During my recent sabbatical I did some thinking about corporate prayer. I looked at what principles we can glean about corporate prayer from the Bible and from these foundations, had a think about how we might reform how we do corporate prayer at Woodgreen.
Like many churches, all our 'corporate prayer eggs' are in one basket at Woodgreen - namely: the traditional church prayer meeting. With changes in our culture, particularly in relation to work and family life, mid-week church prayer meetings have increasingly struggled to maintain numbers. We spent some time talking about the reasons for this at our Church Members' Meeting in May, and this was a helpful backdrop to my studies.
Below are three papers that sum-up the first part of my research on corporate prayer:
- The first is the latest edition of the 'Connect' leaflet we publish from time to time at Woodgreen, letting church regulars in on our thinking as Elders on different issues. This is a summary of the main principles from the Bible about corporate prayer.
You can download that HERE
- The second document is the first part of the paper I wrote for our Elders, which is summarised in the 'Connect' leaflet. This is intended for those who want a fuller understanding of the issues raised there.
You can download that HERE
- The third document is an article I found helpful that summarises a biblical theology of corporate prayer. This was the most concise overview of corporate prayer I found. It's a little more technical, but worth the effort.
Click HERE to go to the article.
