Why so few Great pastoral Prayers

Why so few Great pastoral Prayers?

I’ve heard some great pastoral prayers in my life so far. Three. Not three prayers, mind you, but three pastors who prayed them. Well, not actually pastors, all three of the great pray-ers I’ve known were not the senior pastor of the church where they prayed. Maybe that’s why? Perhaps the senior pastor worried mostly abut the message—what he would say to us for God, not the pastoral prayer—what he’d say to God about us.

The first great pastoral pray-er I heard was Allen Bowman. He was a history professor but the pastor would “call on him to lead in prayer.” When he did I felt he really was praying to God—standing between the congregation and God interceding for us. His prayers took me to the throne of God. And in that sense they were worship.

The second great pastoral pray-er I knew was David Thompson, now teaching at Asbury Seminary. Woah! What a pray-er. He hid nothing form God and, like Alan Bowman before him, found that place between God’s throne and the congregation and brought a bit of heaven down to earth while he lifted us up toward heaven—we met somewhere in between.

After you’ve been led to God’s throne by people like this you yearn for it. Well, I’ve got it again. This time it is Paul Meeks, a semi-retired missionary serving part time on the church staff. When he prays I really feel he’s praying—that’s he’s not talking to the congregation at all but we’re sort of eavesdropping on his intercession for the congregation (and city, and nation etc.)

What makes a good pastoral prayer and pray-er? Here’s what I found out from Meeks:

1. He prays about praying. That is he doesn’t just write the prayers but he spends serious time in prayer for guidance about what the Lord wants him to pray about. Interesting. Make sense doesn’t it? Public prayer growing out of private prayer.

2. He works for a main focus for each prayer. In this sense making a great pastoral prayer is like a sermon. Face it, nobody takes notes on your prayers. But they can be remembered. And they are important. After all the disciples didn’t ask Jesus, “teach us to preach” or “teach us to sing.” They asked him to teach them to pray. And he did.

3. He eliminates religious jargon and clichés. This would not surprise me if Paul Meeks were 25. But he is on the other end of the age spread in a church. Yet he works to eliminate jargon so the prayers will be clear and simple and understandable by all.

4. He used conversational language instead of a "prayer tone voice." Thus, not only are his words clear his tone is easy to listen to.

5. He intentionally thinks of drawing in the congregation, While we are in some ways “listening in” he intentionally works to “lead” in prayer—that is, pray in such a way that the congregation is drawn in as assenters (and even occasionally amens) as he prays along.

6. He is careful to represent the needs of the audience. Not just physical ones, but spiritual, emotional and financial ones as well. By the time his prayer is finished most everyone feels they have been prayed for specifically—as “those with financial problems” or “those going through painful family problems.”

7. He prepares a fully written prayer but allows for spontaneity. He knows how to pray a written prayer. He does not read it—he prays it. Yet sometimes he senses additional things not prepared and allows himself some freedom to add these—just as a preacher would with a fully prepared manuscript. He does not read them, but prays them.

8. His prayers often lead in to the Lord’s Prayer. After all, this is how the Lord taught us to pray. And, who gives us the right to alter the Scripture to make it mean “this is the kind of prayer to pray.” Go check what Jesus said again. I’m glad he lets us pray the Lord’s Prayer.

9. He prepares. He wouldn’t like me telling you this, but I know he spends about an hour on each prayer. Hey, I know preachers who only spend an hour on their message preparation.

Perhaps this is the chief reason we have so few great pastoral pray-ers. There’s just not enough time to treat a pastoral prayer that seriously.

Unless, that is, prayer is more important than we think.

I enticed Paul Meeks to let me have a few of his pastoral prayers so I posted them and now have a blog for them at the following location.

è NEW PASTORAL PRAYERS ARE HERE NOW http://pastoralprayers.blogspot.com/

Collections from the past by Paul Meeks

Paul Meeks pastoral prayer #1

Paul Meeks pastoral prayer #2

Paul Meeks pastoral prayer #3

Paul Meeks pastoral prayer #4

Paul Meeks pastoral prayer #5

Paul Meeks pastoral prayer #6

Paul Meeks pastoral prayer #7