Prayer is another part of the worship of God. Usually one person, the minister, leads the worshipers and speaks to God for them. As hearers, we should be reverent and quiet, thinking of the meaning of what the minister says just as if we were praying aloud to God ourselves. Prayer is offered several times during the worship service. There are four kinds of prayer in the public worship service:

• invocation

• intercession

• offertory prayer

• benediction

The invocation is at the beginning of the worship service. Its purpose is to ask for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of the people, and for guidance and blessing on the service.

In the intercessory prayer, we pray on behalf of others in the name of Christ, who brings our requests to God the Father. The intercessory prayer includes adoration and love toward God, thanksgiving, confession of sin, and petitions (asking) for ourselves and others. These petitions include requests for our congregation and our church; for other churches and for ways the gospel of Christ is spread throughout the world; for our community, nation, and those in places of authority; for other people and nations; and that Christ may be honored as Savior and King all over the world.

The offertory prayer comes during the offering. This prayer of thanks to God may be given before or after the collection plates have been passed in the congregation. It is a prayer recognizing our dependence upon God who has given us everything. What we give is only a part of our material blessings, and the pastor thanks God and asks Him to accept these gifts and bless them for His work.

The benediction is a prayer in which the minister asks for the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be on the people in the congregation. This takes place at the end of the worship service. The benediction is different from other prayers in several ways.First, it is an official blessing from God pronounced upon the people by the minister at the close of the service. Only a man ordained to the ministry of the gospel is to pronounce this full benediction, and it is properly done only in a congregation of Christ’s church for Christ’s people. Second, it usually includes the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Third, this kind of prayer reminds us what God has done or is able to do for His people.

Try to listen carefully to the prayers in the church service and hear the different parts we have mentioned.

—Excerpted from When We Worship God, by Max and Fran Mann