Such a great book on prayer! Not just personal prayer but why and how we should pray together as a church body.

First sentence from the introduction: If you were to walk into most churches next Sunday, what would you find? You would hear music and singing. It might be loud or sparse, the songs new or old. But you know what you probably wouldn’t see a lot of? Or participate in? Prayer.

First sentence from chapter one: Well, here you are reading another book on prayer. Maybe the last one didn’t make you feel guilty enough, and you’re a glutton for punishment. What good is a book on prayer without an initial quote that surfaces your shortcomings as a pray-er? Without further ado, here it goes: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing!”

When was the last time you read a book on corporate prayer? I think this was my first. The Bible speaks many, many times of the importance of praying together as the people of God.

Onwuchkwa isn't saying that most churches are prayerless, lacking in prayers altogether. He is saying that churches could be--should be--doing a better job at praying together in church services and prayer meetings. We should, he writes, be praying bigger and better prayers that reflect how BIG our God is. Our tiny prayers reflect our puny God.
"Do you see the danger in too little prayer? Where prayer is present, it’s saying something—it’s speaking, shouting. It teaches the church that we really need the Lord. Where prayer is absent, it reinforces the assumption that we’re okay without him. Infrequent prayer teaches a church that God is needed only in special situations—under certain circumstances but not all."
What is prayer? What does biblical prayer look like? What should prayer in our churches look like? How do churches learn to pray better together?

This book does focus mainly on corporate prayer, on prayer in our churches and for our churches. But individuals can benefit from reading it as well. The book is practical and thought-provoking.

This is a good book to encourage and challenge churches in the importance of prayer.
I received this book free from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review.

As a pastor, I am always looking for resources to help encourage my church to pray. What I appreciated about this book was that the focus was on corporate prayer. So many books on the topic focus on personal prayer, but this made the case for prayer as a church. I highly recommend it.

John Onwuchekwa's book on prayer is a very helpful resource meant to get churches, pastors and members thinking about the subject of corporate prayer and how to apply it effectively. While many books have been written about prayer, most of them focus on the individual aspects of prayer. While we certainly should pray personally, prayer in the Bible is seen countless times as a corporate activity. Onwuchekwa encourages churches to prioritize prayer and to think about how it shapes our worship and our community. Some helpful advice includes what to focus on in making requests (God's kingdom purposes), how and why to have regular church prayer meetings, and using the ACTS acronym (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication) in corporate prayer. I will certainly reread this book, and I can recommend it to any Christian who wishes to see his or her church shaped by corporate prayer. I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher and was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I express in this review are entirely my own.

With so many books on prayer available, it's hard to know where to start or which one to read. If you've read one, have you read them all? Why should I read another book on prayer? Those thoughts are the reason that Prayer by John Onwuchekwa sets itself apart. John doesn't just focus on personal prayer, but also shows the "why" and the "how" of corporate, congregational prayer.  John says in his own words, "that's the goal of this book: learning how to pray better and more as churches. Just as our private prayer lives can be improved by God's grace, so too can our corporate prayer lives."

John takes the beginning of the book to define prayer and look at biblical examples. This is extremely helpful because many people have many definitions for prayer. When we look at how people prayed in the Bible, especially Jesus, we learn a right model for our prayers. 

After defining prayer and even looking briefly at what personal prayer looks like for the believer, John moves on to corporate church prayer. He first shows the importance of being a praying people when we are gathered as the body and then he talks about two things related to corporate prayer that I found to be the most helpful parts of the book: the Sunday morning service and the prayer meeting.

On Sunday mornings, our corporate prayers teach our people to pray. John highlights how we can use the ACTS model to direct our prayers. He also helpfully points out that it is ok to prepare our prayers before we pray them. We prepare for music and sermons beforehand, why not also be intentional with our prayers? This is a suggestion that had a great impact on me.

He then talks about the "need for" and the "how to" of prayer meetings. I think this is some of the most useful information in the book. We live in a day where prayer meetings are becoming a thing of the past, but John convinced me that corporate prayer is necessary for the church. I would not have been one to jump on this train before hearing his arguments. The other extremely useful part is he gives advice on how to do this for it to be most beneficial. The reader is gifted with the wisdom John has gained from his own trial and error in leading prayer meetings and his tips are highly valuable.

Pastor, elder, deacon, or congregation member would benefit from reading John Onwuchekwa's short book on prayer. It's very accessible in the way he writes and the commitment to read it is not a large one as it is a short, but useful book. Prayer is filled with great quotes, but I will leave you with a few of my favorites:

"Where prayer is present, it's saying something— it's speaking, shouting. It teaches the church that we really need the Lord. Where prayer is absent, it reinforces the assumption that we're okay without him."
"Praying with plural pronouns as Jesus taught is one of the best ways to love our neighbors because, even when they're out of sight, they should never be out of mind."
"Gethsemane means 'the olive press.' Pressed olives produced the oil that was used for centuries to anoint kings and priests. Now Jesus stepped into a time of intense pressure for his anointing."
"Prayer is mentioned no less than twenty one times in Acts. Furthermore, these prayers are inherently corporate. Whenever prayer is mentioned, it overwhelmingly involves others."

You can get your copy of Prayer by John Onwuchekwa here. It's available on August 31, 2018.