Avoid Announcement Prayers (and Other Advice for Congregational Prayer)

Our church recently made a small adjustment to the public prayer at our church during worship services. For the past few years, we have often had a segment called the “pastoral prayer” led by our pastor-elders. To better foster a culture of prayer, one of our key church goals for the year, we wanted to expand this part of the service to include others beyond our pastor-elders.

We now refer to the time of prayer as “congregational prayers.” About twice a month, our pastor-elders still lead the prayer, while on other weeks, a man or woman from the congregation who has a calling to prayer does so. This expansion of who prays in a service doesn’t change our belief about the office of pastor-elder or who can preach on a Sunday, but we do believe that God has gifted both men and women in prayer, and we see it as good and right to share that gift with the church. We also noticed while studying 1 Corinthians 11 last year in our preaching series that both men and women seemed to have prayed during church services, and we want Scripture to shape our lives.

Another pastor at our church, Noah Gwinn, and I co-wrote some guidelines to help our leaders pray. And when I say “co-wrote,” we literally did. There were moments when we both typed in different parts of the Google Doc at the same time. For a few months I’ve wondered if our reflections could help others outside our church. So I asked for Noah’s permission to share it here.

In the guidelines we first suggest some practices that we hope to encourage, and then we name a few that we try to discourage. Neither are meant to be rules or commandments; they are more guidelines and best practices. Even if your church handles prayer differently, perhaps our thoughts can help you refine what you do.

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We encourage those praying to…

1. Incorporate Scripture
   Pastor Tim Keller said that prayer is “continuing a conversation that God has started through his Word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.” Using Scripture in our prayers communicates that our prayers are situated in this ongoing conversation and that they align with God’s heart.

2. Stay “on theme”
   As best as we can, we draw the theme of each sermon from the theme of the passage of Scripture. And we often take our cues about the theme of the whole service here as well. So, if the passage is Matthew 6 and addresses, say, our worries and God’s provision, it might be good to have the prayer reflect these themes as well. If you’re the person praying on a given week, we want you to check with the person preaching by at least Thursday so that he can give you any guidance or direction, though it’s possible the preacher will have already checked in with you. Also, we typically have a preaching schedule set for 6–8 months in advance, so you’ll be able to read the passages well ahead of time. Related to the theme of the sermon and service, there is also a tone worth considering, whether more joyful or more somber or any number of emotions. Think of the varied expressions in the Psalms. This is also something you might want to confirm with the worship leader during the week leading up to the prayer. (Additionally, any major national or global events, or those among our local congregation, will obviously influence the tone of our prayers.)

3. Write your prayers beforehand
   Some people feel like writing prayers makes the prayers less fresh and spontaneous, as though when we pray extemporaneously that is more authentic. This might be true. But it’s also often true that when people pray from the top of their mind, they fall into ruts and cliched language. We do not believe anyone needs to bring the written prayer to the stage, but it could help. If nothing else, please create an outline that will lead you as you lead others. 

4. Watch the clock
   We don’t want to be overly concerned about time, allowing us to be free to follow God’s leading. But at the same time, those planning our service find it helpful to know about how long someone might be praying. We suggest shooting for 3-5 minutes in total, from walking on stage to walking off. Practicing it a few times will let you know you’re in that range.

5. Keep your intro very short
   Please just do a quick introduction, something like, “My name is _____, and I’ll be leading the congregational prayer. Let’s pray together.” Your intro can be a bit longer. But not much. Don’t do a homily or sermonette. And if you want to read a short passage, perhaps there is a way to include that in the actual prayer. (“Lord, in your Word we read that…”). To be fair, you’ve sometimes seen our pastor-elders do longer intros when they pray, but as much as possible, we’d like to limit that. 

6. Be yourself and be reverent
   God has made each of us in his image, but he has also made each of us uniquely. Let the person God has made you come through in your prayers. Don’t feel like you must pray like anyone else. We can often feel this pressure as preachers. While we have benefited from pastors such as John Piper and Timothy Keller, both of these men are different preachers—and neither of them are on staff at our church. When it comes to humor, we can certainly be thankful God has made some of us funny. But we have to remember that in congregational prayer, we are leading God’s people to speak with God, the creator of the universe. Such a wonderful and joyful experience should also include reverence.

7. Come ten minutes early
   When you arrive, please locate the worship leader and preaching pastor and inform them that you’re there. It’s not common, but sometimes details of the service need to shift. Also, knowing you are here helps put us all at ease. And if you’re there early, please feel free to pray with the music team a few minutes before the first service. 

8. Pray for our ministry partners in a natural way
   This might not even be something you’ve noticed before, but at the bottom of our weekly email we highlight one of our dozen ministry partners. We put that same partner on the slides that run before and after the service. We have them on a rotation. It’s often nice to pray for them during congregational prayers. At the same time, we don’t want it to feel like we’re just tacking them onto our prayers out of duty or to complete a “prayer template.” Do your best to be natural. And if you do include prayers for the partner, make sure you give enough context for the congregation to know what we’re praying about. You don’t have to “pray” a person’s bio, but some context helps. A good example might sound like, “Lord, please bless David and Shawna who serve with our denomination and help young people follow Jesus. We ask that you would…”

9. Pray for our attention to the Word
   The congregational prayers often occur immediately before the reading of Scripture and preaching. For this reason, it often makes good sense to include lines at the end of your prayer about God giving us focused attention on his Word. You don’t need to pray for the preaching pastor by name. 

10. Pray for the things most relevant to us as a church body
    There are an infinite number of good things we could be praying for, but we try to use our congregational prayer time on Sunday mornings to pray for those things that feel closest to us as a church. When events happen in our city or among our membership, they tend to be more appropriate for public prayer than event in the life of some distant cousin of a church member, for example. With this being said, sometimes there are national or global events that rise to a level of concern for us as a body, and we have a responsibility to bring these things before the Lord. Scripture calls us to pray for our leaders, both locally and beyond. The congregational prayer leader often has more flexibility to address recent events than the preacher, who might be less nimble with his sermon. All this being said, we would encourage you not to go out of your way to look for the latest crisis to pray for. Again, just check with the preacher as needed.

11. Seek feedback
    It might seem strange that others would evaluate someone’s prayer. Aren’t we praying to the Lord? Who are we to judge? Certainly, no one here believes we should try to foster a critical spirit. But we can all improve in the exercise of our gifts. We encourage those praying during church (as with any other service roles) to seek feedback and accept it with humility, whether the feedback was asked for or unsolicited.

We discourage those praying from…

1. Speaking in Christianese or using prayer jargon
   It can be easy for us as Christians to use language that is personally meaningful to us, but that same wording may be unhelpful or distracting in public prayer. For example, maybe instead of praying for God to place “a hedge of protection” around a ministry partner, pray that God would protect them with wording found directly in Scripture or in common vernacular. This makes our prayers both more intelligible and less distracting. Additionally, when praying, many of us can fall back on prayer jargon we have picked up on, such as, “Lord… just… just… Lord….” Writing out our prayers beforehand will help with this and will keep our prayers clear and focused.

2. Incorporating Scripture in a distracting way
   There are many natural ways to incorporate Scripture into our prayers, and there are also some clunky ways. Beginning every phrase of our prayers with, “As David said in Psalm 23…” or “As the Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter addressed to the church located in the city of Corinth, a city that struggled with all kinds of things…” can distract us from the heart of the conversation with God and what the Word actually calls us to do and to be. Pick up on themes and use phrases, but avoid distraction.

3. Fumbling with the microphone
   While it is possible that we encounter technical difficulties when praying, let’s stay calm, check the mic, and carry on. If the mic is switched on but no sound is being transmitted, it’s the sound tech’s responsibility, not yours. While talking about mics, we’ll share one comment about how to hold the mic. Don’t hold it down by your chest; keep it up high by your chin, which helps the people in the sound booth deliver the volume in an effective way.

4. Turning prayers into announcements
   While our prayer time can be a wonderful opportunity to pray for the ministries and programs taking place at church, let’s avoid turning it into a time to share information with the congregation. For example, don’t pray, “Lord, we pray for the men’s breakfast taking place at 8 am in the Fellowship Hall this Saturday. The attendance looks low, so we pray that many men will sign up in the lobby following this service. We bless you in advance for the sweet bacon and coffee that will be provided free of charge, unless people want to make a donation, which can be done in person or online by scanning the QR code that will be made available then…” ;-) 

5. Unexpected deviation from our normal prayer patterns
   We love the thought that while you prepare to pray, God may lead you to change our normal routine of prayer. You might feel like God wants people to stand up as we pray, or maybe we should kneel. Or you might want people to be silent or perhaps pray with those sitting in the pew next to them. All of this could be wonderful. But we would prefer that these deviations not become the norm, and if you do have the desire to try something new, we’d love to hear about it first. Please coordinate in advance with the worship leader and the preacher. It’s not our desire to micromanage each person’s prayers. However, it is our desire and responsibility to ensure that the service is conducted in an orderly manner. 

 * Photo by Christian Harb on Unsplash