The prayer meeting
A gathering whose only business is praying together, usually mid-week.
A gathering, often midweek, given chiefly to shared prayer, where members voice requests and pray aloud in turn, frequently alongside Bible study. Rooted in Puritan, Methodist and revivalist practice, prayer meetings remain a fixture of Baptist, Pentecostal and evangelical church life, extended between meetings by prayer chains and prayer lists that circulate urgent needs through the congregation.
The prayer meeting is a gathering with no other agenda. Requests are shared and then prayed for, often by several people in turn, and the tone is closer to a conversation than to a service.
It is historically important out of proportion to its size: revivals and missionary movements have repeatedly started in them, and traditions that value them cite that history explicitly.
Attendance is usually much smaller than Sunday worship, and this is a standing complaint in the traditions that hold them.
Does it have a text?
No text. What is said is extemporaneous, and what is prayed for comes from whoever is in the room that evening.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Protestant
- Extemporaneous prayer — Prayer composed in the moment, in the speaker's own words.
- Liturgical prayer and the Daily Office — Set prayers and set hours, kept by the traditions that retained them.
- The pastoral prayer — The long prayer offered on behalf of a whole congregation during worship.
- Grace at meals and household devotion — Prayer at the table, and the habit of family prayer at home.
- Charismatic and Pentecostal prayer — Prayer expecting the immediate activity of the Spirit, including prayer in tongues.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.