The Power of Publical Pastoral Prayer in Worship

We sit firmly in an era marked by the decline of religious practice in America. More and more people are disaffiliating with organized religion. From 2009-2019 the Pew Research Center found that the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as Christian fell from 77 percent to 65 percent. Even more pertinent is how often Americans found themselves sitting in a church service, including participation in a pastoral prayer. “Over the last decade, the share of Americans who say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month dropped by 7 percentage points, while the share who say they attend religious services less often (if at all) has risen by the same degree.” So 54 percent of Americans say they attend a religious service ‘a few times a year or less’.[1]

This Pew data preceded the COVID pandemic, and thus it forms a picture of what "normal" (declining worship participation) looked like before sanctuaries suspended in-person worship in 2020-2021, granted there was some preservation of habits through streaming worship.

We have fewer and fewer opportunities throughout the year to make an impression with folks who might be on the fence about church engagement in coming months. One means to reverse this trend could be leveraging the power of the pastoral prayer to increase engagement. Read More

The Prayers of the People can be particularized to same end.