Why Do We Pray Corporately?

Yesterday we participated in something that was familiar, yet unique for all of us. We prayed together corporately as a faith family, which is something that we do every time we gather together. Yet, this past Sunday we prayed together via Zoom, which of course was a unique experience.

I don’t believe anything will replace praying together in person. Feeling the calm silence of the room. Seeing the unique prayer postures of the people. Knowing that we have assembled to come before the throne itself.

However, yesterday was such an amazing experience that it felt like the real thing. We saw the faces of our brothers and sisters. We heard their confident and emotional prayers. We brought our hurts, our concerns and our requests before our God. Even though we were scattered, in a way we could still gather as a faith family to pray corporately.

As you reflect on your own experience yesterday at the All Church Prayer Service as well as the turmoil we are experiencing in our country right now, consider these reasons for why we pray together as a church.

Corporate prayer teaches us how to pray.

Prayer is as much caught as it is taught. Rich Mullins had a great line in one of his songs: 

Well, I was twelve years old in the meeting house,

Listening to the old men pray,

Well, I was tryin' hard to figure out,

What it was that they was tryin' to say,

When someone prays out loud, we hear the structure, the tone, the words, the manner, the items that rise to importance, and the Word applied in prayer. Additionally, intentional times of prayer focused on praise, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication that are prayed in the gathering will also teach us how to pray.

Corporate prayer builds unity in the church.

Participating regularly in corporate prayer helps us discover that our lives as followers of Christ are united together in community. More than a team-building activity however, corporate prayer matures us together. Because the church that practices prayer is more than a church that learns together; it’s also a church that leans together. We learn dependence by leaning on God together.

Corporate prayer encourages us to pray more individually.

Remembering that we gather and pray together on Sundays has a tendency to encourage us to pray Monday-Saturday as well. Think of corporate prayer in the worship gathering as a strong and consistent anchor in your prayer life; knowing that we will pray together on Sundays can be a huge confidence booster for your prayer life throughout the week.

Corporate prayer is modeled in the Bible.

The early church is mentioned praying twenty-one times in the book of Acts alone. Further, whenever prayer is mentioned, it overwhelmingly involves others praying together. However, the practice of corporate prayer is not only pictured in the gatherings of the early church, it is found throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Consider Genesis 4 when we are given the family tree of Adam and Eve’s children Cain and Seth. The sons of Cain were extremely talented—they raised livestock, made music, and invented metal tools. Quite the resume in early human civilization! However, what is conspicuously missing in their generational accomplishments is the presence of God. The sons of Seth however didn’t seem to have much in the way of great leaps forward in science and technology. Instead, we read that they “began to call on the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4:26). In their humble dependence on God, the children of Seth seemed to begin participating in first prayer meetings together.

Then, at the end of all things in Revelation 19:1-8, at what the theologians call the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, we see the people of God doing what? Praying together. Their sin has been removed and they shout with prayers of thanksgiving: “Hallelujah! . . . Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!” 

For more (and better) resources on corporate prayer, consider reading the articles in this 9Marks Journal devoted to the subject of corporate prayer.