Prayer of Confession

The details below are provided in order to help prayer leaders know what to expect and to prepare well for leading in corporate prayer.

After the welcome and announcements, the musicians will lead us in a song or two. The order of service will be accessible to you on Planning Center, and it will also be printed in the bulletin on Sunday. 

You should come up to the pulpit at the designated time, and take your place in close proximity to the pulpit microphone.

Do not give any other introduction or personal note. Just say something like, “Let’s confess our sins together in prayer…” and then bow your head to pray. Take a deep breath, relax, and then pray.

The prayer of confession is meant to lead the congregation in confessing sin and to teach them how to confess sin on their own. 

Aim for about 2-5 minutes of simply confessing sin in a shared or communal manner.

Be aware, it takes effort and practice to focus one’s mind and heart upon confessing sin. It is unnatural to think long on specific expressions of sin and the underlying thoughts and motives which produce them. 

Think about how you might confess sin according to the sermon text for the day. 

• What is presented positively in the text, and how do we neglect it or do the opposite? 
• What is presented negatively in the text, and how do we pursue, practice, and promote it? 
• Is there any command in that text we may generally fail to obey? 
• Is there any truth in that text we might often fail to believe? 
• What are some specific ways we might fail to obey or believe?

Remember that you are leading the congregation in confessing sin. Therefore, use “we” and “us” instead of “I” and “me.” 

Also, consider the reality that not everyone sins in the same ways. Therefore, it is possible that some of the folks in the room did not have a lustful thought or an angry outburst during the previous week. With this in mind, it is a good practice to confess by saying “some of us…” or “many of us…” or “we sometimes…” or “we often…” 

For example, "Oh God we confess that some of us have failed to love you as we should. Many of us have not loved others, and we have often been selfish with our time, angry at inconveniences, and deaf to the needs around us.”

I suggest (even recommend) that you write or type your prayer out ahead of time, but you don’t have to read it on Sunday. Writing or typing it out will give you the chance to think through what you are going to pray and how you are going to put it all together. You can also practice reading it through a few times before Sunday so that you’ll be more comfortable during the service.

At the end of your prayer, say “Amen.” You are leading a congregation in prayer, and that means you need to be clear to indicate when you begin and when you end.

It would also be appropriate to end your prayer with some kind of plea for pardon in the name of Christ. For example, “For these and many other sins, Oh God, we ask Your forgiveness, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.”

The more thoughtful you are in your preparation to pray, the better you will lead in corporate prayer.

After your prayer, take another deep breath and pause for a moment. There is no need to speak quickly, and a pause will benefit the congregation. 

After a pause, say something like: “Hear this assurance of pardon from God’s word..” or “Hear these words of pardon from Scripture…” Then, read your assigned passage aloud (slowly and clearly). No need to cite the address of the passage; just read it out.

Your Scripture passage is listed in the order of service in Planning Center. If you have trouble viewing this detail, then please contact marc@fbcdiana.org.

Calvin said, “When we present ourselves before God, let us learn that it is not to be done with the ornaments of an artificial eloquence, for the finest rhetoric and the best grace, which we can have before him, is pure simplicity.”

Your aim should be to simply be yourself. If you are generally eloquent and use fancy-sounding words, then pray in the same way. If you are usually not very wordy and speak in short phrases, then pray in the same way. Sincerity and truth are far more valuable than any style.

Also, remember that you are leading only one prayer – one specific kind of prayer. 

*DO NOT thank God, praise God, or ask God for anything during this prayer. Praise, thanks, and supplication will happen during other parts of the service. Each prayer is designated to do different kinds of things. You do your part and let other people do theirs.

Thanks for being willing to pray, and thanks for being diligent to prepare. May God bless your efforts to do both well.