The spiritual backsliding of churches and the moral decay of our nation calls us to urgent prayer. Even the sacred institution of marriage is under attack as never before. On March 10 we gather in church for our Annual Prayer Day; on May 6, for the National Prayer Day proclaimed by our President. May God richly bless those special days among us. But, dear friends, we need more than two prayer days. We need to storm the throne of grace privately and corporately that God will, in wrath, remember mercy. The following article is the first of three on corporate prayer meetings. Next month’s editorial will take a cursory look at the history of prayer meetings, and, the following issue, at the purposes and implementation of prayer meetings.

“We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.” So wrote Charles Spurgeon in his famous address, “Only a Prayer Meeting.”¹

By “the prayer meeting” Spurgeon meant a formal meeting of members of a Christian congregation at stated times for the purpose of engaging in united prayer. Such meetings are the focus of this article; hence I use “corporate prayer” below as referring to these meetings in distinction from formal worship services.

Prayer meetings in America have fallen on hard times. Less than ten percent of members now meet for prayer in churches that once had vibrant, Spirit-led meetings. In many churches, prayer meetings have become cold and boring. Other churches have never developed the tradition of meeting regularly for cor­porate prayer.

Lewis Thompson was right when he wrote in his The Prayer-Meeting and Its Improvement (1878),

If it is true that the active piety of a church rises no higher than it manifests itself in the prayer-meeting, so that here, as on a barometer, all changes in spiritual life are faithfully recorded, then certainly too much attention cannot be given by both pastor and people to the con­ducting of the prayer-meeting.²

It is time to reassess the importance of prayer meetings, for the church that does not earnestly pray together cannot hope to experience reformation and revival. Have we forgotten that the Reformation era churches often held daily morning and evening services for preaching and prayer? Is it surprising that the Reformed faith has experienced more revival in Korea than anywhere else in the world in the last half-century when Christians there gather 365 mornings a year for prayer (at 5 a.m. in the summer and 6 a.m. in the winter)? Let us take a closer look at prayer meet­ings, specifically at their scriptural warrant, history, purposes, and implementation in regular congregational meetings, with the earnest plea that God will convict us that we have lost our first love in this and enlighten us to remember from where we have fallen, how we should repent, and in what way we may do again the first works (Rev. 2:4-5).

The Biblical Warrant for Prayer Meetings⤒🔗

The warrant for corporate prayer is rooted in Scripture. In his book on the history of prayer meetings, J. B. Johnston asserts that corporate prayer is rooted in Genesis 4:26, where we read, “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” Johnston writes, “Men, moved by grace, would then, as now, find enjoyment in social prayer, and would, consequently, be led by its power to practice it as now.”³

The patriarchs also engaged in corporate prayer. Genesis 21:33 says Abraham “planted a grove in Beer­sheba, and called there upon the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.” That kind of group prayer in groves, often called “proseucha” (places of prayer distinct from sacrificial altars), continued throughout the patriarchal period, though later they were idolatrously abused (Deut. 16:21). David and his friends engaged in corporate prayer (Ps. 4:13, 14; 66:16), as did devout Jews in Babylon (Ps. 137:1-2). In Nehemiah 9, at least eleven Levites took turns praying and confessing sin to the Lord before the children of Israel (vv. 4-5). Even the sailors who threw Jonah overboard first corporately call upon the name of Jehovah (Jon. 1:14).

Malachi 3:16-17 asserts the importance of meeting for spiritual fellowship, in which prayer very likely had a part: “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.” John Brown of Haddington concluded from this text that God was heartily pleased with corporate prayer; he said God “hearkens to, and hears, and honorably records, what is said; and esteems and spares the conscientious attenders.”[1] ⁴

The New Testament continues to model corporate prayer. Services of prayer were held each morning in the synagogues of the Jews and in the Temple. More importantly, Jesus often led His disciples in corporate prayer, both before His death (Luke 9:18) and after His resurrection (John 20:19, 26). Gethsemane appears to have been one of Christ’s favorite places to pray (John 18:1-2).

Jesus Himself provides an explicit mandate for prayer meetings in Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” In a sermon titled “The Social Prayer-Meeting” preached in 1844, Edwin F. Hatfield of New York said the Matthew text suggests that “any number of praying souls, two or more, have much greater reason to expect success when they pray together than when they pray for the same things separately.”⁵

The mandate for prayer meetings is particularly reinforced in the book of Acts through the practice of the New Testament church. Acts 1 and 2 show us that the church prayer meeting, blessed by the Spirit, gave birth to Pentecost. After Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, the disciples continued earnestly in prayer until the Spirit was poured out. After Pentecost, the disciples continued steadfastly “in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (2:42). When Satan afflicted the early church with fierce persecution, the New Testament church met corporately for prayer until the Lord heard their cries and filled them with boldness to continue preaching (4:24-31).

Persecution raged again, however. When James was beheaded and Peter was imprisoned, believers once more sought God’s guidance in prayer meetings. They prayed earnestly for eight days in several different locations right up to the hour that Peter was to be exe­cuted. The Lord then wondrously intervened by sending an angel to deliver the apostle (Acts 12:7). As soon as Peter was freed from prison, he went straight to the prayer meeting. Obviously, he knew where the believers would be gathered. The church, much like us today, could scarcely believe that God had answered their prayers and brought Peter back to them, unharmed (v.16).

Acts 16 tells us how the first church in Europe was born in a women’s prayer meeting as Lydia’s heart opened to the gospel message (Acts 16:13-15). Later, Paul and Silas held a midnight prayer meeting in jail. As the disciples “prayed and sang praises unto God,” other prisoners were listening (Acts 16:25). God responded to those prayers by sending an earthquake that set Paul and Silas free. The jailer and his family were converted. The gospel triumphed, and the church was comforted (vv. 26-40). God once more placed His benediction on prayer meetings.

The New Testament epistles commend prayer meetings, too. Johnston says Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 probably refer to prayer meetings. Though these texts are subject to various interpretations, there are other examples of New Testament churches in the epistles that appear to have engaged in corporate prayer, such as the churches of Aquila, Nymphas, and Philemon (1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phil. 12). The epistles also encourage corporate prayer by repeatedly using the second person plural when calling believers to prayer (Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:17; 1 Tim. 2:1-2; 1 Pet. 4:7).

The practice of the New Testament church shows that prayer meetings should support the stated assemblies for worship rather than compete with them. They have important but ancillary function to the assembling of the church around the proclamation of the Scriptures.