Conversational Prayer, its my Kryptonite....

I officially have lead my first small group (really not so small, there are about 18 in my group out of 80+) this evening. I rarely have no problems with public speaking, teaching, guiding in front of people. As a matter of fact once I get going its really hard to shut me up.

Although when it comes to starting or ending in prayer my heart starts to race, thoughts start to get cloudy...I FREEZE up. I hear the words "lets pray" or "we are going to do conversational prayer so please feel free to pray and participate", and I start to cringe like superman does when Kryptonite is near. In tonight's small group I felt like I barely got through the closing prayer. But I did it and I didn't feel 100%.

I also realized in my current couples small group I have not participated in opening or closing prayer. Is there something wrong with me? Does this make me a bad Christian follower? Do others have the same problem? I pray daily at home with the family and have no issues, why is this different when with others?

I know my heart wants to, but I feel like my brain is going to lock up, and all people will hear is either "crickets" or "umm, ahhh, hmmm.....", next thing I know the next person is already praying in the group. I am really starting question my praying ability in a group setting.

Lord, I pray for strength and wisdom. I am not looking to lead the perfect prayer and pluck the perfect verse from memory, I just want to say something and be authentic and share my heart to You and others.