Guide To Congregational Prayers

As a church we are constantly intentional about improving the flow of worship and providing discipleship opportunities for our members spiritual growth and leadership especially through the participation of worship. Currently, the main way we do this is by having our members and leaders participate in the worship service through a congregational prayer in addition to scripture reading.

WHAT IS A CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER?
A congregational prayer is a prayer prayed publicly on behalf of the entire church. It is meant to unite the church in one spirit and focus, encourage everyone in attendance and lifting up our requests to God.

WHAT IS TYPICALLY A PART OF CONGREGATIONAL PRAYERS?
Whatever kind of prayer you prepare, congregational prayers usually include aspects of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. Given that we will have our congregational prayer before the sermon, it would be helpful for us to be praying for the proclamation of God's Word to transform our hearts by the renewing of our minds. (Romans 12:2)

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED GUIDE
We ask that you write out your prayers to about half a page and read a written and studied prayer. This is so that we are guarded from wandering and repeating in our prayers and to keep our prayers focused and succinct. You may be confident that you can be fluent in your prayers without it written down but we hope that you can submit in obedience to this request and find the exercise of writing down your prayers to be immensely fruitful for you in deepening your prayer life!

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS
  • Congregational Prayer. After you are given the mic and you come up to the podium, please begin with your prayer first.
  • Introduction. After your prayer, please introduce yourself by sharing your name and one thing people can identify you as in church. (i.e. a ministry you serve or simply that you are a member of the church)
  • Scripture Reading. After your introduction, let people know where our Scripture reading will be coming from and begin reading the passage.
  • Outro. After you finish reading the Scripture reading, please welcome up the preacher to give the message.

Here is a great article regarding how to prepare a congregational prayer: https://www.crossway.org/articles/5-guidelines-for-preparing-congregational-prayer/ 
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