Some people think that it is easy to lead a congregation in prayer, you just get up and pray. But that is not really true. A fellow pastor encouraged me that this book would be a good tool for helping me to understand the importance of how to lead a congregation in prayer. There are different times of prayer in the service, different types of prayers, different interaction for the person praying as well as the congregant members who are listening. God loves to hear His children pray, but He loves it more when His servants do a good job of leading a congregation to His throne in a true act of worship through prayer.
Hughes Oliphant Old gives wonderful teaching on the different aspects of prayer and how they fit into the liturgy of the worship service. He then gives hundreds of examples of good prayers for invocation, confession, pardon and petition. His written prayers are wonderful. They will help each of grow in our walk with Christ just by praying these prayers on our own and then also within the context of a worship service.
As you begin your ministry of public prayer this book will be indispensable in giving you well written prayers to begin that ministry. As time goes on and you become more and more familiar with the aspects of prayer you will be able to write your own prayers better than you use to. You will find how scripture will be able to guide you in your prayer preparation and also you will find that many of the Psalms are just perfect to be used as prayers in your worship times. But to be effective in prayer you will need three things;
1. You will need to know your scriptures well
2. You will need to know your congregation well
3. You will need to have a good and effective personal prayer life so that your public prayer life will flow naturally.
This is a great book. It has been around for a long time, but for me I just was introduced to it and am so happy that my friend brought this book to my attention.
Enjoy!
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