The act of leading a congregation in prayer gives voice to present hope and future expectation by invoking the memory of God’s person, works and promises.
In corporate prayer, the people of God remember who God is, and who they are.

Remember that in public prayer you are a remembrancer. When a pastor leads in prayer, he or she embodies the theology, values, and ethos of the church. The pastor also actualises memory. We can draw worshipers from the undertow of the world to breathe again life-giving truths about God even as we address God in prayer. Perhaps this is why many of the prayers in the Bible speak at length about God while making supplication to God. For instance, in David’s prayer to dedicate the building materials of the temple (1 Chronicles 29:10-19), I estimate that 50 percent of the prayer rehearses who God is: “blessed,” “the God of Israel our father, forever and ever,” “all things come from you,” the one who :tests the heart and has pleasure in uprightness,” and so forth. The prayer also states who we are in relation to God: strangers and sojourners, “our days on earth are like a shadow,” and so on. Remembrancers take every opportunity, including public prayer to remind the body of who God is and who they are.

Jeffrey D Arthurs, Preaching As Reminding, IVP, 2017, pg 143.