Retreating- Intercessory Prayer

My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
in the morning I will direct my prayer to You,
and I will look up.
Psalm 5:3

This past Saturday we held a worship musicians retreat for all 10:00 and Sanctuary instrumentalists and vocalists. Nathan, worship leader at Sanctuary led the retreat, and it was a wonderfully relaxing and enlightening morning. I really appreciated Nathans insight on a number of things, that I have continued to think about. Nathan brought up the idea of each worship team having a prayer intercessor who on Sunday morning would be a part of the band, praying on behalf of the band, the pastor, the congregation and the worship time. Being born and bred Lutheran, this idea of a "prayer warrior" is a bit foreign to me... I imagine a woman with long flowey hair, lots of jewelry, wielding a sword, speaking in tongues, and generally making me feel uncomfortable

I attended a worship service with a prayer intercessor for the first time about 5 years ago in Edmonton, Alberta in the coldest month of Jan, at the worship conference, Break Forth. www.new-creation.net The prayer leader was a man, without jewelry, or long flowey hair, he did not speak in tongues, and the only think he held was a bible. He sat on a stool with the band, and read from the bible and prayed. After a few songs he invited the worshipers to come up if they had prayer requests. Before long, more and more people kneeled at the bottom of the stage, waiting to be prayed for. I myself felt a strong desire to go up to the front, but I couldn't even will myself...the idea of exposing my need for prayer- eegads!

At Sanctuary over the last 5 years, we have often had prayer stations with 1 or 2 "prayer leaders" available to pray with those who care to, but never someone praying throughout the whole service for us. One argument, I have heard against having a prayer intercessor is that they may leave the congregation feeling that they don't need to, or don't have the skills to pray for themselves and the worship service, because someone else is doing it for them.

Either way, I think it would be nice to have someone dedicated to praying for us throughout the service. I'd like to see where we can go with this
And by the way, after 5 years of having prayer leaders at Sanctuary that we could pray with, I have yet to feel comfortable going up and exposing that need...