Dawn Prayer Meeting

Definition and Meaning

The dawn prayer meeting is a prayer gathering at which church members assemble at their church early in the morning, before sunrise. It usually begins between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. and is held either daily, including Sundays, or on weekdays. Some churches call it the "dawn service." Others, by contrast, use the name "prayer meeting" to distinguish it from formal worship.

Biblical and Historical Background

The following passages are commonly cited as the biblical basis for dawn prayer:

• Mark 1:35: Jesus, "rising up a great while before day," prays in a solitary place
• Psalm 5:3: the psalmist's declaration that he will pray in the morning ("in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee")
• Psalm 57:8: "I myself will awake early"

The dawn prayer meeting in the Korean church is generally said to have been started by Kil Sun-joo at Jangdaehyeon Church in Pyongyang. It is traditionally dated to around 1906, and these prayer gatherings are often described as part of the movement that led to the Great Pyongyang Revival the following year. The practice later spread to the Presbyterian and many other denominations and became a routine custom of the Korean church.

Interpretations differ as to why dawn prayer took root in Korea. One view links it to the traditional Korean folk custom of setting out a bowl of fresh water (jeonghwasu) and offering supplications at dawn. Another regards it as a distinctly Christian tradition arising from Scripture and the revival movement.

Practice in Korean Churches

The typical order consists of hymn singing, a Scripture reading, a short sermon, and prayer. The sermon usually lasts about ten to twenty minutes and is often delivered in rotation by the senior pastor and associate pastors. After the sermon, the congregation engages either in tongsung kido (praying aloud together) or in silent individual prayer. Many churches close the formal order with the Lord's Prayer, and some conclude with a benediction. A considerable number of members remain after the formal order has ended to continue in personal prayer.

Differences among denominations are as follows:

• Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel churches: Most hold dawn prayer meetings regularly. Differences in format and frequency among individual congregations are greater than those among denominations.
• Anglican Church of Korea: It observes Morning Prayer according to a liturgical tradition of set prayers, which differs in form from the typical dawn prayer meeting centered on preaching and praying aloud.

Many churches hold a special dawn prayer meeting for a set period at the beginning of the year or during particular seasons of the church calendar. More recently, a growing number of churches have begun streaming their dawn prayer meetings online, much as with online worship. At the same time, some churches have reduced the frequency of the meetings or adjusted their times because of the demands of urban life and the workload of ministers.