I had the privilege of serving as an elder for thirteen years alongside Pastor Kevin DeYoung, as a worship leader and counseling director at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. It didn’t take me long to realize that Kevin had a vested interest in making sure our worship service was biblical, God-centered, and excellent. One of the things he encouraged was a well-prepared congregational prayer every Sunday. So in 2010 I began to spend more time preparing and writing the prayers that he would lead in the congregation.
In the years that followed, I grew more convinced that corporate prayer was truly an important element of corporate worship and that the Lord had given us the grace to take it seriously and strive to do it well. Over time, God helped me put what he was learning into a book (available in English).
My prayer is that this article, based on the book, will help and encourage pastors, worship leaders, and others to glorify God and strengthen the church by devoting the same thought and preparation to leading prayer that they do to preparing sermons. or direct the music. These are four principles to guide this search.
1. Public prayer must include adoration, confession, and supplication.
Since wholehearted admiration and love for God are central to our relationship with Him as Creator and Redeemer, the worship it is the first and most basic form of prayer. Worship prayers should point to the affectionate amazement, while we remember that we were dead in sin and that God by grace has given us life in Christ (Eph 2:1-10). God is infinitely worthy of captivated hearts that overflow with passionate praise.
We glorify God and strengthen the church by devoting the same thought and preparation to leading in prayer as to preparing sermons or leading music.
The confession corporate is often neglected in worship services or even seen as detrimental to our self-esteem. But given the universality and gravity of sin, a worship service has no true integrity without a time of confession. The confession must have as its objective a grateful pain as we contemplate the horror of dishonoring God and the awesome riches of His forgiveness in Christ.
The appeal It’s a natural part of corporate prayer, but because of the temptation to focus primarily on our immediate needs, it should be balanced with worship and confession. The climate of our corporate appeal must be one of urgent trustas we raise our concerns to our heavenly Father, trusting in His abundant mercies.
These three essential types of prayer can be prayed individually at different times throughout the service or combined in various ways.
2. Public prayer must be Trinitarian.
It is not necessary that all public prayers mention the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but to be truly Christian, our prayers must bear consistent witness to all three in one. This is because, in Scripture, all he is trinitarian All three persons of the Godhead are equally involved, though differently, in creation, providence, redemption, sanctification, and consummation.
Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19 is a good example of trinitarian prayer. He prays to Father so that the Ephesians may be strengthened by the Spirit so that the Son dwell in their hearts by faith. Here is a sample of what Trinitarian worship might sound like:
We adore you, Father, for being the author of all things in heaven and on earth… We praise you, Jesus, for being the perfect image and radiance of the Father… We adore you, Holy Spirit, giver of life, Comforter and Helper (p. 87).
3. Public prayer should be thoughtful and reverent.
The more public a sentence is, the more thoughtful it must be. This is especially applicable to Sunday morning. Without proper preparation, prayer can drift into repetition and irreverence.
Repetition may consist of saying words like just, um, really, yeah or the name of God or Lord every two sentences. We end up repeating topics we’ve already prayed about in slightly different words and endlessly circling the runway as people silently chant, “Land the plane!” The cure for repetition is thoughtful preparation and a willingness to practice praying ahead of time.
The cure for irreverence is to remember the infinite distance between the sinful creature and the holy God and that God’s holiness is inseparable from His love.
Irreverent prayer occurs when God’s majestic transcendence is forgotten or absorbed by His merciful immanence. Similarly, there is too much emphasis on intimacy with God and too little emphasis on humble reverence, and this excess of casual familiarity can make God sound like our “little friend” rather than the Holy One.
The cure for irreverence is to remember the infinite distance between the sinful creature and the holy God and that God’s holiness is inseparable from His love.
Ecclesiastes captures the need to be thoughtful and reverent in prayer:
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God, and come closer to listen instead of offering the sacrifice of fools, because they do not know that they are doing evil. Do not rush to speak, nor rush your heart to utter a word before God. Because God is in heaven and you are on earth; Therefore let your words be few (Ec 5:1-2).
4. Public prayer should be gospel-centered.
DA Carson once said that his students not only learned what he taught, but also what excited him. What excited the apostle Paul? What did he think about, what did he talk about, what did he write and what did he pray for? The answer: “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).
Since the entire Bible points to the redemptive work of Jesus (Lk 24:44-47), the gospel must take center stage in all of our worship service, including our corporate prayers. Nothing will glorify God more and encourage the saints more than to sing, preach and pray the gospel of God’s grace. The following prayer of worship rejoices in the many glories of the gospel:
Our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, how can we adequately praise you for the Gift of gifts? In Christ, your Son, we see a wonderful condescension. He came down to earth to raise us up to heaven, and he became like us so that we could become like him. In Christ, your Son, we see an amazing love. When we could not climb up to Him, He descended to be close to us and draw us to Him.
…In Christ, your Son, we see glorious wisdom. When we were completely lost, with no desire to return and without the wisdom to plan our recovery, He became Emmanuel (God with us) to save us to the uttermost… Glory to you in the highest, Father! Together we praise you for your amazing, costly, and redeeming love in Christ (99–100).
one final exercise
What could you do to improve the quality of your corporate prayers? This is an idea. Dive this week into Colossians 1:3-14. Meditate on this beautiful, balanced, reverent, and trinitarian gospel-centered prayer. Then write a personal prayer of adoration, confession and supplication, using the “I” in your sentence. Finally, turn it into a corporate prayer, using the “we” and use it to lead your family, Bible study, or church in prayer.
Originally posted on The . Translated by Team Coalition.