27 Insightful Keys on How to Lead Prayer in Church for Every Member
Every citizen of Zion must subscribe to the custom of prayer. There is no alternative system to approaching God without maintaining the attitude of prayers. Our relationship with God and experience of Him is dependent on prayer. Talking to God ought to be done both privately and also publicly in church. This makes it very vital for everyone to learn how to lead prayer in church.
Learning how to lead prayer in church is very important because the corporate gathering depends on it. One of the things that keep believers together is the attitude of staying together to pray for themselves, the church, the communities they are planted in, and the world at large.
Often, when believers gather together, there’s a requirement for one to lead while others follow. Without this, there will be no orderliness in the assembly. Any assembly where everyone is self-governed will not be far from a lack of order.
Are you a type that runs away from public responsibilities because you don’t know how to lead prayer in public gatherings? Or you don’t know how to lead the prayer? I’m here for you to educate on the technique of leading believers in prayers. This will improve your leadership skills and boldness to stand before God’s holy people.
Leading Opening Prayer in Church
The church service is an organized one. Bible itself charges that there should be orderliness in the assembly of God’s people. “Let all things be done decently and in order”. (1 Corinthians 14:40). This orderliness will require us to regulate the time and finish the worship service as scheduled. How the service begins by leading the church in the opening prayer. Intercession is very important to start a service!
The first step in learning how to lead prayer in the place of worship is opening prayer. In case you are appointed to lead the opening prayer in your congregation, how exactly should you start? You will not need to read too long before you know how. Take cognizance of the following and you will be fine.
1. Know how important you are to the effectiveness of the worship service: It’s important to know how important you are to the service if you are appointed to lead the opening prayer. The service is as good as the opening session of it. If you don’t do it well, it will affect the progression of worship.
Knowing that the effectiveness of the service depends on you, you should make up your mind to do it very well. How impactful the worship will be is determined by how well it started. Starting it well should be the primary goal of anyone who is appointed to begin it. I hope you got that!
2. Connect to the Spirit: “God is a Spirit, they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and the truth” The gathering of the saints is a spiritual gathering, everyone who must participate in the coordination of it must be spiritual and do everything in the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit lives on your inside and you must stay in touch with Him to lead you on how to conduct prayers in church. If He’s not the leader, God cannot be glorified. His duty is to educate you on how to please God. You cannot lead until you are led by the Spirit.
Leading the opening prayer in church is the only way you set the compass for the service. The anointing of the Spirit must be activated while leading. How active this anointing will be is dependent on how in sync you’re with the Spirit. Connectivity with the Holy Spirit is indispensable in opening the church’s service.
3. Start with Thanksgiving: His word says, “Enter His gate With thanksgiving and His court with praise”. God should not be approached except through the multitude of thanksgiving. The beauty of any church service is the presence of God therein. Church service is an empty religious gathering without the divine presence. This divine presence is often activated through thanksgiving.
Let people be led to spend one or two minutes to give thanks to God depending on the luxury of time you’re given. And I’m sure you don’t have much time for all of that. You may sing a song and stir everyone to sing the same. This is how to conduct a prayer service. Thanksgiving must be the primary among the list of prayer topics.
4. Lead through the scripture: Your prayer is as effective as the volume of scripture you have in you. Quoting scriptures while leading God’s people will educate them on what they should pray about and how they should pray. You could cite scriptures regarding thanksgiving, application of the blood, or intercession to ignite them into prayers. Scriptures for prayer meetings cannot be done without.
5. Lead them in intercession: I will be showing some of the prayer points here. Ask the people to pray for the worship service that the Lord will make Himself known among His people. Pray for every officiating minister that the anointing of God’s Spirit will be on them and that they will minister as God’s oracles. Ask them also to pray for themselves that they will get blessed by the service. This should form one of the prayer points for church programs.
6. Pray in the Spirit: The congregation should be led to minister to God in tongues. Let them exercise themselves in tongues. Nothing sets the heart ablaze like this. If you lead them to do this enough, the atmosphere will be charged with God’s presence and people’s hearts will be prepared for the visitation from heaven. Praying in the spirit is how to lead the pre-service prayer.
Leading Prayer Examples
The scripture is filled with leading prayer examples which I will point out and at the same time, I will show you how to lead prayer in the church in a conventional way.
Here are some leading prayer examples in the scripture.
1. “Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (Timothy 2:3).
These are the guidelines for church prayer:
✓Supplication or Petition
✓Prayer
✓Thanksgiving
✓Intercession
This forms the general foundation for leading prayer examples in church. If the components of your prayers are these, then you’re considered to be praying the bible way. It should then be directed towards:
✓ Kings
✓ Government official
✓ The Church
✓ Your Community of residence
✓ Your State of residence
✓ Your immediate family and extended family
✓ Your Personal life and
✓ The World at large.
You can also look into the following leading prayer examples in the bible.
2. Jesus and Disciples: Nothing strengthens the ministry of Jesus as His strong prayer culture. He prayed both personally and on several occasions, and He took His disciples along.
“And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch it with Me for one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mathew 26:37-41).
3. Paul and Silas: And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them (Acts 16:25). These taught us how to lead overnight prayers. They prayed at midnight and the power of God came down.
4. Ezra: And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. Then all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:5 -6).
Somebody asked, is it OK to read a prayer in church? Ezra did something related to this. Reading prayer in the church is very good as long as those prayers are informed by the written word of God. This is to make everyone mind the same thing
5. Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, “This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift His countenance upon you, And give you peace” (Number 6:23-26).
How to Lead a Prayer Group
The assembly of the brethren can be so large because she was not ordained to be small. The seed of greatness is hidden in God’s assembly. Wherever they are gathered, there must be multiplication and increase. To manage the crowd and make the leadership of the church more effective and efficient, the church needs to be subdivided into small groups or cell units.
Leaders must be appointed over each group to lead them in prayers and cater to the need of everyone under their watch. Anyone who is given the privilege of leadership needs to learn how to lead a prayer group.
Church moves faster when it’s divided into smaller groups, especially when creative prayer ideas for small groups are employed. It will help them to feel relevant to God’s agenda and thereby contribute their quotas to the cumulative growth of the body. Below are some of the ways you can lead prayer in a small group.
1. Have a good relationship with everyone in your group: Leadership begins with a relationship. Leading people with whom you have not established cordiality can be very frustrating. The leader needs to go to any length to develop a friendship with everyone placed under his watch. If you don’t succeed at doing this, you won’t succeed at leading any one of them in creative prayers.
2. Have a vision for your group: Bible says, “ Where there is no vision, people perish”. It takes a vision to keep people on the run. State clearly what your group is meant to achieve. Your vision must be a subset of the church vision you belong to. Do not have a separate or independent vision from the ministry you’re serving, let the vision of your group be to facilitate the universal vision of the ministry.
3. Unit the people you’re leading: “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Without unity, the church can achieve nothing. The greatest weapon of the enemies against the church so far is a different language. How lead congregational prayer is best done by getting people united.
4. Identify a need in the church: As a part and parcel of the church body you belong to, you must learn how to find out what is needful at your local church and turn it into prayers in your group. Lead everyone to pray the same prayer. You can appoint people under your group to lead prayers too as the case may be.
5. Pray for one another: If there is anyone who has a need among you which could be health-wise, family-wise, spiritually, or in finances, bring the prayer points up and pray about it. “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). If you have applied this technique effectively, you’ll have been able to make your prayer group very effective in God’s agenda.
How to Lead Intercessory Prayer in Church
“Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (1 Timothy 2:3).
Believers have a commandment from God to pray for all men. We owe it to our generation to pray for all men. This could be men in government or men along our streets. Prayer ought to be our response to all things in the world. If we are committed to doing this, we’ll always have God’s intervention in our world. How to lead prayer intercessory prayer in the church must be learned by everyone so that each individual can be actively involved in God’s project on earth.
God wants us to share in the current prayer ministry of Jesus at the right of the father. He doesn’t expect us to murmur or complain about anything. When situations arise it’s beyond our control, talking to God in intercessory prayer should be our regular lifestyle. Every believer is a minister of God. The best way you deploy this ministry is through the ministry of prayers.
1. Start with praises and worship: “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever”: (Psalms 136:1-3)
Let the atmosphere be saturated with a voice of thanksgiving. Read as many Psalms as possible to express your gratitude to God. God needs your praise to ride upon in the congregation of His people. Do this until God gets magnified in your sight. You can always bring God to your visibility through heartfelt worship. This is how to start a corporate prayer.
2. Avoid distractions: Distractions abound in every church service you need to fight against them in every form and shape they may appear. Get yourself focused on God, that’s where real prayers start. If your heart is not in prayer, your prayer cannot touch God. Wandering thoughts will prey on your mind, you’ve just got to fight them down by casting your mind on God each time it wants to wander. This is an intentional fight you must deploy to ensure resourcefulness in prayer.
3. Look for scripture to lay the foundation of your prayer: Prayer is more effective when you pray God’s word back to Him. Do not approach God emptily, engage in scripture that hosts His promise concerning the object of interest. Read such scripture out to the congregation and let them pray. Wherever God’s word is used in prayer, the answers to such prayer are guaranteed.
4. Be in charge of your audience: The best way to lead intercessory prayer in church is to get everyone involved. Let everyone be communicated as regards the focus of the prayer. People have to combine forces, energies, and focus to make their collective prayer effective. Don’t allow indifference, it can affect the flow. This is how to conduct a prayer service.
5. Center your prayer on the kingdom: It’s no longer an intercessory prayer if it’s centered on your personal needs and not God’s needs. If you are called an intercessor, you need to care about God’s needs and people’s needs, not your personal needs. Kingdom-focused prayer will yield results maximally. Pray that God’s kingdom will come and that He will be done on earth.
6. Be specific in your request: If you are leading prayer in a public gathering, you cannot afford everyone to pray what’s in their minds. State certain prayer requests to the people, be as precise as possible and watch them pray. Minding the same thing is the soul of effectiveness in prayer. Lead the prayer in English or a language people can understand.
7. Let the people pray: Leading prayer without being sure that people are praying is a waste of time. Motivate people to pray, and attempt to hear their voices by putting off the microphone for a while, while they pray. Don’t be a leader of yourself, lead the people. As you state the prayer points, purse to see them pray it.
8. Let the Holy ghost take charge: The best way to pray and allow people to pray is by praying in the spirit. With the help of the spirit, people will pray beyond prayer points that are called out. Do not confine the Holy Ghost to your prayer points, allow His free movement among His people.
9. Allow the people to go silent for a while: At this moment, you’re allowing the people to behold God answering their prayers in His majesty. Do not just allow them to pray without giving them some time to meditate on the expected answers to their prayers.
10. Charge them to believe: Prayer without faith is an ordinary talk. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God”. Many people pray, but only very few believe in the results of their prayers. Until faith is involved, the answer is not guaranteed.
11. Let the people give thanks: As you begin in thanksgiving, so you must finish with the same attitude. Your thanksgiving gives pleasure to God.
If you have led your intercessory prayers this way, your results will be guaranteed.
Intercessory Prayers for the Church
The church is the most potent organization established by God in this world for the execution of His counsel and representation of His identity. What Church has been called to do cannot be done without divine aid. This is why intercessory Prayers for the church are very vital. Prayer for church leaders, prayer for church growth, and prayer for church programs are all important parts of prayer points for the church.
The church needs the prayers of the believers to thrive and perform the mandate conferred upon her. Learning how to pray in church is therefore a very important part of Christian duties. You please God when you pray for the furtherance of His work.
The will of Christ the head of the church is only possible through His help which can only be accessed through the instruments of intercessory prayers. As long as believers are praying, the gate of hell remains a perpetual loser over the church of God.
Here are some of the prayer points for the church you can engage in to intercede for her.
1. Pray for the church of Christ all over the world that God will strengthen her vision of the kingdom.
2. Prayer that she will receive favor in the sight of the authority of the land where she’s planted.
3. Pray that governmental rules and policies will favor her operation and she will be able to lead a peaceable and quiet life.
4. Pray that God will empower her to conduct the conversion of the people into the kingdom.
5. Pray for the preachers that they will receive boldness from the Holy Ghost to proclaim the truth without timidity just as the apostles did.
6. Pray that the Lord Himself will deliver His church from the counsel of the wicked ones.
7. She shall not be afraid of the disaster that flies around in the name of Jesus Christ. The Lord will keep her as the apple of His eyes.
8. Pray for those who have been discouraged by the reason of persecution, that God will comfort them and energize them to do the work of the Lord again.
9. Pray that the mercy of God will locate those who have been exiled as a result of the assignments.
10. As for many who have gone cold and sick because of the trial, God Himself will minister might to them and they will live again.
11. For the suffering and deprived people around the world, let God arise for their help in the name of Jesus Christ.
12. Pray for the massive prosperity of the saints around the world, they shall not lack anything productive in the name of Jesus.
13. Send help to those who need help supernaturally. Encourage the missionaries and send more laborers into your field.
14. Pray that God will quicken as many people have been disappointed in God. Let the light of the spirit visit them.
15. The love of the church shall not wax cold because of the persecution. The church will be set on fire all the time.
16. Let there be a massive outpouring of the Spirit as promised by your word so that the church can be effective in its mandate to the world.
17. Let God rekindle every candle that is going out. Let the fire of the Spirit burn very high and hard in our days. The glory of the latter house shall surpass the former.
18. We rebuke every spirit of anti-Christ infiltrating the church in the name of Jesus Christ. Let Christ rule amid His church.
19. We asked that the church is strengthened to be a true worshiper of Christ without bowing down to the image of Baal contesting the place of Christ.
20. Bring the church to the full understanding of the purpose of her calling so that she may rise to the task expected of her.
21. We thwart every agenda of the wicked ones marshaled against us in the name of Jesus Christ. The gate of hell shall bow to the church in the name of Jesus.
In Conclusion, The real Christian life is a prayer life. A saint who is not praying must be playing. This prayer must be done both in public and privately. The public kind of prayer should make everyone learn how to lead prayer in church.
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