That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs What If We Actually Prayed the Way Jesus Taught Us? with Matt Smallbone- Episode 1037
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Mar 2, 2026 Matt Smallbone, pastor of Church of the City’s downtown Nashville campus and author of The Prayer Experiment, shares how the Lord’s Prayer reshaped his prayer life. He recounts moving from music to ministry, wrestling with grief and returning to prayer, and practical rhythms like communal petitions, daily bread, forgiveness, fasting, and spiritual protection. Stories and pastoral wisdom pepper the conversation.
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Miscarriage Led To Years Of Prayer Silence
- Matt Smallbone stopped praying for years after his wife miscarried while he was on tour with Michael W. Smith.
- He describes missing texts, arriving home, and carrying secret grief that led to a long silence from God before later reconciling with prayer.
Pray The Lord's Prayer As A Daily Discipline
- Try praying the Lord's Prayer as Jesus taught it repeatedly as a daily discipline instead of inventing other methods.
- Matt committed to praying the Lord's Prayer several times a day for a year and called it the core of his Prayer Experiment.
Our Pronoun Changes The Prayer's Purpose
- The Lord's Prayer reframes prayer as communal by starting with Our Father, not My Father, shifting you from self-focused petitions.
- Matt says this pronoun shift made him realize God manages many children's prayers and that he can't 'only child' his way to God.
