Jonathan Graf
The early church in Acts did four things when it gathered together.
“They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship,
in the breaking of bread and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). I don’t think
that means 25% percent of the time was given to each, but it clearly
shows a significant importance was put on each element. If our church
gatherings were measured against those four things, where would we
stand?
Clearly corporate prayer was given a significant place in early church
meetings. In our day, most churches relegate prayer to a pastor or
leader praying once or twice in a service, maybe a worship leader
offering a simple prayer amid a song set, perhaps there is a time for
people to come forward and be prayed for. While these are important
expressions of prayer, they do not usually constitute powerful,
corporate prayer.
Instead, corporate prayer has been relegated to the weekly prayer
meeting, certainly an important service and event for a church.
Unfortunately many churches have disbanded these due to lack of
interest or sheer boredom. Most prayer meetings have become a few
sitting around in a circle, taking requests about all the physical and
personal needs of the church’s members, then praying until each one has
been mentioned. It is hardly a dynamic time of powerful corporate
prayer.
Congregations need to experience powerful, dynamic, earth-changing
corporate prayer. And the best place to experience it is in the Sunday
morning worship service. Why? Three reasons:
- Because prayer is not truly corporate unless it is done with
all your people. The morning worship is the only place where you have
most of your people each week. Acts 12:5 tells us that “Peter was
therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for
him by the church. ” We can have good times of people praying together
at other moments, but the value of an entire congregation calling out
to God in agreement is extremely powerful. When a congregation agrees
on something and prays, it is effective!
- It teaches your
people how to pray. These days, most believers never participate in
times of praying with others. They may observe prayer a few times in a
worship service, but they are never required to try it. As a result,
most believers do not have any confidence to pray. When they can see
and hear others pray, that can grow their own prayer lives as well.
- It
is easier to have a leader-led prayer time in the morning worship
service than at a less formal weeknight meeting. This is important for
prayer to be truly effective. In the midweek service, often times
well-meaning pray-ers will take the prayer meeting away from a leader
to pray about their own agendas. This will not happen in a worship
service. As a result you can better “manipulate” prayer to operate with
the biblical principles of corporate prayer.
Biblical Principles of Corporate Prayer
There are five biblical principles of powerful corporate prayer. The
more of these elements are present in our prayer times (during worship
or other times), the more powerful the prayer.
Desperation
Ezra 8:22-23 records a time of corporate prayer surrounding a three-day
fast. The priest Ezra was taking a group of Jews back to repopulate
Israel. They were going to cross dangerous terrain and needed
protection. The interesting thing here, however, is that Ezra had a
solution—the king would have likely given them soldiers to go along—but
he refused to take it. He refused to do the obvious thing in favor of
relying on God.
We need to learn from that. The more desperate we are about something,
the more vibrant our prayers. When going to prayer corporately, look
for ways to impress a sense of desperation in your people. Remember
what happened in churches following 9/11? Prayer meetings were full for
several weeks. Why? Desperation. As you pick the focus about which to
pray, figure out a way to build in desperation. We can’t solve this,
God. We need you.
One Focus
Powerful prayer is focused prayer. It is not a shotgun approach --
giving prayer requests and praying for ten different things. Effective
corporate prayer is topical. The leader explains, “now we are going to
pray for . . .” We see this played out in the story of Peter’s
imprisonment (Acts 12). Verse 5 tells us of a prayer meeting for Peter.
Not everything under the sun, and “oh yeah, don’t forget Peter.” In the
morning worship service, picking one subject for which to pray is all
you need to do—and it is powerful.
One Voice
One voice is a numerical principle. As was mentioned above, the same
chapter in Acts tells us that the church was earnestly and constantly
praying to God. Everyone. Not five people in a little room on
Wednesday night. A powerful dynamic occurs when an entire congregation
prays on the same theme. Again, the only place you will have the entire
congregation together is Sunday morning worship.
Invoking the Presence
In 2 Chronicles 6-7 at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple, we see God’s
glory indwelling His Temple so much that everyone fell with their faces
to the ground. No one went inside. In Solomon’s dedication prayer, he
invited God to come and dwell. “Now therefore, arise, O LORD God, to
your resting place . . .: (2 Chron. 6:41).
We often just take comfort in the presence spoken of in Matthew 18:20:
“Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the
midst of them.” But there is another presence of God—His manifest
presence. It is a presence you can literally sense. It is a
transforming presence. We need to look for ways to encourage that
presence of God into our midst. He comes by invitation and He comes
through praise Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabits the praises of His
people. There is no better place to regularly experience the manifest
presence of God than the worship service. When we pray in the middle
of, or following a time of intense worship—worship that is entirely
focused upward, on Jesus Christ--rather than on us we more readily
sense His presence and our prayers become more kingdom focused.
Agreement
The last element of powerful corporate prayer is praying in agreement.
This is different than focus. It is where everyone knows and agrees
with what they are asking God. Often when a congregation prays about an
issue in a church there is not agreement. We all have a different idea
of what should be done. So when we pray, we often just pray our own
agendas. (Just as an aside—agreement will come in any issue if people
pray together. As we pray with others, we become more open to God’s
agenda and we let go of our own.)
In a leader-directed prayer time in a morning worship service it is
easier to be in agreement. The leader simply gives direction as to what
they will ask God to do. He might say something like this, “After
seeking God, the leaders of our church feel that God is moving us to
look for a piece of property on which to build. Let’s ask God to
reveal that piece of land to us.”
Ways to Incorporate Prayer in the Service
When incorporating group prayer into the morning worship service
several principles are important. First until your people are used to
it, keep it fairly short. Never let them go more than five minutes in a
prayer group on one topic. Two to three minutes is plenty. Second, put
prayer points and even a simple prayer on power point or in the
bulletin. Instruct those who are nervous about joining in that they are
not being forced to pray, but if they would like to, here is a prayer
or some thoughts to use when they pray. Third, when you start doing
this, and perhaps a few times afterward, give them some prayer protocol
instructions. Remind them that they should not pray like they do when
they are by themselves. All prayers should be short, 30-45 second
maximum, to give everyone a chance to participate and so no one is
intimidated. People can pray multiple times in a group.
1. Pray the thoughts of a song. Many songs—especially
contemporary ones—are prayers themselves, focused on Christ. If we mean
what we are singing, then we are praying when we sing. But, another
benefit is that they can be catalysts to dynamic prayer.
For example, a song like “Touching Heaven, Changing Earth” can foster
in a time of prayer for revival. A song like “Breathe” can generate
prayer for spiritual hunger in each other. A song like “Crown Him with
Many Crowns” or “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” can move into times
of corporate praise where we spontaneously shout out praises to God.
To do it, a worship leader simply guides the people into groups of
three to six and instructs them on what to pray. The musicians keep
playing to provide some background music. After two to three minutes
end the time by moving into the next song.
2. Set aside a 7 to 10 minute prayer time. Pick a topic of
importance to your church or leaders. An upcoming outreach event, a
special program, a deep need in the church, the nation, etc. The more
the topic relates to the people, the more dynamic the time will be.
Have people pray in groups over this topic. But again, offer clear
direction and ideas of things to pray.
3. Pray the Sermon Application. A pastor often has something in
the sermon that needs to get across to the people. Why not have a time
(two to three minutes) where people get into groups of three or four
and pray that application into each other. The pastor needs to give
specific instructions so they understand what they are to pray. A
bulletin insert or power point slide with the important points are all
that is needed.
4. Pastor Guided Prayer. Another excellent way to
incorporate prayer is to have the people pray a prayer in unison at the
end of the message. The Pastor can put a prayer together that reflects
exactly the truths and applications with which the people are to walk
away. Instruct them to pray out loud after you. You say a phrase and
give them time to repeat it. Not only will this do something powerful
by praying the application into them, but people learn to pray. They
hear their pastor pray and they begin to understand the kinds of
spiritual things they can ask God for in prayer.
5. A Time to Pray for Needs. While this is not corporate prayer
in the truest sense, it can be a wonderful time of blessing for your
people. Simply put, you set aside time in the service where people can
pray for others. It can be done a number of ways.
During worship or at the end of a service have prayer teams (teams of
two people—a husband/wife team or two males, two females) come forward
or line up around the church. As you sing, people can come forward,
walk up to a team and be prayed for. The book Praying Grace (PrayerPoint Press) by Terry Teykl and the dvd set Upfront (PrayerShop Publishing) are excellent training resources on this subject.
In a smaller congregation it can be meaningful to have people with a
need stand where they are. Then have groups gather around them to pray
for their need. The congregation keeps worshiping while this is going
on.
Conclusion
If your people won’t come to prayer meeting, take prayer meeting to the
people. Having times of corporate prayer in the morning worship service
can have a profound effect on your people and church. People learn to
pray and develop a heart to pray what is on God’s heart.
Questions for further Thought or Discussion
- What are three or four hindrances that keep prayer
minimized in corporate worship and provide a biblical example or
teaching that confronts each barrier.
- Identify and explain 5 to 6 different methods of turning an audience into participants.
- Design a corporate worship experience that incorporates several diverse prayer opportunities
Jonathan Graf is President of the Church Prayer Leaders Network. He is
also the founding editor of Pray! magazine and the author of The Power of Personal Prayer and editor of My House Shall Be a House of Prayer.
Suggested Additional Reading
Franklin, John. And the Place Was Shaken. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2005.
Henderson, Daniel. Fresh Encounter: Experiencing Transformation Through Untied Worship
Based Prayer. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2004.
Teykl, Terry. Praying Grace: Training for Personal Ministry. Muncie, IN: PrayerPoint Press,
2002.
Butts, David. Upfront: Training Prayer Teams for Ministry (DVD). Terre Haute, IN: PrayerShop
Publishing, 2007.
Note: This article is a chapter in Giving Ourselves to Prayer: An Acts
6:4 Primer for Ministry (PrayerShop Publishing), a book to be released
in May 2008.
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November 2007 
