Prayers and Prayerbooks

[ChavaK]

What type of prayers and prayers books are used during Christian services? I would imagine that there would be big differences between Protestant and Catholic liturgy...but how about amongst the Protestant sects?
Do you have common prayers that are used, with minor variations in the services? Are prayerbooks similar, or
radicaly different? Do you use texts mostly from the
New Testament, versus the Hebrew bible? And are
their central governing bodies that regulate what the
content of either the services or the prayerbooks is?

Thanks,
chava

 

[dvd_holc]

To my knowledge, Catholics (and similar denominations) have pray books. But the Baptist churchs which I have gone to, I have not seen prayer books. That does not mean they don't have them; rather, it means that in daily use it is not been used to my knowledge to those particular churches. Instead, the prayers are more spontaneous; leaving it to the leader.

I have choosen to incorparte passages in my prayers. I tend to use NT because those are the ones I have memorized. When I begin to memorize tanakh, I will also use that. Also, I have not began to be a teacher within a particular church, but when I do, I will plan on teaching to use passages out of the entire bible.

 

[ebia]

What type of prayers and prayers books are used during Christian services? I would imagine that there would be big differences between Protestant and Catholic liturgy...but how about amongst the Protestant sects?

The prayerbooks of the main prayerbook using denominations are remarkably similar.

Do you have common prayers that are used, with minor variations in the services?

The Catholic prayerbooks are pretty fixed. The Anglican prayerbooks increasingly include scope for variation within the same basic template. You'll find similar is true within other denominations such as Methodists/Uniting Church, Lutherans, etc.

Are prayerbooks similar, or
radicaly different?

The difference is mostly in the detail. The basic form is centuries old.

Do you use texts mostly from the
New Testament, versus the Hebrew bible?

Both. Most of the prayers are drawn loosly from all over the bible. An Anglican or Catholic service will usually include 3 explicit lessons from the bible - one each from the Old Testament, The Epistles, and the Gospels, plus a psalm (from the OT).

And are
their central governing bodies that regulate what the
content of either the services or the prayerbooks is?

Yes. For the Anglican Church it's their national synods. However, as I said, there is scope within modern prayerbooks for local variation, and the bishop can always authorise something different - our local church, for instance, uses services drawn from Common Worship (the English Anglican prayerbook) rather than A Prayerbook for Australia.

If you are interested, the entire text of Common Worship is available online:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/


Thanks,
chava[/quote]

 

[FallingWaters]

What type of prayers and prayers books are used during Christian services? I would imagine that there would be big differences between Protestant and Catholic liturgy...but how about amongst the Protestant sects?
Do you have common prayers that are used, with minor variations in the services? Are prayerbooks similar, or
radicaly different? Do you use texts mostly from the
New Testament, versus the Hebrew bible? And are
their central governing bodies that regulate what the
content of either the services or the prayerbooks is?

Thanks,
chava

I was a member of non-denominational Charismatic churches for 19 years. We never recited prayers. When we prayed, we prayed as we were led by the Spirit of God in our hearts. We learned from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.


I go to a Baptist church now, and every Sunday we recite
The Lord's Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.

This is what Jesus told the disciple's when they asked Him: "Teach us to pray."
Luke 11:2+
Matthew 6:9+

We sing hymns, or popular Christian praise and worship songs (hopefully based on scriptural truths). We don't have prayer books, but we do have hymnals with the hymns in them.

The Southern Baptist Convention "oversees" the church I go to. They provide Bible study lessons to us which I'm sure are based in accordance with the Baptist statement of faith. We learn from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

 

[MikeMcK]

What type of prayers and prayers books are used during Christian services? I would imagine that there would be big differences between Protestant and Catholic liturgy...but how about amongst the Protestant sects?
Do you have common prayers that are used, with minor variations in the services? Are prayerbooks similar, or
radicaly different? Do you use texts mostly from the
New Testament, versus the Hebrew bible? And are
their central governing bodies that regulate what the
content of either the services or the prayerbooks is?

Thanks,
chava

Typically, prayer books are found in Roman Catholic or what are known as high churches and liturgical churches.

Baptist, evangelical, and fundamental churches tend not to have pre-written prayers, although some have responsive readings, which is where the preacher will say something and the congregation will respond. This is said as a kind of prayer.

Typically, these are done mostly on holidays, such as Easter, Christmas or (depending on the church) Advent Sunday or Pentecost Sunday.

 

[Padawan87]

Hi ChavaK,

The prayers in my church are not pre-written but spoken by the leaders "on the moment" I guess you could say. They vary from praying over the pastor (before the message is given), for our hearts to be open to the Holy Spirit, the appeal, for the offering, thanks-giving, and prayer requests, private prayer (often during the appeal), and so on, depending on what is happening.

My old church always said a benediction before we finished which had verses from both the Old and New Testament quoted.

Like all church denominations, the sermon or messages come from both the Old and New Testaments depending on the topic being preached.

Hi Fallingwaters,

I've often wondered one thing about what is commonly penned the "Lord's prayer" (which is a prayer outline) is would we really want God to forgive us as we forgive others, which is essentially what you are asking Him to do.

 

[rusmeister]

I would add, to understand why there are prayer books, to what FW said (...teach us to pray...)

That's precisely what prepared prayers are about. When we pray spontaneously, we pray about what's bothering us, what's on our minds. (This is sometimes a good and necessary thing) Trouble is, the center is 'me' and what 'I want' (or us/we in communal prayer).

You'll notice in the Jesus prayer that He teaches us how we SHOULD pray. If you take it apart, very little is about us and what we want. In the same spirit, the prayer books, representing the wisdom of centuries of saints and Church fathers, has developed prayers for various situations that remind us where we need to keep our focus in order to live the way He means for us to live, in the spirit of the "Our Father" prayer.

Using only spontaneous prayer means to be missing out on all of that.

 

[ebia]

I would add, to understand why there are prayer books, to what FW said (...teach us to pray...)

That's precisely what prepared prayers are about. When we pray spontaneously, we pray about what's bothering us, what's on our minds. (This is sometimes a good and necessary thing) Trouble is, the center is 'me' and what 'I want' (or us/we in communal prayer).

You'll notice in the Jesus prayer that He teaches us how we SHOULD pray. If you take it apart, very little is about us and what we want. In the same spirit, the prayer books, representing the wisdom of centuries of saints and Church fathers, has developed prayers for various situations that remind us where we need to keep our focus in order to live the way He means for us to live, in the spirit of the "Our Father" prayer.

Using only spontaneous prayer means to be missing out on all of that.

I'll just add that, in addition to the above, prayerbooks enable us to pray when we don't know what to say.

 

[ChavaK]

Baptist, evangelical, and fundamental churches tend not to have pre-written prayers, although some have responsive readings, which is where the preacher will say something and the congregation will respond.

So how do they structure their service and prayers...
or do people do individual, not communal, prayers?

 

[Radagast]

... every Sunday we recite
The Lord's Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.

This is what Jesus told the disciple's when they asked Him: "Teach us to pray."
Luke 11:2+
Matthew 6:9+

That's one thing that pretty much all Christians share.

 

[MikeMcK]

So how do they structure their service and prayers...
or do people do individual, not communal, prayers?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but in my church, as in most other Baptist churches, there are an average of 4-5 prayers lead by the preacher or deacon (or both, or someone else) and an opportunity for indiviual prayer.

Below, I typed out our order of worship from last week. As you can see, there are four prayers and the Doxology, which I consider to be a kind of congregational prayer (just so you know, most Baptists do not include the doxology on a regular basis).

Prelude

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Call to Worship (Hymn)

Songs of Worship (3 Hymns)

Offeratory Hymn

Scripture Reading and Prayer

Offertory

Special Music

Prayer

Sermon

Doxology (Prayer that is sung)

Invitation Hymn

Announcements

Benediction (Prayer)

Is that what you meant?

 

[ChavaK]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but in my church, as in most other Baptist churches, there are an average of 4-5 prayers lead by the preacher or deacon (or both, or someone else) and an opportunity for indiviual prayer.

Below, I typed out our order of worship from last week. As you can see, there are four prayers and the Doxology, which I consider to be a kind of congregational prayer (just so you know, most Baptists do not include the doxology on a regular basis).
Is that what you meant?

Thanks....it was mentioned that prayer books were not
used. It makes it sound like a "free for all" takes place
without one...which is why I was wondering how they
conduct services without one.