No matter how it is accomplished, congregational response to the Word is a very important means of sealing the Word in this heart and life. . . . The placement of prayer after the word is crucial. . . . In the ancient church pastoral prayer was nonexistent. Prayer belonged to the people and arose out of the congregation.
-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishing, 1992), 143.