I like the Prayer List
June 24th, 2007 by iMonk
When I returned to worshiping at the SBC church down the street, one of the things I wasn’t looking forward to was the “open prayer request” time I’d experienced there in the past. My previous experiences left me with memories of too much information, too much detail, too much time….just too much.
Things haven’t been quite as bad as anticipated. In fact, I’ve been rethinking the place of these kinds of congregational “prayers of the people” in worship, and I’ve decided it’s more important to me than I realized.
I actually have become quite fond of the large prayer list that sets opposite our weekly order of worship. When I say large, I mean probably a hundred names/requests, printed in a large paragraph, to which we add new names (and occasionally remove a few) every week.
The prayer list dominates our “order of service.” It’s the most noticeable thing about our church’s printed presentation of itself. And it makes a statement that I believe is very important.
Evangelicals and more liturgical Christians have both found the idea of “prayer requests” to be awkward. Some people talk too much. Some are too gossipy. Others obsess over embarrassing and needless details, like the names of diseases and details of doctor visits. “Sister Smith had a bad weekend. Her stitches came out…” TMI.
Important people tend to turn up too often, as do their friends, distant relatives and minor crises. Stories in the news make their way into prayer requests so we wind up praying for whatever Nancy Grace was talking about last night or whatever was on the local news. In rural Baptist churches, it can just become a rambling, unruly mess.
On the other hand, our more liturgical friends have put the prayers of the people into the liturgy and made everything quite civil, with some churches allowing names to be called out, but mostly depending on the priest, minister or lector to lead a prayer response that mentions the more important requests and unifies the congregation’s response.
We did this at soli deo, the worship fellowship I led for a year, and I liked it very much. We allowed anyone to mention a name and to prayer during an open prayer time, but requests were brief, as were the prayers. I was trying for the best of both worlds. (And, of course, it didnt’ work out.)
Most liturgical churches have some form of a prayer list somewhere in a church publication, but you won’t find it often in the printed liturgy. Our prayer list of 100 plus names is quite a contrast. It’s obvious that in whatever liturgical decision making goes on in the minds of worship leaders in a rural Baptist church, the names of people in need of prayer outweigh a lot of other considerations, and that’s proven in the amount of time given to prayer requests in the worship service.
(Even more time is spent with actual intercessory prayer in the Wednesday night prayer service. In those meetings, specific people and needs are prayed for by individuals and small groups.)
Many seeker sensitive churches have eliminated prayer lists and prayer requests from worship entirely. Sam the Seeker doesn’t want to hear it. Twenty-somethings who came to hear about sex in the Proverbs’ series don’t want to know that someone’s Aunt Agatha has cancer. All of that kind of real life can be handled in small groups….or maybe not there either. Can we hire a staff member to just deal with this?
Don’t be offended. It’s a struggle, I know. A lot has to be balanced. My new appreciation for the prayer list is where I’ve come out after being in all of the above mindsets at one time or another.
What does our prayer list say about our church?
All our church isn’t gathered here.
We care about the community, even people we don’t know.
We’re praying for the lost.
We may not all agree on the war, but we will pray for our soldiers. We don’t agree on politics, but we will pray for our leaders.
There are some things so serious, they are just “unspoken.” God knows, and we can still pray.
Some of our people are old. Some are dying. They are still part of us.
We all aren’t doing well, but we’re still a church.
We will pray for people that aren’t in our church. For example, we’re praying for a young Catholic couple many of us know as they go through the aftermath of a miscarriage.
We are praying for people in ministry around the world.
We are praying for whole nations, and entire ministries.
We’ll keep praying.
We are praying for miracles, as well as for grace to sustain in the ordinary and in the chronic.
We pray for our children.
We’re praying for things that prove some of us are pretty messed up.
All of us aren’t doing very well. Some of us are sick. Some of us are a mess. But we are the people of God.
We are the people of God. I like the sound of that. The prayer list frees us from the notion that the people of God are the healthy, happy ones who turned up for worship today. It reminds us that our community is extended into hospitals, nursing homes, psych hospitals, the homes of the poor, the relationships we have with other kinds of Christians and the mission we’re on together.
The prayer list is a picture of the broken and humbled body of Christ. It has a particular kind of beauty, and I’m glad our church- which hasn’t gotten around to a confession, covenant or constitution- has that prayer list.
It’s part of my journey these days to know that my name will one day be on that list, and these will be the people who will love and pray for me when my place in the church is to be ministered unto by the praying people of God.
great post…
One Episcopal parish I worshipped in for a while in college would have something along the lines of “for all who are sick, espescially…” then read the names on the prayer list who were sick, without the details. At the end of the list the intercessor would say “Are there others?” and a wave of quiet mumbling would rumble through the nave, each person quietly and privately naming before God the person they were praying for. Much more uplifting and edifying than “Lord, we just come before you now to pray for Brother Rodrigo’s piles…” which is an actual prayer I actually heard in an actual church service.
Michael,
Great post. The church I grew up in had a “Prayer Request and Testimony” time during the worship service where any male adult could stand up and share a request or a praise for that week. And though there were times it was drawn out and tedious and redundant (especially to us kids) it kept the rest of the body up to date on the goings-ons of each others lives, even to the point of “Brother Rodrigo’s piles…” (too funny!)
But it only worked because we were a smaller body of about 125 people, including kids. We met in a one-room chapel. We were a family.
In larger congregations, the prayer request insert in the bulletin is a great idea. I love your list below the question “What does our prayer list say about our church?” You spelled it out very well.
You definitely brought back some memories…
IM, I jsut started reading some of your blog I enjoy it. I passed it on to my son he is a Bible student at Southeastern Bible College in Wake Forest. He has a blog you mite be interested in it is scotrandolph.blogspot.com.
About Prayer request my church(it is non-denominational, but with American Baptsit and Southern Baptist heritage)puts a list in the bulletin, but we also have a fish bowl which we put names in and each Sunday during worship we go and pick a name out(the ones that chose to)and pray over it for a few minutes, then the Pastor prays for them. As you said there is more invidvidual prayer on Prayer nite(for us it is Tuesday).
Also you info said you are from No. Central WV, where?If you don’t want to put it on your blog send it to me.I am from Harrison Co.
GOD BLESS
BUDDY
Great post.
It is a hard one to work out ‘nicely’ because it is true that many will just go on and on but to not have any opportunity for praying out loud or even just verbally naming your prayer requests is hard and feels weird. I also prefer just praying for our requests as opposed to the question, “any prayer requests?” and then people ‘talk’ their requests and then the pastor ‘prays’ them….
As a Pastor I too have been frustrated at times with “the open prayer time.” We do not currently do this in out Church right now, but I miss it at times. One thing that we recently started was a time of prayer at the end where 5 or 6 people lift up prayers that pertain to this body of believers.
As Christians we need to be more sensitive to our corporate time which should include more time for prayer apart from the Pastor. There is such a push for Church growth in our country it can make any leader sick. If any Church truly wants to grow spiritually it will have to learn to get on its knees together with some regularity and call upon God for all things.
Pastor Jeff
http://insidechurch.blogspot.com/
Our prayer time always includes both a silent time for our personal intentions, (beyond the list read aloud) and frequently for those who have no one to pray for them.
Yeah, our little baptist church is mainly elderly and the prayer request time on Wednesday night sounds like a role call through a medical textbook.
This summer at Asbury we are doing prayer time during every service. We give 5 broad categories (for the school, the community, those around the world in need, for those in prison, and for peace around the world), and allow people to raise requests during the specific time. After giving each topic around 2-3 minutes for prayer we all close with “Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers”. We found it to be a good time of prayer, to encourage people to lift up requests, but to keep it solemn and not turn into a rabbit hunt.
Why doesn’t the church just set up guidlines for the congregation? Its just that simple.
Right before prayer list time, the minister/rabbi/priest/etc can say:
We turn now to Prayer Request time. Rememember only to mention the name of the person you desire prayer for and their city, or if you prefer to keep it more private, you may say only their initials and their city.
Then….an appointed person (or a monk etc) can go around with a microphone, and the one by one the congregation members who desire prayer can say “Please pray for “Suzy” in “Springfield” …..and the rest of the congregation can follow with “Lord hear our prayer” or some such similar thing, and they move to the next person. It keeps it on task, and short n sweet.
I mean, if one has faith, then one knows that God already sees the issue at hand, and doesnt need all the details, right?
This way the flock is guided by the rod. (spare the rod and spoil the congretation?)
Namaste,
Edie