Leading Public Prayer

Leading a congregation of God’s people to the throne of grace is a great privilege but not an easy thing. Here are a few key resources and then a few more practical suggestions.

• Tim Keller on Kingdom-centred prayer
• Matt Fuller on 4 reasons every church needs a time of confession and How to keep it fresh
• iServe Africa on How to lead a prayer meeting

8 guides for leading corporate prayer from the front: 

1. Pray prayers – This is perhaps the most important point. Don’t just say prayers, pray them. Engage your heart and mind and talk to your Father. Speak as one speaking to the living God. Boldly with trembling. Sorrowful and rejoicing. Don't make statements about God - it's not a sermon; don't tell us what you "hope" will happen - that isn't prayer; and don't spend time telling us what you are going to pray, just go for it and pray to the Lord our God. Keep it all first person plural to second person singular: "We ask You to...." 
2. Written – This might seem to contradict the first point. Some good brothers would think it does and would strongly oppose written, prepared prayer as inauthentic, ritualistic and performative. Clearly it can be. But strong counter-arguments can be made that a) we want to use "hymn, psalms and spiritual songs" and these are often written prayers, b) careful literary construction and emotional authenticity can co-exist (cf. Psalms, Lamentations), c) written preparation ensures theological carefulness before God's people (not throwing out "careless words" or bearing false testimony about God) and so gives God's people more confidence that they will be able to pray along and say a hearty Amen at the end, d) while written prayer can be an exercise in hypocrisy - standing on street corners babbling - it can also be a way of guarding against "babbling" (rambling nonsense) and the danger of "many words" (you can do a word count) and means that you are not dependent on the eloquence and Scripture memory of the speaker (extemporary prayer can be performative too). [See JC Ryle for more on all this.] Even if you don’t write, at least prepare.
3. Biblical – Use Bible arguments in prayer: appeal to his mercy, call him to defend his glory/name, claim the Lord’s promises (checking first they are actually promises that apply to us).  The Book of Common Prayer collects are a great model: 1) address God focusing on an attribute that it relevant to what you are about to pray for; 2) ask God (which is the heart of prayer); 3) on the basis of Jesus’ work on the Cross, for the sake of his glory.  You may find it helpful (but it is not essential) to structure your prayers on a Bible prayer (a non-exhaustive list is below). Another approach, which can be very helpful, is to pray along the lines of what was preached last week at church. We want to be praying the Word. But [warning!!] this is not the place for preaching – keep it short and genuinely prayerful (God-ward).
4. Look outward – It can be helpful to mention particular needs of your church family but in the public worship service it’s good to have an emphasis on the needs of the world, our nation, our political leaders (1 Tim. 2) and the national church (which will often be a cause for intense grief - Neh 1:3-4). Why not also pray by name for other nearby Christ-preaching churches which might not be in our denomination but are brothers in Christ and fellow workers? It helps to remind us all that there is only one harvest field and one Lord.
5. Specific but not over-specific – It’s good to pray for particular places, events and situations. Let’s mention particular people and things coming up in the nation and in the life of the church. But [warning!!] we don't need a mini-essay introduction on who a missionary is and what they're doing and we don’t need to tell God exactly how to sort a particular situation out. It's enough to say, "We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you."
6. Check the details – Check with the pastors for news of those who are ill and check with those in touch with mission partners for up-to-date information on missionaries. Check whether it is ok to give details of illnesses or names or countries before you pray for them in public (i.e. be sensitive to confidentiality and security issues).
7. Amens – One of the great things about corporate-led prayer is that one person is speaking but we are all praying along with you and then we all agree with an ‘Amen’ at the end to express that this is our prayer too (1 Cor. 14:16). So speak at a pace we can all follow and pray along with you. To keep us with you, it might help to divide the prayers into three or four portions (with different themes) and close each with a similar appeal through Jesus which is followed by a strong corporate “Amen”.
8. Pray for the praying – All the way through the process. Prayer is a spiritual activity. Pray before you prepare that the Spirit would guide you to the prayers the Father wants to answer. Pray that they would be helpful to God’s people. Pray directly before the worship service with all those involved. Pray as you get up to pray that the Spirit would move and not only would you be praying in the Spirit but everyone in the room would be praying in the Spirit.

Some biblical prayers for inspiration:

1 Kings 8:57-60; Ezra 9:5-15; Nehemiah 1; 9; Psalm 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, 46, 47, 51, 62, 63, 65, 67; Isaiah 37:14-20; 63:7-64:12; Jeremiah 32:17-25; Lamentations 3:19-26; Daniel 2:20-23; 4:34-35; 9:4-19; Matt. 9:38; 1 Cor 1:4-9; 2 Cor 1:3-4; Eph 1:16-23; 3:14-19; Phil 1:3-11; Col 1:3-14; 1 Thess 3:12-12; 2 Thess 2:16-17; 3:1; Phil 1:3-6,9-11.