Upon further reflection, there is one aspect of this which makes me a little bit uncomfortable- though the word "blasphemous" is probably a little strong.

The way I view prayer is a communion with God, and that is its primary (even the intercessory kind) purpose. So asking someone to pray in a study who isn't really trying to commune with God kind of misses the point and kind of abuses (though that might be a strong word) the wonderful invitation God gave us to commune with him. So that aspect makes me a little uncomfortable.

Of course, not everyone views prayer in the way I do. Some definitly approach it like the "God vending machine"- plop in a prayer and get something good. But this just serves to muddle the study, as it would seem you likely have people participating with different motivations, really even different definitions of what prayer IS.

But that's just re-iterating my original point. My point in this post is that it does make me a little uncomfortable, but only because my personal belief is that prayer is not a means by which we "get stuff" from God, which is how this study seems to treat it.