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

A Prayer for Tim Challies

A few days ago Tim Challies lost his college-aged son. He wrote about it here, saying, “Yesterday the Lord called my son to himself—my dear son, my sweet son, my kind son, my godly son, my only son.” His son was playing a game with friends and his fiancée when he suddenly collapsed and couldn’t be revived.

I don’t know Tim well. He endorsed one of my books and wrote the foreword to another. Once, I emailed him asking for help and advice, and he gave me a 20-minute phone call to coach me through the problem. When I think of Tim, besides his faithfulness to the Lord and the helpfulness of his books and blog posts, I think of his generosity. Many bloggers become myopically self-focused, but Tim keeps his writing ministry about God’s glory, serving his readers, and promoting the work of others.

When Challies posted about the tragedy, he wrote, “And we ask that you remember us in your prayers as we mourn our loss together.” Would you take a minute to do that for Tim and his wife now?

“Heavenly Father, please comfort Tim and Aileen in their terrible loss. When a man who loves words—and spends his life using them for your glory and the good of your people—has nothing to say, whisper to his heart that you are still God and you love him and his wife. Father, when a hurricane of pain and anger and sadness attempts to overwhelm them, be their refuge; be the firm foundation upon which they can stand, the rock that won’t be shaken when all around their soul gives way. And may they grieve, but may they grieve as those with hope—the hope of your gospel goodness, hope of their son’s presence in heaven with you, hope of your second coming, and hope of the day when you will wipe away every tear from every eye. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

* Photo by zenad nabil on Unsplash

On Pastoral Prayer: It Should not Be so Difficult for Me but It Is

This summer the pastor-elders of our church listened to a 9Marks podcast about leading corporate prayers during church worship services (here). We found Jonathan Leeman and Mark Dever’s discussion both stimulating and convicting. We even made the change to incorporate more time for meaningful prayer during our worship services.

Now, each of our pastor-elders takes a Sunday to pray before the offering is collected, which is typically done right before the sermon. Sometimes teaching and travel schedules are such that an elder-qualified man who is not currently a pastor-elder may lead the prayer. But you get the idea. The prayer typically lasts around five minutes and often has overlap with the themes of the sermon. I’m so thankful Scott, one of our lay pastor-elders, initiated and maintains this ministry.

This weekend it was my turn to pray. We had a service less full than normal, so I took the opportunity to stretch us a bit by praying closer to ten minutes. It stretched me too. Because we’ve recently had an influx of newcomers, I used the opportunity to pray through our church’s five-year goals, which our leaders think and pray about often, but, admittedly, we do a poorer job of keeping in front of our people. For what it’s worth, we’re in year four of five.

Below is an edited version of the prayer I wrote Sunday morning before church. Jesus warned against praying in public to be seen by others (Matthew 6:1–4). But Jesus did not mean this as an indictment against all public prayer, for he immediately proceeded to teach us what we call the Lord’s Prayer. In this stream, I share below my pastoral prayer from last Sunday. I hope it encourages you to make prayer an increasingly important part of your local church services.

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Heavenly Father, we pause when looking over our goals. We do not want to be like those described in the book of James, those who in their arrogance and self-reliance presumed that by simply putting in time and effort they could bring about their goals of more profit and more abundance, not realizing their lives—indeed, our lives—depend upon you for strength and energy. Our hearts do not beat, and our lungs do not breathe, apart from your sustaining grace. We read in the book of Hebrews that your Son upholds the universe by the word of his power. The planets of the solar system continue to orbit because you say so, just as the details of our lives are held in place because you say so.

Yet, Lord—acknowledging your sovereignty, acknowledging your goodness, acknowledging the power of the gospel that is at work among us—we come boldly before your throne of grace.

Plant a church

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us plant another church in the city of Harrisburg, not for our glory and fame but for the name and renown of the one who spilled his blood so that more and more people could taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

We thank you for those who, some twenty years ago, left the comfort of a great church so they might, by your grace and power, labor to see our church built up in love. May you even now be giving some among us that same kind of pioneering, sacrificial spirit who see the name of Jesus being magnified as of more importance than the comfort of attending an established church.

Pursue a “new” facility & Care for our local community

Heavenly Father, we give you praise for our church building. We thank you for the beauty of the renovations you enabled us to complete eighteen months ago and the way people continue to come to this church building and find hope and peace and comfort. Lord, we thank you for the neighborhood in which you placed us. We thank you for the inroads that have been made in this community. May you enable us to become servants who seek to bless our neighbors in your name.

As we see brokenness around us—whether it be the search for joy that takes place in the strip clubs just around the corner or the quiet lives of desperation led by many who feel alone in their homes—we pray that you would make our church building a safe place, a place where people can heal and find joy that will truly satisfy.

Increase racial and ethnic diversity

Heavenly Father, please help our church to grow in racial and ethnic diversity as a testimony to the uniting power of the gospel. We thank you for those among us who enrich our lives by bringing other perspectives. We thank you for the dozens of people who come to our building three days a week to learn English as a second language. We thank you especially for those who have taken a particular interest in the immigrants and refugees among us. Lord, please forgive us for being slower to help than we ought; forgive us for being reluctant to reach out; forgive us for being hesitant to love. Forgive us, Lord, for using the pronouns us and them.

Stay streamlined, program-light

Heavenly Father, when we set the goal to be streamlined and program-light at our church, we do not intend to stifle the work of your Holy Spirit among us. Forgive us, Lord, if that has happened or is currently happening.

Lord, we do not want to be streamlined and program-light because it’s easier or because it allows us to remain lazy, preferring our comfort over your mission. We do not aim to be streamlined and program-light so we can have more Netflix.

Instead, we believe we should measure spiritual maturity, not by how often we attend church meetings other than Sunday mornings, but by how many of our neighbors and co-workers we know well enough and have loved well enough that they could ask us to pray for them when their lives seem to be crashing down around them. In a culture that applies increasing pressure to do more and more and more, we ask that you help us to intentionally build margin into our lives so that when your Spirit does lead us to begin new ministries, we can do so with joy and obedience.

Lord, we long to stay streamlined and program-light so that the members of this church are not so burdened with the ministry initiatives of our leaders that they can’t be free to serve you wholeheartedly as your Spirit leads them; we long for a passion for new ministries to bubble up from within the hearts of those who call this church home. Lord, I thank you for the new ministry of the Christmas Giving Tree that will bless those among us with Christmas presents signifying, in tangible ways, your love for us. We’ve never done this before, but I thank you, Lord, for placing the idea upon the hearts of a few individuals and giving them the vision and obedience to see it become a reality.

Expand evangelism ministry

Heavenly Father, we pray for our evangelism ministry. Oh, that you would cause your gospel to go forth from us with greater power. Lord, as we share the story of the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, and his second coming, oh that more and more people would come to understand the sacrifice you made for them. Lord, would you cause your good news to be received by us in such a way that it is actually treasured as good news, news we long to share with others. Forgive us that our love for you is so small that we find it easier to talk about things that are here today and gone tomorrow.

Connect and disciple newcomers

Heavenly Father, you commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, to baptize people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You promised that your authority, your power, and your presence would be with us as we do so. I pray for the many relationships that have formed among our church, relationships not built around simply having coffee or watching our children play together, but relationships intentionally seeking to help one another be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Lord, many at our church have no idea what being in a discipleship relationship would be like—to have someone to offer sound, biblical counsel and someone to weep with when their children walk away from the faith. Lord, would you make us into the type of church where discipleship relationships are not only natural but that to not be in intentional discipleship relationships would be seen as rare and unusual.

Lord, I pray especially for the older, mature Christians among us who were never themselves discipled by someone else. I pray that though they never received such care, they would build into others, giving what they never directly received.

Lord, as I think about the connection’s ministry of our church, I pray for the new pastor we are seeking to hire. We’ve been looking and praying for the last six months and are currently interviewing pastors. Give us wisdom; we need it.

Lord, I think about what one candidate said when we asked what it might look like for a connections ministry to thrive here at Community. He said it might look not so much like one new pastor doing all the work of connections, but rather like a congregation who sees themselves more and more as connecting pastors and a church where a young couple notices an elderly couple who needs care and love and, unprompted by staff pastors, they move toward each other in love. Lord, yes, for more and more of this kind of connection here among us.

Increasingly become a church of prayer

Finally, Heavenly Father, we ask you to make us a church that increasingly values prayer. I don’t think we are good at this, at least I do not think I am good at this. Praying to you in a church service for ten uninterrupted minutes should not be as difficult as it is. Forgive me for thinking I can build your church simply through effort and time on task. Forgive me for mistaking commotion and activity and sawdust flying around in the air for the substance of true spiritual life. Lord, we will cast our cares upon you when we see the weakness of our shoulders and the futility of our ingenuity.

As we call out to you in prayer—as a church gathered together in unity on Sunday mornings; as a church scattered around the city in small group Bible studies during the week; as families and homes and individuals who follow you when no one is watching but you—Lord, surprise us with the beauty of your grace, the joy of your forgiveness, and the peace of your presence.

So we ask all this, Heavenly Father, knowing you can do more than we could ask or imagine. And we pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, by which we mean prayers prayed not consistent with our will but Christ’s will and prayers prayed not on our authority but upon Christ’s authority.

Amen.

* Photo by Tyson Dudley on Unsplash

T minus 4 Hours and a Preaching Prayer

It’s early on Sunday morning August 24, 2014. I’m at the office. I just printed out a fresh copy of my sermon. In a few minutes, I’ll make the 1/4 mile walk from our church office building, through the Lawnton neighborhood, to our church building. There, I’ll have an hour or so to work through the sermon material before the worship team arrives for their practice.

When I get there, the building will be quiet and dark.

I like being in church before everyone else. It gives time to think and time to pray. Often, one of the things I pray before a sermon comes from a resolution I made years ago. But before I tell you the prayer and the resolution, let me tell you the backstory.

The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

Eleven years ago, I stumbled upon “The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards,” the 18th century New England pastor. He wrote the resolutions as a young man.

I liken Edwards’ resolutions to your typical New Year’s Resolutions, except he injected his resolutions with steroids.

The final product has 70 resolutions. They have some repetition and all are written in lengthy Puritan prose, but regardless, they are worth reading and reflection. (You’ll find them easily enough with a quick Google search, but here is one site that helpfully groups the resolutions topically.)

Just to give you the flavor of them, here are 2 of my favorites:

28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time. Jan. 14 and July 3, 1723.

See what I mean. New Year’s Resolutions on HGH—and, of course, the Spirit of God.

My Resolution and a Preaching Prayer

Over a decade ago, when I read Edwards’ resolutions, I felt challenged to write my own. By now, I have a few of them but only one related to preaching.

Here it is:

1. Resolved, whenever I should preach, that the prayer of my heart, and the subsequent fruit of my lips would be this: that God’s Word would parade in glory and ransom hearts to holy worship.

I love the imagery of a parade—the Word of God in a glorious victory march, captivating the hearts and minds of God’s people, and moving them to holy, Christ-exalting thoughts, words, and deeds of worship.

My other resolutions are, you might say, not as “spiritual,” but I still like them. For example,

4. Resolved, not to let my heart become so frazzled that it cannot feel poetry.

7. Resolved, never to multi-task while eating dark chocolate or drinking pumpkin coffee.

T minus 4 Hours

For now, back to the task at hand: prayer—because in 4 hours, it will be time to preach.

At our church this morning we will finish a series through the Book of Haggai—a governor named Zerubbabel, a signet ring, and God overthrowing all of his enemies. Exciting.

Lord, may the prayer of my heart, and the subsequent fruit of my lips, be your Word parading in glory and ransoming hearts to holy worship.

Amen.

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