One thing that bothers me a bit is the way in which public prayer in churches seems to have devolved into a forum to make announcements and spread concerns amongst the congregation.
Prayer in this context should be about magnifying and glorifying our Great God. Read the public/community prayers in the Old Testament — you'll get a nice review of the ways in which God worked in and through His people, the Israelites. God is glorified for His faithfulness to His people over history. Read the prayers in the New Testament, and you'll get a great perspective on how Jesus prayed, and on how He taught his disciples to pray.
Read the Apostolic Fathers, and you'll get another dose. Especially in 1 Clement 59-61. Here are just a few snippets (from Holmes' edition) from that prayer:
- (59.3a) Grant us, Lord, to hope on your name, which is the primal source of all creation, and open the eyes of our hearts, that we may know you, who alone is “Highest among the high, and remains Holy among the holy.”
- (60.1) For you through your works have revealed the everlasting structure of the world. You, Lord, created the earth. You are faithful throughout all generations, righteous in your judgments, marvelous in strength and majesty, wise in creating and prudent in establishing what exists, good in all that is observed and faithful to those who trust in you, merciful and compassionate: forgive us our sins and our injustices, our transgressions and our shortcomings.
- (61.1) You, Master, have given them [earthly rulers] the power of sovereignty through your majestic and inexpressible might, so that we, acknowledging the glory and honor which you have given them, may be subject to them, resisting your will in nothing. Grant to them, Lord, health, peace, harmony, and stability, that they may blamelessly administer the government which you have given them.
- (61.3) You, who alone are able to do these and even greater good things for us, we praise through the highpriest and guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom be the glory and the majesty to you both now and for all generations and forever and ever. Amen.
When was the last time you were sitting in church during the congregational prayer and heard anything even comparable to the stuff going on up there? To be fair, 1 Clement does have some petitioning going on (cf. 59.4, 60.2), but the example of 1 Clement seems on the whole to be much more like the prayers one finds in the Bible (e.g., Neh 9:6-38; Mt 6:9-15; Jn 17) than what one hears (well ... at least what I hear) in the church today.
I understand that one of the purposes of the congregational prayer in the order of service is to present the needs and requests of the body to God. This is fine, and it is needed. But, at least to me, it seems as if we've forgotten that the primary purpose should be to, as a body, magnify and glorify God, to praise Him for His greatness, to recount the ways He has worked both through history and in the life of the congregation, and glorify Him and praise Him for that.
Instead, congregational prayers seem to be endless series of requests of God with additional details supplied for those in the congregation listening along: “Please, Lord, be with Mary-Sue as she enters the hospital on Thursday to have her boil lanced, which she noticed last week while peeling apples she'd picked from her tree.” Ok, that example is a bit absurd, but you get what I'm going for here. The congregational prayer is not the forum to make announcements to the congregation. The congregational prayer is the forum by which to approach God in humbleness, and to praise Him corporately for the blessings He provides to us as a body.
Sometimes I think the popular conception of the relationship one has with God through prayer is that of a cosmic slot machine. In this sceneario, God is the slot machine and prayer is the way we insert the coin in the slot and pull the handle. Sometimes (not very often) we hit the jackpot, but most of the time we hit bust; but that's ok, we've got more coins (requests) to stick in the slot. We only really pay attention to the slot machine when it pays out. Otherwise, it's just a tool that we don't think about too much.
The cosmic slot machine perspective is, obviously, wrong. But I think it is present, to some degree or another, in much of the practice of prayer amongst Christians today. Instead of inserting a coin in the slot and only hoping for a payout, simply praise and magnify God in prayer. Celebrate His greatness and the way in which He has worked. As an exercise, try praying to God for the specific purpose of glorifying Him and thanking Him for the gracious way He has worked in your life. If you're a pastor or one who leads public/corporate prayer, try this in that context as well. Announce your announcements, then pray to God alone as a corporate body.