57 – Index Card Intercessions
A weekly blog of Creative Ideas for Leading Worship
Index Card Intercessions
The Inventory of Need
Most people carry more in their hearts than ever makes it into a Sunday prayer.
We bring our quiet worries, our deep fatigue, our private griefs. We bring our anger at injustice and our fear for the planet.
Yet when the Prayers of Intercession arrive, we often default to the familiar script. Good, earnest words – but sometimes disconnected from the real pulse of the room.
Here is a simple, tactile practice that helps the whole congregation speak its truth.
How it works
As people enter the service give them a small index card and pen.
Early in the service, invite people to write down one unmet need or one burden they are personally carrying, or a concern they hold for the wider world. This might be something local like a struggling family, something personal like a medical worry, or something global like a conflict or climate anxiety.
The key is anonymity. No names. No explanations. Just a single, honest expression of need written in a few words.
Later, just before the Prayers of Intercession, pass around a basket and collect the cards. Take your time. Silence here is not dead space; it is shared breath, shared courage.
What to do with the cards
When you stand to lead the Prayers of Intercession, pick up and shuffle the cards. You now hold a randomised stack of the community’s collective concerns.
You don’t need to read every card – only as many as create a rhythm and shape to the prayer.
Select a sample that reflects a broad range without revealing any identifying detail. You might say:
“These prayers come from among us, for us, and for the world we love.”
Then begin weaving the cards into the prayer. You can read each card almost verbatim, pausing after each one to offer a short response such as:
“Loving God, hear the cry of your people.”
Alternatively, spread the cards out on a table at the front of the church and pick several cards with a related theme and form a petition focussing on this shared concern.
Keep the tone gentle, spacious, and unhurried. Allow the weight of these shared burdens to settle. This is not about speed. It is about honouring what people have dared to name.
Why this matters
This practice opens a door to honesty. It disrupts predictable patterns and lets the congregation feel, very directly, that their actual lives are being held before God.
It also creates a sense of solidarity. A person who wrote, in shaky handwriting, “I feel lost”, may suddenly hear that same phrase prayed aloud. They are no longer alone with it.
There is also a wider impact. An intercession shaped by real, current concerns lifts the service out of abstraction. It becomes incarnational. It acknowledges the week the congregation has just had, the world as it is today, and the God who walks with us through it.
Final thought
The Index Card Intercessions idea is simple for any church to use and deep enough to shift a congregation’s prayer life.
It aligns with a progressive, justice-rooted approach to worship by letting the people speak and trusting that God meets us in the raw, unedited truth.
If this activity resonates with your congregation, make it a regular part of your worship.
Ngā mihi
Philip