Jay Herndon

House of Prayer

I am greatly enjoying my new ministry as the Secretary-Treasurer. However there are things that I miss about the pastorate. One of those things is the Pastoral Prayer—I always enjoyed leading the people in prayer each time we gathered for worship.

No one would dispute that prayer is a key activity of the church when it gathers, in fact, if you ask the average un-churched person "what would you expect they do at church?" Some might mention the singing, others might mention the sermon, but most would say that some sort of prayer takes place. I suppose that if these un-churched folks happened into a church that didn't do some sort of prayer, they might wonder, "is this really a church?" Even unbelievers know that prayer is an essential activity when the church gathers.

Certainly we believers should know this. Isaiah went so far as to say that prayer is so essential that it is the very name of the house of God, "For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." (56:7) Later, Jesus affirmed this. And so I have chosen this passage is the basis for my next "Passages for Pastors" chapter.

Of course there are dozens of passages about prayer, but many of them speak of personal, private prayer. Only a few speak of corporate congregational prayer that takes place in the House of Prayer. As a pastor, I always took seriously these passages about corporate prayer: "

And so, as a Pastor, I adopted the discipline of leading our congregation in prayer for these five needs each week:

I visit many churches these days and have been to a few where corporate prayer is hardly offered at all. I am disappointed and saddened by this, and more than a little concerned.

Perhaps these pastors have succumbed to the idea that prayer is not useful because it doesn't always yield immediate answers. However I would point out that Jesus said, "Men ought always to prayer and not to lose heart." The effectiveness of prayer is not usually seen immediately. And it frightens me to think that we have allowed the expectation of "instant gratification" to dictate what we do in church.

Perhaps these pastors have avoided prayer thinking that it might offend the unbeliever in their midst. However I would imagine that the unbeliever should be more offended that he came to church and the church didn't pray.

Whatever the hindrance, I would encourage every pastor to adopt the discipline of leading the church in corporate prayer. Prayer should be one of the key activities of the church. Acts 2:42 They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers."  Prayer is what we DO.

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