# Daily Prayer Service



## Prufrock (Nov 17, 2008)

I realize that over time (especially in England) daily family worship began to replace daily morning and evening prayer services in the church.

What do you think of that? Do any of your churches still have daily prayer services with the singing of psalms, prayer and reading of scripture?

What are the pros/cons of this being replaced _entirely_ by daily family worship?

etc.


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## he beholds (Nov 17, 2008)

I've never heard of daily services except in the Catholic church--and I'm not sure if even they do daily services any more. If I lived closer to church (we're 35 minutes away), I'd enjoy going daily. Our church doesn't even have Wed. night services, but it has every-other-Wednesday elder-led small groups.


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## yeutter (Nov 17, 2008)

I know of only a handful of Anglican parishes where the daily office of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer is said corporately in their churches.


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## Notthemama1984 (Nov 17, 2008)

I see one of the cons of going to family worship only is there is no accountability and the likelihood of laziness and ultimately stopping the family worship is a real possibility. 

I am with Jessica on this one though, I have never seen a church have daily services. The closest I have seen was when I went to a private school. Each day started with a "nugget" from the Word and a short prayer. Nothing fancy or elaborate, but it started us off on the right foot.


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## KMK (Nov 17, 2008)

Mike Bickle has the International House of Prayer: http://www.ihop.org/


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## Dearly Bought (Nov 17, 2008)

KMK said:


> Mike Bickle has the International House of Prayer: International House of Prayer


Extreme charismatic group here in KC with a ton of false teaching. Everyone should steer far clear of any "houses of prayer" connected with them that pop up. I'm currently working on a pamphlet concerning the false teaching associated with Bickle and his followers.


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## KMK (Nov 17, 2008)

Mr. Bickle's teaching aside, there is at least one nonRC places you can go to pray 24/7.


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## Dearly Bought (Nov 17, 2008)

KMK said:


> Mr. Bickle's teaching aside, there is at least one nonRC places you can go to pray 24/7.



As long as you realize that the goal of the "prayer houses" is to pray in the parousia. According to IHOP teaching, Christ cannot return until the church prays him back with these 24/7 services. I wouldn't even call it non-Roman Catholic. Protestant/Papist differences tend to get smoothed over in the name of church unity. You'll find a fair share of Henri Nouwen, Teresa of Avila, and such on the shelves of the IHOP bookstore.


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## Davidius (Nov 17, 2008)

The episcopalian church at the edge of campus has daily evening prayer services from the Book of Common Prayer, and a sung Compline (night/before bed) service on Sunday evenings. .


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## KMK (Nov 17, 2008)

Dearly Bought said:


> KMK said:
> 
> 
> > Mr. Bickle's teaching aside, there is at least one nonRC places you can go to pray 24/7.
> ...



I was not aware of this.


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## jwithnell (Nov 17, 2008)

Wouldn't a daily service be wonderful? Actually, I've seen references to it into at least the mid-part of the 20th century in England and Scotland. Not sure if I've seen much reference to it here in the Americas where family worship was clearly part of the Puritan heritage.


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## Prufrock (Nov 30, 2008)

Thought I'd bring this thread back from the dead:

What advantages do you all see of short daily family worship over short daily corporate worship, and vice-versa?


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## toddpedlar (Nov 30, 2008)

Prufrock said:


> Thought I'd bring this thread back from the dead:
> 
> What advantages do you all see of short daily family worship over short daily corporate worship, and vice-versa?



Well, for one, short daily family worship is a worthy opportunity for the head of the house to exercise his headship and lead his family in worship of God. Daily corporate worship (if a replacement) would stand in the way of that important role. 

For another thing, daily family worship IS daily corporate worship.


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## Tim (Dec 1, 2008)

Daily corporate worship would have been much easier before the automobile because people would have had to live close to their church building. It would make it easy to congregate. Nowadays, we sometimes have people commuting an hour or more to church.


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## toddpedlar (Dec 1, 2008)

I'm not sure of the motivation for daily corporate worship, either. If we're talking about merely a pragmatic thing, wherein we say "it would be nice to gather together to worship God daily - isn't that a good thing to do?", then we have to examine our motivations more closely. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and also note that the people of God, from what we know in Scripture, did not make a daily practice of corporate worship. Furthermore, not only do we not see any narrative descriptions of daily corporate worship, but also it should be noted that it is not commanded. And therefore, since it is not commanded...


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## Tim (Dec 1, 2008)

But it does seem that at one time, daily meetings occurred.



> Act 2:46 And they, continuing *daily* with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
> Act 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.





> Act 5:42 And *daily *in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.


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## Prufrock (Dec 1, 2008)

toddpedlar said:


> I'm not sure of the motivation for daily corporate worship, either. If we're talking about merely a pragmatic thing, wherein we say "it would be nice to gather together to worship God daily - isn't that a good thing to do?", then we have to examine our motivations more closely.
> 
> I'm going to go out on a limb here and also note that the people of God, from what we know in Scripture, did not make a daily practice of corporate worship. Furthermore, not only do we not see any narrative descriptions of daily corporate worship, but also it should be noted that it is not commanded. And therefore, since it is not commanded...



I think I must respectfully disagree. We are commanded to gather and worship. We are not told how often or when. If we should deem it either necessary/prudent/or fruitful to do so every day or only on the Lord's Day, we are still faithfully executing the command. Are we to say that the apostolic church was disobedient to scripture by gathering on more than just the Lord's Day? 

Yes, our motivations are always to be examined: and what would the motivation of this be? To worship God together. How is that a bad motivation? 

As a side point, lots of Reformers went along with the practice of daily morning and evening prayer services, including the cities of Geneva and Strasbourg. 

Some Pros:
1.) Allows more pastoral contact and accountability than exclusive family worship.
2.) Allows the body to assemble more and grow in love toward one another (always a good thing).
3.) *It is especially beneficial for those who live alone*, I might observe, who don't have the luxury of the daily family worship.
4.) It has precedent in the apostolic church. We _do_ see them gathering together frequently (daily, actually).

I personally think it's a great thing and wish it happened again more often in protestant churches. This is not to replace family worship, but to augment and supplement it, and I think we should make use of it.


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## Tim (Dec 2, 2008)

Prufrock said:


> 3.) *It is especially beneficial for those who live alone*, I might observe, who don't have the luxury of the daily family worship.



I agree wholeheartedly. It's hard sometimes when you know that most of your congregation is having nightly family worship and you can't because you don't have a family. I was so thankful when I was in Canada at my home church - the Pastor would make time for me and my also single brother to come to a Bible study with him (after his family worship). 

Sometimes we also were invited to worship with his family (just a few times), which was a real blessing.


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