Agreement implies more than the act of following one another’s audible prayers. The instruments of an orchestra cannot play together without prior agreement about what they will play, and a church prayer meeting is not a season for surprises, shocks, novelties and innovations. There will be an approximate ‘agenda’, and common desires, and people will broadly pray in agreement with those things.
Are we among the many true Christians who opt out of the church prayer meeting, and throw away the Lord’s promises? Do we deprive our church of its full blessing of oneness and instrumentality by our failure to attend? Can we be certain that the Lord meant all his people to try to gather for prayer? Yes we can, because there are no elite groups in the Christian church. The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers teaches that the duty of prayer is the same for all.
Many churches today combine their weekly prayer meeting with their Bible study, which is obviously better than having no prayer meeting at all. Spurgeon, however, was strongly critical of this arrangement, an emerging habit in Victorian times. He could not understand why churches should want to do this, and asked how a combined meeting could do justice to either purpose. The ideal is to have separate meetings on different evenings; and it is certainly the case that where churches implement this, they reap a great blessing.
What are the purposes of corporate prayer?
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1. To demonstrate dependence on God’s power. The prayer meeting sets before members a demonstration of the answering power of God. If the entire ministry of prayer in the privacy of their homes, then if God were to bless, the members would not necessarily connect threw blessing with the prayers of the whole fellowship. God, therefore, has ordained that we should come together in need, and audibly share in crying out for great needs and blessings. Then, when the divine response is revealed, it is obvious to all that God is at work, and we give him the glory.
2. To focus minds on the church and its mission. It trains the people of God to realise their oneness with the body and to be concerned about the ministries of their church. God is not just dealing with us as individuals. He delights to mould entire church fellowships. We focus our minds on the needs and burdens, and we spread them before the Lord.
3. To extend faith’s horizons. The prayer meeting trains the church to develop faith and anticipation for great things. It brings us regularly to lift up our eyes to the harvest. It focuses minds upon larger-scale matters, namely, God’s dealings with the whole congregation and all departments of its work. When properly conducted, the church prayer meeting has a long list of high matters to bring before the Lord, including issues of pressing and eternal significance, such as the reaching of entire towns, and the saving of numerous children and adults from the jaws of atheism.
4. To provide schooling in prayer. By corporate prayer believers discover the full scope, range and manner of prayer. United prayer is uniquely educational and broadening. In the prayer meeting individuals are drawn outside their own style and pattern of prayer. The young in faith learn the ways of prayer, and even those who are older in the faith are lifted and stirred by the fresh earnestness of the young. All are found shoulder to shoulder acknowledging their complete dependence upon the mercy of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
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How should we pray?
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1. With great feeling and earnestness. We should pray believingly and earnestly, as those who truly believe that Christ is present and the Father is listening. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord – ‘being in an agony … prayed more earnestly’ (Luke 22.44). Even for the Lord, who had unceasing and perfect fellowship with the Father, there were degrees of fervour in prayer.
2. Using direct and plain language. The prayers recorded in the New Testament are certainly fervent, but they are also straightforward. They are no match for the grand, florid productions sometimes heard today from the lips of believers! The latter are masterly compositions in their way, but we should not pray as though the prayer meeting is a theological or literary competition. Hearing such prayers, it is not surprising that young Christians are intimidated into silence. The fervour of true prayer is enhanced by directness and plainness.
3. By means of many contributors. Within the time available, as many as possible should be encouraged to pray. People should be encouraged to limit their contributions to a reasonable time, allowing those from different departments of the work to lift their causes before the Lord.
4. Addressing prayer to the Father. Corporate prayer should always be addressed to the Father, and offered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, since this is the example and rule of Scripture for such prayer (Matthew 6:9; Acts 4.24-30; Ephesians 5.20; Colossians 3.17; 1 Peter 2.5). It is not really good enough to end a prayer saying, ‘We pray in thy Son’s name.’ An abrupt, ‘Amen,’ is even worse. What we should be acknowledging is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole means of our being able to pray.
5. All joining in the loud ‘Amen’. ‘Amen’ comes from the Hebrew verb to be firm or to be sure. It means ‘truly’ and ‘let it be so’. When the Lord taught his disciples to pray, he concluded that pattern prayer with the ‘Amen’ (Matthew 6.13).
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Should both men and women pray in prayer meetings? Or are women to remain silent? (1 Corinthians 14.34-35). In 1 Timothy 2.11-12 Paul says, ‘Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.’ This rule is about teaching, for this is the subject of the passage. Women should not teach, nor participate in the government of the local church. (Teaching is an expression of authority, for it is ruling by the Word.) But neither of these scriptures prohibits women from praying aloud in prayer meetings, according to the overwhelming majority of Bible believers who take seriously the rule that they must not teach. As long as prayer does not become a cloak or disguise for preaching, women may pray alongside men. What about Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2.8? Many believe that this makes praying aloud in the prayer meetings an all-male prerogative. Paul says: ‘I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.’ The Greek word used for men certainly refers to the male in contrast to the female. But prior to this verse, Paul has been commanding that prayer and intercession be made for all men (the Greek term here includes men and women). He has particularly urged prayer for rulers, and that people may come to the saving light of Christ, the only Mediator. In the light of this, we must look for the natural sense of his words, ‘I will therefore that men pray every where.’ Does he really mean to say that only men should do this? Paul proceeds at once to say that the women must also pray. The next verse reads: ‘In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel.’ The words, ‘in like manner,’ connect with Paul’s previous words, ‘I will therefore that men pray every where.’ What are women to do in like manner? They are to pray for the evangelisation of all. These remarks apply, of course, only to the prayer meetings. They do not apply to services for worship and preaching, which, scripturally, are ‘led’ services, for which the male pastor-teachers and other elders have responsibility.