In a couple of weeks, I’m leading the service and we’ve got someone taking on the intercessions who hasn’t played that role before, although he has been in plenty of our services which always include this slot. Intercessions, for those not used to the words used to describe parts of the Anglican church service (and those of many other traditions), is the part of the service where somebody steps forward and leads a period of prayer. Anyway, here is the advice I have offered in response to his request for guidance (slightly revised to make it less specific to this church and that particular Sunday).

To some extent, the intercessions are quite unconstrained. Emulate what you’ve seen from others that encouraged you in your own prayers and avoid the things you found distracting.

Practically, I don’t think you’ll go wrong if you aim to keep them on the shorter side. A pattern I’ve often used is to spiral in through the world, the nation, the local area and the church fellowship. I’ve often finalised my intercessions on the morning with a prayerful glance over some news websites (Spurgeon famously preached “with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other” and there’s something
in that for intercessions). Nationally, I expect the government will still be in need of prayers although avoid any partisan comment; locally it is good to remember the sick and bereaved among other matters the congregation will be aware of.

A response can be helpful and there’s nothing wrong with the traditional “Lord, in your mercy / Hear our prayer”. If used, it is good to get it in the bulletin or on the projector screen, which avoids the distraction of people trying to remember what they ought to be saying! Ideally, each person in the congregation will be praying alongside you rather than relying on you to say their prayers for them or wondering what they are going to have for lunch!