We gathered in a circle to pray, heads bowed together, a holy hush came into the room. Victoria’s head popped up and with her eyes open she looked around said, “um, hey God. I’m here at the prayer meeting. I had a good day, thanks for that. I see Miguel here and he says his knee still hurts, can you do something about that?” If Victoria had been to our prayer meeting before she would have known that praying out loud should be more formal, the prayer should sound more like a speech, and we do not address God with “hey.” But Victoria’s prayer changed the tone of our prayer meeting for the better.
Praying out loud is something that many Christians assume everyone knows how to do. We think that, of course, we should know how to do this because everyone does it in church all the time. But rarely is it ever discussed or taught. Maybe we could skip the awkward, stilted, sometimes messy spoken prayers if the writers of the New Testament didn’t make it so clear that we were to pray together out loud. (I Timothy 2:1-2, James 5:14-15, Romans 15:30-33, Galatians 6:2, Matthew 18:20, to cite a few).
In a good conversation, we are aware of the others we are talking with, and we notice their body language and facial expressions. In a good conversation, we take turns talking, and the dialogue is balanced between the members of the conversation. In a good conversation, we pursue the same subject until the flow of conversation dictates that we switch topics. When we pray out loud in groups, these same conventions apply.
Here are a few ways you can revive your practice of praying out loud:
- Use everyday language and tone of voice. Your prayers should sound like you sound when you are talking with friends.
- Rather than making a speech to Jesus in front of your friends, think of Jesus sitting with your group. Since he is there, you and your friends are discussing things with him.
- Since you are not making a speech to Jesus but rather talking with him, it is okay to trail off and leave a sentence incomplete, to say something that doesn’t make sense, to forget a word – this is how an average conversation goes, so it is also what happens when you pray out loud.
- Raise one topic for prayer and dwell on it for a while. Let everyone who wants to pray about this say a prayer. You don’t have to exhaust the topic when you pray. Be sure that you leave space for others to pray on the same topic.
- Even though you are praying out loud, it is still important for you to leave room for the Holy Spirit to speak to you and those you are praying with.
- Even though you are praying in a group, silence is okay. In fact, you might intentionally add moments of silence in your prayer so that the Holy Spirit can speak.
- Pray loud enough so that everyone can hear your prayer.
- Resist the temptation to plan what you will pray when someone else is praying. Pray with that person silently when they are praying out loud. Let your following prayer come out of what was just prayed.
- Don’t worry about hitting all the prayer requests that were spoken. The Lord heard them when they were shared. Many groups assign someone to close and make sure that each prayer need is addressed.
If praying out loud has felt like a performance to you, apply some of these principles that will allow you to be more present when you are praying out loud.
What “out loud” prayer habits do you want to develop? Are there any “out loud” prayer habits that you want to break?
Resources: Rinker, Rosalind. Prayer: Conversing with God. Zondervan: 1986