12 Questions To See If Your Church Is a Prayer Church

Chuck Lawless has posted on his blog "12 Questions To See If Your Church Is a Prayer Church," an excellent set of questions for evaluating a church's commitment to prayer. Crossway has also posted an article, "10 Things You Should Know about Prayer," in which Donald S. Whitney explores the basics of prayer and which I also recommend to readers.

In Anglican and Episcopal churches one of the versions of The Book of Common Prayer or the alternative service books and set prayers are used in services of public worship. The prayers in these liturgical books are often beautifully crafted. Anglicans and Episcopalians are apt to use them in their private devotions instead of their own prayers. They are also apt to negatively compare their own stumbling efforts to pray to these prayers.

Several things enabled me to move beyond this rather limited way of praying. One was an essay by the 19th century Bishop of Liverpool J. C. Ryle in which he pointed out that you cannot have a relationship with someone with whom you do not have any conversations, including God.

Another was Rosalind Rinker's books Prayer: Conversing with God and Conversational Prayer: Handbook for Groups.

A third was a workshop on breath prayer, an ancient Christian form of prayer, hosted by my church at the time.

A fourth was two ladies who invited me to join their prayer group. Our group was a small one--three ladies and myself. Two members of the group have entered the nearer presence of God. One of those dear ladies sponsored my niece Kelly at her confirmation and prepared her for her confirmation.

We do need to instruct new believers and long-time believers in how to pray. Every church and every small group definitely needs a prayer champion, someone who will champion prayer in the church or the small group.

However, I offer this one caveat: the role of a prayer champion is to encourage others to pray and instruct them in the different forms of prayer. He or she should not become the church or small group's sole pray-er. This unfortunately often happens. The other members of the church or small group leave the praying to the prayer champion.

In the small groups in which I have participate or which I have co-led, prayer time too frequently consists of different people sharing their prayer requests and then the group leader or a volunteer weaving this requests into a prayer. What I do when I lead the prayer time is to invite those present to take a moment to place themselves in God's presence, in other words, to focus their attention on God who has been present with all of the time. I then invited them to pray aloud or silently for what prayer concerns come to mind. I also encourage them to pray aloud or silently whenever a new concern comes to mind even though they have already prayed. After everyone has had an opportunity to pray, I conclude the prayer time with a brief prayer, the original purpose of the "collects" found in liturgical books. I encourage everyone to pray and not to rely on one person to pray for the group. I also encourage those present to add brief ejaculatory prayers of their own in agreement with whoever is praying at the time. In this way the prayer time is like a concert rather than a solo.

A form of prayer that I recommend for churches and small groups is tongsung kido, a Korean style of prayer which is also used in Africa as well as other parts of Asia. It is is "practice of praying one’s own prayers aloud at the same time as others." In tongsung kido large or small groups of people pray out loud simultaneously along a unified theme. The pastor or small group leader announces a prayer need or concern and the whole gathering prays, everybody at the same time. The pastor or small group leader announces another prayer need or concern and the whole gathering prays, everybody at the same time. And so on. Members of the congregation or the small group may be invited to share a prayer need or concern and the whole gathering prays, everybody at the same time.

I read about this style of prayer a number of years ago and experienced it for the first time at a cell group leadership training workshop in Jackson, Mississippi.

The one drawback of its use during the COVID-19 pandemic is that it is a very exuberant form of prayer in which those praying talk loudly and loud talking has been implicated in the transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus along with singing. Loud talking and singing also involve deep breathing which increases an individual's risk of inhaling any virus particles floating in the air. If a small group meets in a poorly-ventilated, enclosed space, there will be much higher risk of transmission than if it meets outdoors, in a breezy area, the participants standing or sitting six or more feet apart and wearing face masks. Tongsung kido, however, is a style of prayer that can be used in virtual gatherings like a Zoom small group meeting as well as in-person gatherings. A participant shares a prayer need or concern and everyone participating in the Zoom meeting prays aloud for that need or concern. Hearing everyone praying can be very encouraging to the participant who shared the prayer concern or need.

During the COVID-19 pandemic is good time to stream prayer workshops, using Zoom or another video conferencing platform or Facebook Live. It is one way we can build people where God has planted them. As Dave Gibbons wrote in his article, "Dave Gibbons: The Shift Already Happened—Before COVID-19," we need to be equipping people "to honestly and purely love those around them—and the vulnerable—loving them and walking with them and giving them the best resources to achieve God’s design for their lives."