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Oracao - Serie 9Marcas - Como A Oracao Comunitaria Molda A Igreja
QUAL A IMPORTÂNCIA DA ORAÇÃO COMUNITÁRIA? Para os cristãos, a oração é tão essencial à vida espiritual quanto a respiração para o corpo humano. Todavia, na maioria das vezes, ela não ocorre naturalmente. Na verdade, a igreja geralmente deixa a oração de lado e sutilmente volta a atenção para atividades pragmáticas que prometem resultados concretos. Este livro tem como foco a necessidade da igreja local de retornar à oração como hábito fundamental e assim nos despertar para a necessidade e a bênção que é a oração coletiva. Neste volume da Série 9Marcas, John Onwuchekwa examina o que Jesus ensinou sobre a oração, como os primeiros cristãos lidaram com ela e como priorizá-la em nossos encontros.
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First published January 1, 2012
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About the author
John Onwuchekwa
5 books32 followersJohn Onwuchekwa (MA, Dallas Theological Seminary) serves as pastor of Cornerstone Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
February 27, 2019
Books on prayer have the tendency to motivate me primarily out of guilt, but this book is different. It showed the importance of prayer, but also gave grace-filled motivation to do so. It serves the church well by not primarily speaking to the individual’s prayer life, but how to reinvigorate the corporate prayer life of a church. This was such an encouraging read.
July 20, 2020
Un très bon livre pour rafraîchir sa vie de prière... et en comprendre la dimension communaitre.
June 25, 2025
Prayer is like breathing but we pray too little.
Prayer is humbling because it reminds us of the one who is control.
Prayer is not an expertise but rather a cry out to the living and true God.
Prayer is calling on God to come through on his promises!
The Lord’s prayer: Provision, Pardon, Protection
Pray with plural pronouns (we and us)— corporately.
ACTS Model, nice :)
Please have prayer meetings!
Prayer meeting tips, prayer in missions, and fighting temptations regarding prayer
Prayer is humbling because it reminds us of the one who is control.
Prayer is not an expertise but rather a cry out to the living and true God.
Prayer is calling on God to come through on his promises!
The Lord’s prayer: Provision, Pardon, Protection
Pray with plural pronouns (we and us)— corporately.
ACTS Model, nice :)
Please have prayer meetings!
Prayer meeting tips, prayer in missions, and fighting temptations regarding prayer
March 8, 2025
Basic approach to prayer, but includes chapters that go beyond my personal prayer life to the prayer life of the family and church.
April 7, 2021
What distinguishes this book from others on prayer is that it focuses more on corporate prayer than individual prayer, including the way prayer is offered during Sunday morning worship as well as during the regular prayer meeting. The very beginning of the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father...”) tells us that we should reject an individualistic mindset and see prayer as a collective exercise. (41).
It was very refreshing to be reminded that the prayer meeting doesn’t need to be innovative, new or exciting. “You need only two ingredients to start a successful prayer meeting: burdens, and brothers and sisters who are willing to pray.” (104). Just be faithful to pray together, more like a marathon than a sprint.
There is also an excellent chapter (ch. 8) on the relation between God‘s sovereignty and our responsibility when it comes to evangelism. If we rely too much on God’s sovereignty, we could become apathetic, and if we rely too much on our own evangelistic efforts, we could become anxious, but through prayer our apathy turns into compassion, and our anxiety turns into boldness.
Onwuchekwa fills the book with concise and helpful illustrations to make his points. This would be the perfect book to use to help begin a weekly or monthly prayer meeting at your church.
It was very refreshing to be reminded that the prayer meeting doesn’t need to be innovative, new or exciting. “You need only two ingredients to start a successful prayer meeting: burdens, and brothers and sisters who are willing to pray.” (104). Just be faithful to pray together, more like a marathon than a sprint.
There is also an excellent chapter (ch. 8) on the relation between God‘s sovereignty and our responsibility when it comes to evangelism. If we rely too much on God’s sovereignty, we could become apathetic, and if we rely too much on our own evangelistic efforts, we could become anxious, but through prayer our apathy turns into compassion, and our anxiety turns into boldness.
Onwuchekwa fills the book with concise and helpful illustrations to make his points. This would be the perfect book to use to help begin a weekly or monthly prayer meeting at your church.
Read
July 26, 2025Transformational! I especially liked what he had to say about prayer meetings and the role of prayer in evangelism.
May 23, 2025
There was some good and helpful content but compared to the rest of the books in the 9marks series this one wasn’t nearly as good. The most helpful part of the book was where he fleshed out the Lord’s Prayer and how it helps us structure our prayers as a church.
August 22, 2018
Amazingly insightful and practical. I cannot recommend this little book highly enough.
July 4, 2024
Great little book thinking about what it might look like to help your church to grow as pray-ers. Uses the Lord’s prayer as a model and gives practical advice for those interested in starting or building upon regular prayer meeting in their community.
October 10, 2024
This was a powerful book on prayer and its necessity in the church. I want to come back to this one in the future!
January 25, 2021
Good. First few chapters are pretty good but the last several chapters are excellent. Particularly chapter 6.
December 13, 2020
À lire absolument.
June 3, 2019
This book by John O. provides useful instruction on corporate prayer, both how and when it should be done. Helpful and encouraging, especially as the leadership in my church is highly intentional in its mindset towards corporate prayer.
March 18, 2019
This is a must-read for any church leader. The need for individual prayer is obvious, the need for corporate prayer is not always so obvious. This book awakens us to its enormous importance.
July 28, 2018
Onwuchekwa, John. Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2018.
There are only two types of churches: those that pray together and those that don’t. John Onwuchekwa’s wonderful, little Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church, offers us a way forward, a way to bridge the gap between churches that pray and churches that don’t. His goal is to help us learn how to pray better and more as churches. This is a book about prayer that is intentionally about the corporate prayer life of local churches.
I’ve read plenty of books on individual prayer. There are some great books out there (Paul Miller’s Praying Life, being one of the best). Yet most, if not all, only address the corporate nature of prayer to a degree. If memory serves me, this is the first and only book on corporate prayer that I have ever read. This book is needed!
Our prayer should be as valuable and essential to us as breathing. Without it we die. Onwuchekwa argues that a complete lack of prayer isn’t the problem of our churches but a problem of too little prayer. He writes, “When prayer is sparse and sporadic, when it’s done just enough to ease the conscience and not much more, we’ve got a problem” (18). Our corporate prayer-less-ness not only says something about our church, but also continues to teach and reinforce bad theology. But our prayerfulness helps teach rightly about God: “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” (19).
Onwuchekwa, borrowing from Gary Millar’s Calling on the Name of the Lord, defines prayer as “calling on God to come through on his promise” (33). Prayer ties us to the promises of God. Our prayers call upon God to keep his promises. And they also have a deeply corporate nature. “If prayer clings to the hope we share in Christ, then prayer should reflect our togetherness in Christ. If prayer has a gospel shape, then by implication it must have a church shape” (37).
We call on the name of the Lord together. “Prayer was never meant to be a merely personal exercise with personal benefits, but a discipline that reminds us how we’re personally responsible for others. This means every time we pray, we should actively reject an individualistic mindset” (41). In other words, “prayer is a collective exercise” (41).
In Chapters 3 and 4, Onwuchekwa walks through the Lord’s prayer focusing on its communal nature. We must begin focused on God. He begins by looking at the address and first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Prayer is focused on God’s presence before his provision. He writes, “The most important things about prayer is not what God gives us by way of his possessions, but what God gives by way of his presence” (46). In the fourth chapter he looks at the remaining petitions in how prayer seeks the Lord’s provision (daily bread), pardon (forgive our debts), and protection (deliver us from evil). Throughout, he focuses on how the Lord taught his disciples (and us) to pray with plural pronouns. We prayer for one another together.
In chapter 5, Onwuchekwa focuses on Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane as an example of how we should pray. This is where Jesus’ teaching on prayer gains traction as his disciples witness his practice of prayer. In Gethsemane, and ultimately three days after Calvary, we see that God does the impossible. “We won’t consistently pray if we’re not sure of God’s ability. So much of our failure to pray comes from subtly believing that within God exists the possibility of failure. Because of this, we never ask God to do the impossible” (71).
Personally, I found chapter 6: “Glory: The Role of Prayer in Corporate Worship” the most helpful in the book. Corporate worship, including corporate prayer, is not meant to be a spectator sport. “Corporate prayer is a way we teach our church how to engage with God” (78). He walks through A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication) with an intentional corporate focus. I’ve been familiar with A.C.T.S. for countless year, but I have never really thought about it through the lens of corporate prayer. I found this very helpful.
Chapter 7, “Lean on Me: The Role of Prayer in Corporate Care” was arguably the second best chapter. The focus was on how a church that prays together becomes a church that actively cares for one another. Dependence upon God isn’t learned by propositional learning, but by active leaning. Onwuchekwa writes, “A church that practices prayer is more than a church that learns; it’s also a church that leans. It’s more than a church that knows; it’s also a church that feels. We learn dependence by leaning on God together” (92). And he helpfully asks, “Where do people actually learn to lean on God in your church? Is there a space for them to learn dependence?” (93). He ends this chapter with offering some helpful suggestions on how to carry out a prayer meeting (more on that below).
The final full chapter, chapter 8 focuses on the relationship of prayer to evangelism and missions. “Making prayers for conversion a staple of our time together will go a long way in creating a culture of evangelism” (116).
Onwuchekwa ends with addressing five temptations. First, the temptation to cancel a prayer meeting. In short, don’t. Second, the temptation to form your theology of prayer around how God answered your most recent prayer. He answers this by arguing for the importance of keeping track of our prayer requests and revisiting that list often. Third, is the temptation to individualize what God meant to be corporate. A simple practical example: use plural nouns when you pray. Fourth, don’t be tempted to assume that people know what prayer is and how they should do it. In other words, prayer must be taught and prayer is best learned through practice. Fifth, don’t be tempted to measure the effectiveness of your prayer meeting by the amount of people who attend. Regardless, of the attendance, corporate prayer is worth fighting for.
Some books get you thinking. Other books get you moving. This book got me thinking which then got me moving. And for that I am most thankful.
The most significant contribution this book has made to my ministry is the compelling case for the prayer meeting. I confess that I have been one of those pastors who seeks to run the church with a simplified view of corporate church practice. I still believe this is the best recourse as opposed to piling ministry after ministry upon the already busy and burdened people. But prayer isn’t so much a ministry (it is) but the foundation and backbone of ministry. Prayer is ministry, but it is also the fuel for the fire of ministry.
To that end I am thinking through how we may best incorporate a specific day, time, and place once a month dedicated to corporate prayer. I don’t know why but for some reason I have been reticent to initiate a prayer meeting because it’s hard enough getting people to come out on Sunday, let alone another day of the week. But I shouldn’t be thinking this way. Nonetheless, I do appreciate that Onwuchekwa warns: “prepare to be disappointed. The prayer gathering will likely have poor attendance, at least initially. But keep fighting” (125).
I see now that corporate prayer is worth fighting for.
There are only two types of churches: those that pray together and those that don’t. John Onwuchekwa’s wonderful, little Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church, offers us a way forward, a way to bridge the gap between churches that pray and churches that don’t. His goal is to help us learn how to pray better and more as churches. This is a book about prayer that is intentionally about the corporate prayer life of local churches.
I’ve read plenty of books on individual prayer. There are some great books out there (Paul Miller’s Praying Life, being one of the best). Yet most, if not all, only address the corporate nature of prayer to a degree. If memory serves me, this is the first and only book on corporate prayer that I have ever read. This book is needed!
Our prayer should be as valuable and essential to us as breathing. Without it we die. Onwuchekwa argues that a complete lack of prayer isn’t the problem of our churches but a problem of too little prayer. He writes, “When prayer is sparse and sporadic, when it’s done just enough to ease the conscience and not much more, we’ve got a problem” (18). Our corporate prayer-less-ness not only says something about our church, but also continues to teach and reinforce bad theology. But our prayerfulness helps teach rightly about God: “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” (19).
Onwuchekwa, borrowing from Gary Millar’s Calling on the Name of the Lord, defines prayer as “calling on God to come through on his promise” (33). Prayer ties us to the promises of God. Our prayers call upon God to keep his promises. And they also have a deeply corporate nature. “If prayer clings to the hope we share in Christ, then prayer should reflect our togetherness in Christ. If prayer has a gospel shape, then by implication it must have a church shape” (37).
We call on the name of the Lord together. “Prayer was never meant to be a merely personal exercise with personal benefits, but a discipline that reminds us how we’re personally responsible for others. This means every time we pray, we should actively reject an individualistic mindset” (41). In other words, “prayer is a collective exercise” (41).
In Chapters 3 and 4, Onwuchekwa walks through the Lord’s prayer focusing on its communal nature. We must begin focused on God. He begins by looking at the address and first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Prayer is focused on God’s presence before his provision. He writes, “The most important things about prayer is not what God gives us by way of his possessions, but what God gives by way of his presence” (46). In the fourth chapter he looks at the remaining petitions in how prayer seeks the Lord’s provision (daily bread), pardon (forgive our debts), and protection (deliver us from evil). Throughout, he focuses on how the Lord taught his disciples (and us) to pray with plural pronouns. We prayer for one another together.
In chapter 5, Onwuchekwa focuses on Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane as an example of how we should pray. This is where Jesus’ teaching on prayer gains traction as his disciples witness his practice of prayer. In Gethsemane, and ultimately three days after Calvary, we see that God does the impossible. “We won’t consistently pray if we’re not sure of God’s ability. So much of our failure to pray comes from subtly believing that within God exists the possibility of failure. Because of this, we never ask God to do the impossible” (71).
Personally, I found chapter 6: “Glory: The Role of Prayer in Corporate Worship” the most helpful in the book. Corporate worship, including corporate prayer, is not meant to be a spectator sport. “Corporate prayer is a way we teach our church how to engage with God” (78). He walks through A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication) with an intentional corporate focus. I’ve been familiar with A.C.T.S. for countless year, but I have never really thought about it through the lens of corporate prayer. I found this very helpful.
Chapter 7, “Lean on Me: The Role of Prayer in Corporate Care” was arguably the second best chapter. The focus was on how a church that prays together becomes a church that actively cares for one another. Dependence upon God isn’t learned by propositional learning, but by active leaning. Onwuchekwa writes, “A church that practices prayer is more than a church that learns; it’s also a church that leans. It’s more than a church that knows; it’s also a church that feels. We learn dependence by leaning on God together” (92). And he helpfully asks, “Where do people actually learn to lean on God in your church? Is there a space for them to learn dependence?” (93). He ends this chapter with offering some helpful suggestions on how to carry out a prayer meeting (more on that below).
The final full chapter, chapter 8 focuses on the relationship of prayer to evangelism and missions. “Making prayers for conversion a staple of our time together will go a long way in creating a culture of evangelism” (116).
Onwuchekwa ends with addressing five temptations. First, the temptation to cancel a prayer meeting. In short, don’t. Second, the temptation to form your theology of prayer around how God answered your most recent prayer. He answers this by arguing for the importance of keeping track of our prayer requests and revisiting that list often. Third, is the temptation to individualize what God meant to be corporate. A simple practical example: use plural nouns when you pray. Fourth, don’t be tempted to assume that people know what prayer is and how they should do it. In other words, prayer must be taught and prayer is best learned through practice. Fifth, don’t be tempted to measure the effectiveness of your prayer meeting by the amount of people who attend. Regardless, of the attendance, corporate prayer is worth fighting for.
Some books get you thinking. Other books get you moving. This book got me thinking which then got me moving. And for that I am most thankful.
The most significant contribution this book has made to my ministry is the compelling case for the prayer meeting. I confess that I have been one of those pastors who seeks to run the church with a simplified view of corporate church practice. I still believe this is the best recourse as opposed to piling ministry after ministry upon the already busy and burdened people. But prayer isn’t so much a ministry (it is) but the foundation and backbone of ministry. Prayer is ministry, but it is also the fuel for the fire of ministry.
To that end I am thinking through how we may best incorporate a specific day, time, and place once a month dedicated to corporate prayer. I don’t know why but for some reason I have been reticent to initiate a prayer meeting because it’s hard enough getting people to come out on Sunday, let alone another day of the week. But I shouldn’t be thinking this way. Nonetheless, I do appreciate that Onwuchekwa warns: “prepare to be disappointed. The prayer gathering will likely have poor attendance, at least initially. But keep fighting” (125).
I see now that corporate prayer is worth fighting for.
October 24, 2022
Anything from this series is going to be great I’m convinced and this is not an exception. Focused primarily on the corporate times of prayer we experience in the church. It is necessary that we do this as a church, but not something we only do then. We have to make it a discipline in our private life. It’s encouraging to read these things and to actually see it take place in the congregation you attend. Ryle has a great quote which I think describes the heart of this book well, “tell me what a man’s prayers are, and I will soon tell you the state of his soul.”
January 6, 2024
Simple, Gentle, and Convicting
This books paints a beautiful portrait for communal prayer. It spurs the reader to take on prayerful responsibility not just for their own house, but for the totality of their neighborhood. Sharing burdens, teaching truth, proclaiming excellencies, and taking it all to the King of Kings as a community.
In short, prayer in Sunday Service should be more than a time filler, and time should be set aside to join together in a prayer meeting.
This is our call!
This books paints a beautiful portrait for communal prayer. It spurs the reader to take on prayerful responsibility not just for their own house, but for the totality of their neighborhood. Sharing burdens, teaching truth, proclaiming excellencies, and taking it all to the King of Kings as a community.
In short, prayer in Sunday Service should be more than a time filler, and time should be set aside to join together in a prayer meeting.
This is our call!
April 28, 2020
Excellent little book with simple but profound counsel about prayer and specifically, prayer as practiced in the local church corporately. Great illustrations and helpful insights. Highly recommended for you and your congregation.
December 9, 2022
What a privilege it is to pray!! That is my main takeaway from this book. This book is convicting in all areas of prayer but not in the guilt tripping sense, but in the sense that we are so so privileged to come before our Lord and King! I would highly recommend this book! Prayer is like breathing for the Christian. May we all breath often.
May 15, 2024
An excellent primer on corporate prayer. It is written in a fashion that is both extremely applicable and inspiring to the local church.
May 27, 2025
A great book for what biblical prayer should look like in our day to day life
March 22, 2021
Nice little book on beginning the process of leading a church to be a church of prayer. Some of it simple and direct, some repeats from other thoughts, but some very practical connections between texts and application.
There is even some instruction on how to lead others to lead publicly in prayer. I found it helpful.
There is even some instruction on how to lead others to lead publicly in prayer. I found it helpful.
March 28, 2020
A profound little book. Highly recommend.
September 25, 2023
Quick but powerful read- specially regarding the prayer life of a church body rather than the individual. Not guilt tripping, filled w grace & encouragement
October 13, 2025
Chapter 7 is golden!
January 19, 2022
Another book of the excellent 9 Mark series. The author explores the role of corporate prayer in the church, providing practical insights that are immediately applicable to leaders in the Church.
April 21, 2020
Great short work on the importance of prayer in the life of a church.
Some great exegetical insights (particularly on the Lord's Prayer), along with practical insights on how to cultivate a culture of prayer in your church and how the Lord will use it.
Some great exegetical insights (particularly on the Lord's Prayer), along with practical insights on how to cultivate a culture of prayer in your church and how the Lord will use it.
June 4, 2022
Having read a few others of the 9Marks books before, I understand the direction of the book is writing it for the corporate work of the church. In this book, the focus isn't on just prayer in general but on specific confines of corporate worship. The books are designed to be primers and not extensive treatises on the subject so not everything can be covered. So with that, this book does a decent job of establishing that churches should pray corporately. It provides the Scripture and key concepts needed to show you the basics. The problem, however, is that it is a bit too general.
The book starts off by giving an overview of prayer and how to pray (using, of course, the Lord's Prayer as the model). It uses it to break down the key points of what to pray for. It then goes into the fact that churches need to pray together. However, the structure of this part of the book meanders and it's not until much later that you figure out if the author is talking about just about praying in something like Sunday meetings times or holding special prayer meetings. There's also not a discussion of elder/deacon/church leadership prayer, small group prayer, or specific areas of other parts of the church (shut-ins, the sick, those under church discipline). Maybe that's not the intention that the author wanted to convey. Yet, it seems like the first half is for a different book on prayer in general or it goes on too long on general prayer for this type of book.
There are also two times that the author points to specific examples of church prayer because of recent (2016) police-involved shootings. There's not many examples in this book, which can be another negative towards it, but these examples seem to come out of the blue and don't fit in the overall structure of where they are located in the book or the book's layout.
Overall, it's a book to convince you that you and your church should pray. Probably not a hard sell. However, overall, it is too general to be that useful in my opinion. But if you're starting at zero, it might be a book that's worth it. Final Grade - C
The book starts off by giving an overview of prayer and how to pray (using, of course, the Lord's Prayer as the model). It uses it to break down the key points of what to pray for. It then goes into the fact that churches need to pray together. However, the structure of this part of the book meanders and it's not until much later that you figure out if the author is talking about just about praying in something like Sunday meetings times or holding special prayer meetings. There's also not a discussion of elder/deacon/church leadership prayer, small group prayer, or specific areas of other parts of the church (shut-ins, the sick, those under church discipline). Maybe that's not the intention that the author wanted to convey. Yet, it seems like the first half is for a different book on prayer in general or it goes on too long on general prayer for this type of book.
There are also two times that the author points to specific examples of church prayer because of recent (2016) police-involved shootings. There's not many examples in this book, which can be another negative towards it, but these examples seem to come out of the blue and don't fit in the overall structure of where they are located in the book or the book's layout.
Overall, it's a book to convince you that you and your church should pray. Probably not a hard sell. However, overall, it is too general to be that useful in my opinion. But if you're starting at zero, it might be a book that's worth it. Final Grade - C
March 5, 2021
This was an excellent read on prayer concerning the environment of corporate worship and the body of the church as a whole. It's a call for followers of Christ to adjust their focus from self and simple prayers of "self-preservation" to prayers "for gospel faithfulness and boldness" (p.24). Onwuchekwa seeks to drive us from our laziness in prayer especially in the area of evangelism, "Apathy comes from the desire to avoid responsibility. It's an attempt to cruise through life burden-free" (p.110). We treat our prayer life too casually and it has made our churches weak and fruitless. This is a resource I will go back to over the years to examine my heart and see if there has been perseverance in prayer.
June 14, 2020
There are only a few books on corporate prayer and this is one of them. Really simple style and easy to read, and I was greatly helped by the last 3 chapters on really how to run a prayer meeting in your church and what kinds of things should be on the prayer list. I love the focus on the corporate reality of prayer and how it shapes the church. Thankful for this simple, little book. Excited to help my own church start praying more regularly together!
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