Over the past several years, I have taught courses to seminarians and pastoral interns on the theology and practice of worship in the Reformed tradition. Part of the syllabus requires students to interact with worship services posted online, evaluating the elements, coherence, and execution of the liturgy. Services are not prescreened, and we select churches with various worship styles around the PCA. 

The assignment requires students to critically engage worship services, cultivating a conscious interaction with matters that frequently fly under the radar. After reviewing a significant number of services, several consistent liturgical themes have surfaced that deserve comment. 

Previously I surveyed the roles of the call to worship and confession of sin in PCA worship services. This essay focuses on intercessory prayer by exploring the historic roots of Reformed practice, reflecting on modern practice, and considering a few recommendations for renewal. 

Historical Roots of the Intercessory Prayer

The Directory for the Public Worship of God offers a robust guide for the intercessory prayer consisting of eight major sections: 

1. a robust confession of sin;
2. a petition for God to assure his children of their pardon in Jesus Christ;
3. a petition for sanctification by the Spirit, strength in temptation, and perseverance until death;
4. a petition for the advance of God’s kingdom throughout the nations;
5. a petition for all in governing authority, including a prayer for pastors;
6. a petition for the ordinances of God celebrated and enjoyed on the Sabbath to lead to fellowship with God;
7. a petition for a fuller and more perfect communion with Jesus Christ; and
8. a prayer for the preaching of the Word and for the Spirit to illumine and sanctify God’s people. 

Ministers also had the freedom to add prayers of thanksgiving to the intercessory prayer.¹ This substantive approach to the pastoral prayer in the Directory follows the example of the Reformed liturgies that preceded it.

For instance, John Knox supplies an intercessory prayer, or recommends something like it, to be said after the sermon. The prayer contains nine major petitions: (1) a petition for God to make the preaching of his Word fruitful; (2) a request for the help of the Holy Spirit to guide the congregation that their petitions be agreeable to God’s will; (3) a petition for help in weakness and temptation; (4) a petition for all men to believe the gospel; (5) a petition for pastors and ministers to be faithful to God in their manner of life and doctrine; (6) a petition for those in governing authority; (7) a petition for those afflicted with tribulation in body or mind; (8) a petition for those persecuted for their faith; and (9) the Lord’s Prayer.² The prayer is full of Scriptural quotations and allusions, as Knox sought to offer a comprehensive prayer that accorded with Scriptural commandments. 

Despite the similarity in content, the Directory of Worship also significantly differs from the intercessory prayers of the Reformed tradition, particularly regarding the prayer’s location in the liturgical order. The principal Protestant liturgies—those of Martin Luther, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, and John Knox—all place the intercessory prayer after the sermon. The liturgies of Ulrich Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger do not.³

In the liturgy of John Calvin, the intercessory prayer followed the preaching of God’s Word⁴ and reflects a deep theological conviction. In his commentary on John 17:1, Calvin roots the order in Jesus’ example from his upper room discourse and High Priestly prayer. He writes: 

Now he [Jesus] betakes himself to prayer; and this is as it should be, for doctrine is cold unless it is given divine efficacy. He therefore shows teachers an example, that they should not only occupy themselves in sowing the Word, but by mixing their prayers with it should implore God’s help, that his blessing should make their work fruitful. In short, this prayer of Christ is, as it were, the seal of the preceding teaching, both that it might be ratified in itself and that it might obtain full authority with the disciples.⁵

For Calvin, our Lord Jesus sets an example that ministers are to follow in John 13-17 by sowing the Word and sealing it with prayer. Calvin believed that prayer following the sermon highlighted, not diminished, the significance of God’s Word. Given this, the broad pastoral intercession always followed the sermon in Calvin’s liturgies in Strasbourg and Geneva. 

Though it contains similar content, the Directory differs from the intercessory prayers of the Reformed tradition by putting the prayer in a different place in the liturgy. In the Directory, the divines judged that it was most convenient for the intercessory prayer to be located prior to the sermon. Some petitions, along with the Lord’s Prayer, were recommended for after the sermon. However, the main intercessory prayer was to precede the sermon. 

Certain delegates loyal to Knox’s liturgy objected strongly to this innovation which led the committee to include a provision for the minister to defer some petitions until after the sermon.⁶ In keeping with the general approach of the Directory, ministers were permitted to use their discretion, permitting flexibility while also stating a preference that shaped subsequent Presbyterian practice.⁷

Modern Intercessory Prayers

In modern Presbyterian worship, like in broader evangelicalism, the intercessory prayer is the service’s chief weakness. This prayer in classical form was an extended pastoral supplication that followed the sermon and covered a broad range of petitions, but many ministers in the PCA today give perfunctory attention to the intercessory prayer. 

Modern intercessory prayers exhibit four main deficiencies. 

First, little time in the liturgical order is devoted to the intercessory prayer. In many cases, the prayer is nothing more than a slightly extended prayer for illumination ahead of the sermon. Some churches even omit the intercessory prayer altogether, preferring a liturgy that prioritizes congregational singing and the sermon only. My students and I observed this alarming practice in a 75-minute service that devoted over 40 minutes to the sermon while neglecting the intercessory prayer altogether.

Second, the substance of modern intercessory prayers is anemic in comparison to their historical ancestors. The content is frequently restricted to a very narrow set of local concerns, not the broader diet commanded in Scripture and recommended in the Directory and Reformed tradition. 

Third, ministers are frequently ill-prepared for the prayer, lapsing into cliches and stumbling over themselves. Substance and style are sacrificed on the altar of authenticity, brevity, and freedom. 

Finally, the intercessory prayer, almost universally, precedes the sermon in the liturgical order of PCA churches. Although it follows the Directory, this order dislocates the prayers of the congregation from hearing the Word of God, severing the dialogical relationship between the Word and prayer. 

In the Reformed tradition, prayer is the response of adopted children to a loving Father who has made us his own in the true Son, Jesus Christ, and sent the Spirit into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”⁸ We speak to God only because he has first spoken to us. God’s gracious promises assure us that we will gain an audience with him through Jesus Christ, inducing us to pray. The order of intercessory prayer following the reading and preaching of the Word preserves this theological conviction in liturgical practice. 

Additionally, the dislocation of the intercessory prayer from the sermon hinders ministers from inducing intercessory prayer with any sense of a broader theological narrative in the service. For instance, after the sermon, the minister can lead the congregation into the intercessory prayer with the following transition: “Having heard God’s Word this morning and learning of all the gracious benefits that are ours in Jesus Christ, let’s take up our privilege, as sons and daughters, to make our requests known to him.” 

This type of transition subtly introduces the congregation to a narrative that connects the elements of the liturgy and encourages the congregation to engage on the basis of God’s grace. Unfortunately, most liturgical transitions are more procedural as the minister marches through the elements of worship without a sense of a theological narrative that ties the elements together.

Recommendations for Renewal

To remedy these deficiencies, I have two main recommendations. 

First, ministers need to reserve substantial time during the week for preparing the intercessory prayer. Calvin noted that not every minister has the gift of extemporaneous prayer. Therefore, he advised those lacking the gift to use a prepared prayer.⁹ Preparation does not stifle the Spirit. Preparation permits intentionality, forethought, and freedom. By preparing, ministers can develop a rich palette of petitions with Scriptural quotations and allusions woven into the fabric of the prayer. 

Pastors can also study the prayers of the Reformed tradition, not to repeat them, but to learn from them. The intercessory prayer, as with its Reformed predecessors, can become a powerful rhetorical event in which the congregation draws near to the Father in and through the Son by the Spirit. 

Additionally, ministers need to focus attention on the art of public prayer. The intercessory prayer should involve the substance, rhetoric, and pathos of a sermon. The minister needs to exhibit to the congregation what lively communion with God looks like through the intercessory prayer. Unfortunately, Reformed theological education offers little instruction towards this end, so we forfeit the opportunity.

Second, ministers need to reflect on the location of the intercessory prayer in the liturgy. Few seem aware of the broader Reformed practice of locating the intercessory prayer after hearing God’s Word. Even fewer seem aware of the theological rationale behind this liturgical practice. The Word is to be sown with prayer. 

Additionally, there is a dialogical element to the order that preserves the relationship between grace and gratitude: we speak to God in prayer because we have been spoken to in his Word. After hearing the Word, we are prepared to approach our heavenly Father through our Mediator, Jesus Christ, to make intercessions in accord with his will by the Spirit. 

Considering the impoverished state of prayer in corporate worship, the moment offers the PCA an opportunity to entertain a theological discussion about the liturgical location of the intercessory prayer that can contribute to the renewal of this means of grace.

Conclusion

Intercessory prayer has fallen on hard times. Congregations would benefit from ministers exploring the riches of intercessory prayer in the Reformed tradition, expanding the content of their prayers, considering how to grow in the art of public prayer, and reflecting on the location of the intercessory prayer in the liturgical order. Intercessory prayer is a gift in which we commune with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ—it is a means of grace. Let’s do everything possible to avail ourselves of the privilege we have as the adopted sons and daughters of God.  

---

Chuck Colson serves as senior pastor of Christ Church Presbyterian in Jacksonville, Florida, and also serves as guest lecturer at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.

¹Westminster Confession of Faith (Glasgow: Free Presbyterian Publications, 2001), 376-382.
²Mark Earngey and Jonathan Gibson (eds.), Reformation Worship (Greensboro: New Growth Press, 2018), 574-577.
³For a nice compilation, see Earngey and Gibson, Reformation, 669-684. 
⁴Earngey and Gibson, Reformation, 311-317.
⁵Commentary on John 17:1, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries 5:134.
⁶Hughes Oliphant Old, Worship: Reformed According to Scripture (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 102-103.
⁷For instance, the PCA’s Directory for Worship recommends a full and comprehensive prayer prior to the sermon (BCO 52-2).
⁸Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15
⁹Old, Worship, 101.