Purpose of the Invocation Prayer

[Jon Twitchell]

I'll come back to this in a bit, but wanted to start the thread while I was thinking of it.

In your worship service, what is the function/purpose of the invocation prayer?

[Dennis Bratcher]

I'll come back to this in a bit, but wanted to start the thread while I was thinking of it.

In your worship service, what is the function/purpose of the invocation prayer?

Personally, I would not call it an "invocation" since that is a more secular form of prayer. For example, military chaplains do a lot of invocations at ceremonial events that serve no purpose in worship. Rather they function as a generic religious blessing on the event.

For me, the opening prayer, along with a Scripture reading (traditionally, the lectionary reading is a Psalm), is part of the call to worship. However it is constructed, the purpose of a call to worship is exactly that: an invitation to congregants to enter into worship of God. It marks a transition from the profane and mundane into sacred time and sacred space. It invites people to move into a different mode of thought and feeling in which they bring the worries, concerns, and problems, as well as the joys and celebrations, of life into the presence of God in worship. On a purely practical level, a call to worship signals people to stop talking and enter into the service or worship.

If an opening prayer is part of the call to worship (often it is only Scripture or a responsive Scripture reading), I usually include phrases that specifically address this aspect of movement from the mundane into the sacred sphere. Often I include an invitation for the presence of God. It is not that He is absent, but that we as a worshipping people need to be open to that presence in transformational ways.

Example of a more liturgical call to worship, with a responsive prayer:


Song: Come and Gather Beneath the Tree of Life (Marty Haugen)

Minister: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!


People: And also with you!

Minister: Let us pray together: O God, you are our refuge and our strength


People: A very present help in times of trouble, therefore we will not fear.

Minister: O God, we come today into your presence from all the pain daily life.


People: Help us to be your people in this world of trial and trouble.

Minister: Yet we acknowledge all the blessings that you give us each day.


People: We come into your presence with thanksgiving and praise.

Minister: O God, too often we have failed to be your people by what we have done and what we have left undone.


People: Search us, O God, and know our hearts; test us and know our thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting.

Minister: O God, we have embraced the freedom you offer us.


People: We embrace the Son who makes us free.

Minister: O God, come into our midst with your transforming grace and renew our hearts and our spirits by your Holy Spirit.


People: May we each be bold in our faith this week. As we cry "Come, Holy Spirit!", help us to die again and again in Christ so that we might be truly free. Amen.

Grace and Peace,

Dennis B.

[Jon Twitchell]

The question was inspired by a moment in PALCON, when Rev. Kerry Willis pointed out the discomfort he feels when attending a church where they "pray for five minutes asking for the Holy Spirit to come." His point (I think) was that when we pray like that, we fail to recognize that the Holy Spirit is already present and working in our midst.

This reminded me that I've often heard people say that the invocation is to "invoke the presence of God," or to "invite God into our worship." At some point, I'm certain that I had adopted this pattern in my own leading of worship, but have since transferred to a recognition that God is already there... and He has invited us into His presence (not the other way around).

Dennis, Thanks for your thoughts on not using the word at all. I'll have to ponder that a bit.

[Jon Bemis]

What Dennis said . . . .

[Dennis Bratcher]

The question was inspired by a moment in PALCON, when Rev. Kerry Willis pointed out the discomfort he feels when attending a church where they "pray for five minutes asking for the Holy Spirit to come." His point (I think) was that when we pray like that, we fail to recognize that the Holy Spirit is already present and working in our midst.

With all due respect to Rev. Willis (I do not know him), this is a serious misunderstanding of the function of the call to worship and that aspect of the prayer, especially in liturgical contexts. Do we honestly think that people who pray such a prayer believe that God is not present and has to be persuaded to come?

As you note, the prayer is not for God to come, as if he were not there, any more than the song "Come Holy Spirit" is a plea to an absent God (the original song, not the two newer versions). Rather, like the song, it is a prayer of confession and submission, for God to reveal himself in the worship and for us to recognize that presence. I think it is helpful to be reminded by such a prayer that not only are we entering the presence of God in worship, God also enters our worship (noting that here "enter" is not a spatial term, anymore than is "come").

Grace and Peace,

Dennis B.

[Jon Twitchell]

With all due respect to Rev. Willis (I do not know him), this is a serious misunderstanding of the function of the call to worship and that aspect of the prayer, especially in liturgical contexts. Do we honestly think that people who pray such a prayer believe that God is not present and has to be persuaded to come?

As you note, the prayer is not for God to come, as if he were not there, any more than the song "Come Holy Spirit" is a plea to an absent God (the original song, not the two newer versions). Rather, like the song, it is a prayer of confession and submission, for God to reveal himself in the worship and for us to recognize that presence. I think it is helpful to be reminded by such a prayer that not only are we entering the presence of God in worship, God also enters our worship (noting that here "enter" is not a spatial term, anymore than is "come").

Grace and Peace,

Dennis B.

Let me just add that I may have misrepresented, or not completely understood what he said... that was the meaning that I took out of what he said. Within the context of his message, he wasn't talking about a liturgical expression as much as he was talking about a failure to live in a post-pentecostal world.

I agree... obviously when we say "come, holy spirit" we don't mean that the Holy Spirit isn't already there... we're really opening ourselves up to that reality.