There are some conservative Presbyterian churches that currently practice – with pleasing edification – ruling elder-led corporate prayer. In one such church, a ruling elder writes: “Prayer with and for the congregation is foundational for ministry, and corporate prayer led by the Ruling Elders who have come from among the congregation can help teach the people how to pray themselves in a biblical, mature, and thoughtful way.” Another ruling elder adds: “Since the congregation is shepherded by a team of elders, RE-led corporate prayer allows the congregation [to] hear the heart of each shepherd and thereby fosters trust in the team as a whole.”

Two years ago, while working in another state, I worshiped in a local PCA church. While the sermon was weak as dishwater, I walked out of that sanctuary thankful to God that I had heard a biblical, earnest, compassionate, well-delivered congregational prayer. That was the best part of the service. The prayer was delivered by a ruling elder.
Perhaps that’s a shocker to some. If so, why?
In 2021, one of the PCA’s highly regarded pastors wrote that ruling elders “by gifts and calling are not theologically, biblically, or rhetorically equipped for the task” of public prayer. It wasn’t clear to me if he intended to argue that no ruling elders should pray in public, but the door was opened for such an interpretation.
I respectfully disagree.
The reason this piece is bylined by a nom de guerre is not to avoid disagreeing with a leading pastor in my denomination – whom I respect, of whose ministry I think highly – but to protect the identity of those churches and individuals referenced here.
I’m not saying all or even most ruling elders ought to be delivering prayers in corporate worship. But some REs are capable of public prayer, either through gifting, studied practice over years of service – or both. Probably others are doing their best to improve their skills in this area. They ought to be encouraged.
Here are four points to consider regarding the public prayers of those whom a Presbyterian pastor, James E. Blythe (1765-1842), considered to be “the sheet-anchor of the church’s safety” – the eldership:

Most important, if a ruling elder is “not theologically” equipped to pray publicly (as the article asserted), how then is he theologically equipped to teach God’s Word, as I Timothy 3 requires of an elder? Perhaps part of the apparent disparity between the teaching and the praying of REs has more to do with one’s specific preparation than overall theological equipping. If a ruling elder approaches his scheduled opportunity to lead in corporate prayer with the same attitude he most likely adopts toward teaching a Sunday School class – in other words, this is something that deserves my serious preparation, rather than doing it off-the-cuff – his prayer should be more focused, scriptural, earnest, and edifying. For most elders, this probably includes the use of some form of notes to aid in the moment of delivery.
Having ruling elders prepared to pray publicly is of service to the church should a pastor suddenly become unavailable. Not long ago, the elders of a church I know were faced with an urgent text message (during Sunday School) from the expected visiting pastor who reported he was stuck in traffic. (Thankfully, he made it with a few minutes to spare.) Perhaps just as likely in this era, however, what will a church do if its pastor is arrested for his faithful preaching – such as from Romans 1 or I Corinthians 6? The ruling elders should be prepared to step up, to lead and pray. Such a scenario was unthinkable in America a decade ago – but no longer. Think about it. Should churches be forced into homes or underground at some point, REs will have to share the burden of leadership, to include leading in prayer.
Related to this, could it be any clearer to informed Christians in the pew that the America in which anyone older than 40-ish grew up, is gone? Some have observed the country is experiencing the worst leadership in its history in multiple arenas – politics, education, academia, business, and all too often the church. Almost the only place where legitimate, honorable, godly, and – increasingly – courageous leadership may be found is within those true churches that hold faithfully to the Scriptures and inculcate in her members the fear of the LORD, not of men. Encouraging the lay leaders – ruling elders in the case of Presbyterian churches – to prepare themselves to participate in public prayer is one important way in which leadership is promoted within the flock of God, with potential spillover influence beyond. It ain’t happening elsewhere, so it must happen in the church.
Finally, there are some conservative Presbyterian churches that currently practice – with pleasing edification – ruling elder-led corporate prayer. In one such church, a ruling elder writes: “Prayer with and for the congregation is foundational for ministry, and corporate prayer led by the Ruling Elders who have come from among the congregation can help teach the people how to pray themselves in a biblical, mature, and thoughtful way.” Another ruling elder adds: “Since the congregation is shepherded by a team of elders, RE-led corporate prayer allows the congregation [to] hear the heart of each shepherd and thereby fosters trust in the team as a whole.” Churches hearing their own shepherds pray, doesn’t that seem valuable? If some churches are doing this well, why not others?

So, while disagreeing with the 2021 article in one respect, I wholeheartedly agree on the need for “thematic order,” employing “scriptural language,” and, “urgency and earnestness” in public prayer. Let our churches – led by pastors who model such prayers – encourage their elders to equip themselves for this shared ministry task, thereby to bless Christ’s flock and honor the One who alone draws near to “all who call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).
Related Posts:

There are some things in the Bible that can be tricky to grasp. But that doesn’t mean that they’re impossible to grasp. And the perspicuity of Scripture assures us that even when they are hard to grasp, the Author intends His words ultimately to be understandable by anyone.

What do people mean when they talk about the perspicuity of Scripture?

I just came back from a trip to China, and it’s fair to say there was a bit of a language problem. I’ll spare you the details, but the first day I was there, my credit card was swallowed by an ATM, so I spent a good few hours sitting in a bank in Shanghai and trying to work out the Mandarin for “My credit card has been swallowed by an ATM.” I think the Mandarin for “ATM” is “ATM,” but that’s about as far as I got.
It’s fair to say that Mandarin is not, for me, “perspicuous.”
Ironically enough—given that it’s not very clear—perspicuity is a word that means “clarity” or “clearness” or “understandability.” So when we talk about the “perspicuity” of Scripture, we’re talking about the idea that God’s Word is clear about things that are necessary to be understood and obeyed in order for a person to be saved. The Bible’s teaching on salvation can be understood by anyone and everyone.
Psalm 119 puts it like this: “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Even though, at times, the Bible requires us to patiently and humbly wrestle with it, we can indeed come to know what it means regarding salvation and the basic principles for pleasing God, even if we don’t have a college degree or subscribe to an enjoyable podcast that explains big theological words in a simple way.
In fact, God’s Word is simple enough that it can be taught to children, as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 6: “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart….”
Read More
Related Posts:

We will forever be in God’s temple, the eternal place where God is known, served, worshipped, and present. Redeemed sinners, then sanctified, and glorified, will dwell forever with a Holy God because the Lamb who was slain ransomed them and ushers them into his presence forever in the perfect temple dwelling of God.

Temples do not have very positive connotations in the 21st Century. People often think of temples as being bound up with stuffy religious things like idols, icons, and the like. In the Bible, temple is an indispensable and foundational category for our understanding.
So we must ask ourselves: What is the Bible’s true vision for the temple? We need to ask questions like: What story does the Bible tell with all of its temple language? Where does the Bible’s story of temple begin? Where does it take us?
The Biblical story begins with humanity being banished from God’s presence. The big problem in the Bible from the beginning is this: We have been separated from God. God designed a garden paradise in which humanity was to dwell with him forever. But because of sin, he exiled us from the Garden and his presence. And so Genesis 4 all the way through to Revelation 22 sets out to answer the question: “How can sinful humanity dwell with God again?” Its answer is temple.
Creation’s Garden Temple
The temple theme begins in Genesis 1-3 where temple gets introduced as the meeting place between God and humanity. The temple mediates the presence of God to his people. The Garden of Eden functions very much in this way.
Jim Hamilton says:
“Shakespeare showed his genius in a theatre named the globe. It would be the place where he would display the stories of his creative mind and heart. The real world, where God shows his genius, is the archetype of the theatre where Shakespeare showed his. God built this stage to show his craft. The world is a theater for the display of God’s glory…It is the place where God is known, served, worshipped, and present.”[1]
Therefore, the world is God’s temple. Hamilton continues, “God built the earth as his temple, and in it he put his image and likeness. The realm that God has created is a cosmic temple; the image God put in the temple to represent himself is mankind.”[2] The world is God’s temple. Humanity is God’s image. The temple story begins on this foundation.
There is much evidence throughout Scripture that the Biblical authors view creation as a kind of temple structure. Genesis 3:8 says, “humanity heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” The literal phrase there is “God walked to and fro.” This same phrase appears again when King David comes to God, wanting to build him a temple and the LORD said back to David, “Since the day I brought Israel up from Egypt, I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling” (2 Sam 2:6-7). The language God uses for his moving about in the tabernacle picks up on the language God used for his moving to and fro in the garden.
In addition, the job description of the first temple dwellers, God’s first image-bearers, Adam and Eve, matches the job description of the first priests or temple-servants later on in the Bible. Adam and Eve also performed the first sacrifice in Scripture. We’re told, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15).
This language is only used elsewhere in the Bible to describe the Levitical priests. Numbers 3:5-7 says, “The LORD spoke to Moses saying, ‘Bring the tribe of Levi near… They shall keep guard over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they work at the tabernacle.’”[3] In this sense, Adam and Eve, God’s temple images in the garden, were prototypes of what would one day become priests in the tabernacle.
Priests were those who offered sacrifices in the temple on behalf of their own sins and the sins of the people. And so too Adam would have his sins atoned for, and the sins of his wife, through a substitutionary sacrifice that would “cover” or atone for their sins (Gen 3:21).
The Wilderness Tabernacle
Eventually, Jacob, one of the patriarchs, a descendant of Adam, Noah, and Abraham, would have twelve sons, and their descendants wound up enslaved in Egypt (Ex 1:13). God heard the cries of his people, and raised up Moses to deliver Israel from their slavery (Ex 2:23-3:10). He delivered them through the Red Sea and into the wilderness (Ex 14).
Israel sojourned there for much longer than they would have hoped. God judged them by prolonging their wilderness wanderings for forty years because of their thankless and faithless grumbling and idolatry (Ex 16; 32). But as he did in the garden, God would not give up on dwelling with his people.
Read More
Related Posts: