An inspirational and practical guide for all who help to lead the intercessions in regular worship or offer prayers on specific occasions. It aims to empower and equip lay people and clergy alike to offer heartfelt, informed, thoughtful and appropriate prayers on behalf of the people of God for God's world.

Samuel Wells

Crafting Prayers for Public Worship

Preface

Introduction

Speaking to God for the People

To the Father in the Spirit through the Son

Three kinds of speech

Staying in role

The drama of prayer

A Time-Honoured Shape

The collect

Addressing God

Being rooted in scripture

Daring to be imperative

Making subordinate petitions

Expecting results

Becoming the answer to prayer

Social and Liturgical Context

Social location

Singing and speaking of faith

Sermon

Enriching worship

The Offering

Fine Tuning

Repetition

Symmetry and balance

Responses, set prayers and conclusions

Silence

Extempore prayer

Examples: Seasons

Advent

Epiphany

Lent

Easter

All Saints

Examples: Ordinary Time

Examples: Occasions

Occasions of intimacy

Occasions of gathering

A vigil in response to violence

Prayers at the beginning and completion of college life

A prayer for a blood donor campaign by the Red Cross

A prayer at a pilgrimage for justice and peace

A prayer at the opening of a new social housing development

Occasions of crisis

A prayer at the outbreak of conflict

A prayer after an earthquake

A prayer after a massacre

An inspirational and practical guide for all who help to lead the intercessions in regular worship or offer prayers on specific occasions. It aims to empower and equip lay people and clergy alike to offer heartfelt, informed, thoughtful and appropriate prayers on behalf of the people of God for God’s world.

This is an inspirational and practical guide for all who help to lead the intercessions in regular worship or to offer prayers in public worship on specific occasions. It aims to empower and equip lay people and clergy alike to offer heartfelt, informed, thoughtful and appropriate prayers on behalf of the people of God for God's world. Crafting Prayers for Public Worship: \* considers what public prayer is and offers practical guidelines for avoiding common pitfalls. \* explores prayer as an integral part of worship and the kinds of speech we need (and don't need) to address God. \* reflects on the basic structures and shape of the prayers we create, staying rooted in scripture, the answers we can expect with confidence, becoming part of the answer ouselves, and other practicalities \* offers a wide range of templates and examples.

"Samuel Wells steers the reader skilfully between the rocks of over-formality on the one hand and florid moralistic exposition on the other...There is much useful material here." -- Laura Hillman

SAMUEL WELLS is Vicar of St Martin in the Fields, London, and the author of many acclaimed books including What Anglicans Believe, Learning to Dream Again, God's Companions (shortlisted for the Michael Ramsey Prize). Previously he was Dean of Chapel and Research Professor of Christian Ethics at Duke University.

• A practical guide to public prayer in contemporary worship • An essential volume for clergy and the many lay people who participate in leading the prayers in worship • Aims to build confidence, increase skills and deepen theological understanding.

This is an inspirational and practical guide for all who help to lead the intercessions in regular worship or to offer prayers in public worship on specific occasions. It aims to empower and equip lay people and clergy alike to offer heartfelt, informed, thoughtful and appropriate prayers on behalf of the people of God for God's world. Crafting Prayers for Public Worship: • considers what public prayer is and offers practical guidelines for avoiding common pitfalls. • explores prayer as an integral part of worship and the kinds of speech we need (and don't need) to address God. • reflects on the basic structures and shape of the prayers we create, staying rooted in scripture, the answers we can expect with confidence, becoming part of the answer ouselves, and other practicalities • offers a wide range of templates and examples.

"Samuel Wells steers the reader skilfully between the rocks of over-formality on the one hand and florid moralistic exposition on the other...There is much useful material here."

A practical guide for leading intercessions in public worship. It covers prayer structure, common pitfalls, and includes templates, aimed at clergy and lay leaders alike.

\["For lay leaders and clergy guiding public prayers", "Helps avoid common pitfalls in public intercessions", "You will create meaningful prayers for your community"\]

‘Crafting Prayers for Public Worship’ offers lay people and the clergy an inspirational and practical guide to the art of intercession in public worship.

Inside you’ll find practical advice on crafting heartfelt, genuine and suitable prayers for all occasions, including:  
• Reflections on what public prayer is  
• Common pitfalls to avoid  
• Prayer as part of your worship  
• How to address God (and how not to)  
• How to stay rooted in and be inspired by Scripture  
• Basic structures, templates and examples

Empower your worship with this guide to crafting heartfelt prayers.

An excellent book that goes beyond what might at first be assumed by its title. This book doesn't just teach about how to craft prayers of intercession, or acts for public worship but digs down deeper providing a lovely guide to what those prayers are, to why we use them, how we should use them, and also looks at their history and development. So then in that way it truly is a book on the craft and art of public prayers. It's a wonderfully deep and intelligent book that flows gently and lyrically into the nature of prayer and devising prayers for a multitude of purposes and in a number of ways. This is not just a step by step guide, but is a real course from a master that develops the student to become their own artisan - and yet done in such a way that almost anyone can become a skilled crafter of intercessionary acts of worship and prayer.  
A book not just for those starting out but for those already active who want a new insight too.

The Art of Intercession

Navigation Bar

Header Default

Download the Christian360 App to read eBooks and listen to Audiobooks bought at Christian360

Crafting Prayers for Public Worship

Description

Need support?

Customer reviews

Download the App

Download the App