What comes to your mind when you think about a concert? If you are a music lover like me, you probably think about a musical presentation by a well-known artist. However, the word concert also indicates agreement, harmony, or unity. It can refer to a combination of people or things working harmoniously in unison toward one goal. Therefore, concert prayer can be defined as a group of people praying in harmony of purpose, united by the same goal, and standing in agreement in prayer.
Moments before an orchestra begins its performance, you will hear a cacophony of sound—an unpleasant combination of loud and jarring tones as the various performers warm up their instruments to ensure they are in tune. However, to the conductor and true musicians, this is a beautiful thing. It means something good is coming. And, indeed, it does!
Many of the great revivals of the 18th century were the result of concerts of prayer. This concept originated in 1744 in Scotland. A group of ministers made a covenant to meet weekly for “united extraordinary supplications to God.”[1] One of the great preachers of the 18th century, Jonathan Edwards, “made an urgent appeal encouraging gatherings for extraordinary prayer, known as ‘Concerts of prayer.’”[2] The practice spread to Baptist churches and other denominations.
Growing up in a Pentecostal pastor’s home, I never grasped the importance and significance of concert prayer—those times a church congregation prayed together out loud. It was ordinary to me because that is how we often prayed in church. Convention programs listing the order of service would often include “Concert Prayer led by (name).”
Until much later in life, when I was exposed to other forms of worship, I was not aware that this particular mode of prayer was anything but normal. Only then, when I heard critical comments from people who were “outsiders,” did I realize how different and unusual praying together out loud in a church service seemed to them. Criticisms expressed included comments such as “How does God hear with so many praying at one time?” or “It sounds like confusion to me!” However, one might consider it this way: On any given Sunday morning, there are people in thousands of churches offering individual prayers at perhaps the exact same time. We know God hears every one of them! Concert prayer is no more confusing to God than people praying at the same time but in different locations.
Many cultures around the world participate in this practice, sometimes referred to as “simultaneous prayer, the corporate practice of praying different prayers at the same time,”[3] making it a worldwide phenomenon. This “swell of prayer, which God understands all at once, creates a thrilling, even mysterious, sense of unity in the wholeness of God’s community.”[4]
A friend of mine expressed it this way: “These days, prayer is very often by one person, which I understand and can appreciate. But I do love good old Pentecostal prayer where everyone is free to loose their passions to God simultaneously, and people can be inspired by others while praying themselves.”
When it comes right down to it, there are many ways to pray. What matters to God is that we do it. But give me an old-time concert prayer where the saints are getting down to business with God, crying out together to God for revival—now, I can really get into that! From our lips to God’s ears, concert prayer is inspiring, faith-building, encouraging—and it is music to my ears!
“When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God” (Acts 4:24 NIV).
“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns’” (Revelation 19:6).
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[1] Thomas J. Nettles, “Concerts of Prayer,” Monergism, accessed December 2025, https://www.monergism.com/concerts-prayer.
[2] Nettles, “Concert of Prayer.”
[3] Scott D. MacDonald, “Does Acts 4:23–31 Support the Practice of Simultaneous Prayer?,” Themelios 47, no. 1 (April 2022), The Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/does-acts-423-31-support-the-practice-of-simultaneous-prayer/.
[4] Diana L. Hynson, “Learning the Practice of Walking with Christ,” quoted in MacDonald, “Does Acts 4:23–31 Support the Practice of Simultaneous Prayer?”
