mgpcpastor's blog

There’s been a vigorous discussion at St. Eutychus about the necessity or otherwise of preachers having eye contact with their congregations while preaching. An associated part of that discussion involves the relative value of preaching from manuscript, notes, outline or having the whole thing in the RAM section of your brain. The meaning of the word ‘bastion’ also gets an airing. It’s worth a look.
A related subject is congregational prayer. The great tradition in Presbyterian circles has been for what is called ‘extemporaneous’ (‘out of the moment’) prayer. These prayers are usually spoken without having been written out, but, at their best, have represented prior preparation, consideration and decision about their content and flow. That’s the ideal, it doesn’t always work that way, which has led to some disjointed, long, repetitive prayers that are difficult to listen to.
Given the care and emphasis which is placed upon sermons, the lack of a similar standards being applied to prayer is curious. (Along with the general lessening of the number and length of prayers in congregational worship.)
In addition, there are many resources that provide prayers already written out. The Presbyterian Church of Australia has published ‘Pray’ and made it available online. Hughes Oliphant Old’s ‘Leading In Prayer’ should simply be read by everyone who leads congregations in prayer.

Douglas Wilson writes of his own practice of written prayer:

Here’s a quick take. Extemporaneous prayers are usually well-meant and heart-felt, but not thought through. After I began composing my prayers, one surprising result was that I found myself repeating myself far less. In other words, in my experience, written prayers were not an exercise in vain repetition, but rather a deliverance from it.

Recently Dave Bailey wrote a helpful post ‘Speaking of the People’ in which he describes the process of composing a written prayer which was used in a service at Creek Road Presbyterian, showing how the prepared prayer reflected and served the theme of that day’s service.

Like everything, transitioning to written prayer feels a little clunky, but at least the congregation aren’t watching you. But you’ll be more concise, less repetitive, will use the words ‘Lord’ and ‘pray’ a lot less and the word ‘just’ not at all, and, most of all, when our congregations give their ‘Amen’ “on the fly” (in Wilson’s words) they will do so with greater knowledge and enthusiasm for that which you have just prayed on their behalf.

Edit: per the comments below, Nathan offers another perspective on the issue.