough
to embrace and bolster educators?

No, prayer won't suddenly rid schools of gangs, drugs and guns. And
it won't immediately make all parents responsible and nurturing.

But prayer certainly can aid harried educators in their struggle to
handle challenges that go beyond the three Rs.

While we're at it, why not focus on other groups facing difficulties
in Peoria? How about churches targeting police officers? Or parents?
Or even the Peoria City Council?

Maybe you can dismiss this idea as simplistic and naive. Still, it
doesn't require the city to spend taxpayer money on studies or
anything like that.

It's prayer. It's free.

Look at it from an economics standpoint: the cost-benefit
possibilities are overwhelmingly weighed to the positive.