Closing Prayer

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Closing Prayer sermon ideas

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How do I write a closing prayer?

At the close of worship, we are sent out with God's blessing and a call to live for Christ. This prayer can include different aspects, drawing on the theme of the worship service, expressing our thankfulness to God, and petitioning God to sustain us and strengthen us as we go into the week. This prayer can draw on scriptural and thematic aspects from the service.

This prayer is part of the close of worship sequence, which could also include:

Closing prayer ideas in the Bible

While the closing prayer does not need to quote scripture, it can draw on themes of scripture that are used at the end of the service, including some of the passages below.

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Close of Worship sermon ideas

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How do worship services end?

Worship does not end when we leave a worship service. A clear call to discipleship or sending reminds us that our worship continues through obedient and grateful living. Like the offering, this call reminds us that our worship must bear fruit in our witness. Having come together to meet God as the children of God, we go out with the mandate to promote God's rule in the world. This challenge can be given any of several names, such as exhortation, call to commitment, charge to the people, call to service, and commissioning.

The close of worship should convey two important convictions:

  1. We live in faithful service not so that God will love us, but because God has loved us first. 
  2. We live by the power of the Spirit and thus do not need to rely on our own strength. Because of these convictions, a call to service should always be followed by a blessing. The Bible gives us not only the call to obedience but also the promise of God's presence to sustain us.

The close of worship can include a blessing. This blessing is fitting with the sending as God's blessing equips the saints of the church to go faithfully into the world and life. Blessings are offered among the priesthood of believers. While traditionally (and in some traditions exclusively) offered at the end of service by clergy, blessing is offered among God's people to each other.

Other possible elements of this concluding part of the worship service could include prayers and songs.

See:

Ideas from the Bible for the close of worship

Close of worship ideas for Advent

Call to service or discipleship

Blessing or benediction

Close of worship ideas for Christmas

Close of worship ideas for Ash Wednesday

Close of worship ideas for Lent

Close of worship ideas for Palm Sunday

Call to service or discipleship

Blessing or benediction

Close of worship ideas for Maundy Thursday

Call to service or discipleship

Blessing or benediction

Close of worship ideas for Good Friday

Call to service or discipleship

Close of worship ideas for Easter

Call to service or discipleship

Blessing or benediction

Close of worship ideas for Ascension

Call to service or discipleship

Blessing or benediction

Close of worship ideas for Pentecost

 
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Prayer sermon ideas

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What are the different types of prayer?

    There are many different types of prayer that are appropraite for different circumstances and concerns.

    How do I write a prayer for worship?

    In corporate worship, prayer too is corporate. Consider ways to invite the congregation to participate actively in the prayer:

    • Use phrases like "we offer . . ." or "we join our hearts . . ." or "let us bring our concerns and thanksgivings"
    • Use a corporate spoken response throughout the prayer, such as "Lord, hear our prayer"
    • Use a sung refrain throughout the prayer

    Who hears our prayers?

    In the heavenly realms prayer is heard (or overheard) by more than one listener. For one thing, God is triune. Strong trinitarians may conclude that three listen, not just one. But then there's also the heavenly council, the ranks of angels and archangels. Perhaps they hear prayer. For all we know, so do the saints and martyrs. We surely don't know they don't. The point is that we likely pray into a whole cloud of witnesses.

    Paul says that not only mere humans intercede. So what if a homeless Christian under a bridge prays to God? He doesn't have a prayer chain from his church to lobby God. The two other guys under the bridge are too out of it to intercede. But what if Christ, our mediator, intercedes for him? What if the Holy Spirit groans over him? What if angels and saints and martyrs light heaven up with their intercessions for him? "Lord—and anybody else who may be listening—hear my prayer."

    Prayer calls for reverence before a holy God. Christians are aware that it is God to whom they pray. God is high—in fact, most high. God dwells in realms of glory. God is terrifying in purity, and the sworn foe of all evil. The Bible tells us that God's holiness in the temple was sometimes so intense that the priests had to back up. God was too hot for them that day. Once upon a time people loved God, but they also feared God because God is not domestic, not predictable, not safe at all.

    Finally, prayer is opportunity for fellowship with a loving God. We have a God who listens, who loves, who yearns for the best in us. We may pour ourselves out to God, knowing that at the end we will get ourselves back—stronger, cleaner, and more deeply loved than ever.

    How do I write a prayer for students and teachers going back to school?

    Corporate prayer may provide a good opportunity to acknowledge community events and seasons in worship. For instance, you could offer aprayerof intercession or commission for students and teachers going back to school, as in these examples from our search results:

    • "Hear the word of the Lord. I knew you before I gave you life. I chose you before you were born. I send you now to school. Be my people there. Share my love with everyone you meet there. Stand up for my ways in classrooms, in locker rooms, on playgrounds, in lunchrooms, and on the bus." (from Jeremiah 1:4-10) Carolyn C. Brown from Worshiping with Children
    • "O Lord, you who have called and equipped the teachers in our community, we pray for them today. Watch over them, provide for them, guide them, sustain them. May you be their sun and shield, so that they might do the work that you have entrusted to them. Amen." W. David O. Taylor

    • More worship ideas for "back to school" from Zeteosearch.org

    Where is prayer in the Bible?

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