A few years ago (I don’t remember if it was three or four years ago), we tried to turn a Sunday night-to-month service into a prayer meeting, I am pleased to say that the experience finally came to an end and that these monthly prayer services have become the culmination of our life together as a church.
In recent years, and especially after tweeting something about our prayer service, people have come to me and asked me what we do in these prayer services and how they are.
- The service usually lasts from 60 to 75 minutes.
- Usually.
- We start with a hymn.
- Then we have a brief 15-minute sermon.
- Haven’t we always had the sermon.
- And is there a danger that the sermon will end up consuming all the time of prayer?but we find that a short sermon prepares your heart for prayer and is also useful for non-Christians who visit the church.
- The rest of the service is reserved for prayer.
- Which is usually led by me.
- Or sometimes by one of our other pastors.
- Instead of detailing what we did in this week’s service.
- I thought it would be more helpful to share some of the lessons we learned about planning and directing an effective prayer meeting.
If you do not currently have a prayer service, you will have difficulty starting one at another time. People are already more than busy. No matter how much you encourage members, it’s hard to get many gifts for prayer on Friday nights or early in the morning at any given time. We have a 30-minute prayer meeting on Tuesday morning, attended faithfully by some members. It’s a wonderful time for those who make it a priority, but rarely are there more than 10 people. By placing our prayer service on regular church schedules (for us, it was Sunday night, but can it be Wednesday night or another time?) Not only do we allow others to attend, but we also send a sign that it’s important. Honestly, our presence at church on Sunday night is far from Sunday morning, but I reckon we had 125 people in our prayer service last night. It’s much better than nothing.
I run most of our prayer services. Rarely does anyone else lead, except our three shepherds. It’s not because others can’t lead well, they’re capable and some have already led. But we want people to know that this is not a disposable event. The pastor does not need to be the best prayer warrior in the church or the only champion of prayer, but I am convinced that he must take over the prayer meeting if we are to succeed.
Our prayer services are always different. We have used many different forms and approaches, including: singing prayers, reading prayers reactively, praying through the scriptures, being guided in prayer, praying in large groups, praying in small groups, praying through ancient liturgies, praying through ancient prayer manuals, praying through confessions, and accepting prayer requests. Last week, I addressed the congregation in the prayer of Martin Bucer’s confession (with periods of silence) and also in his prayer of intercession (with periods of prayer in small groups), both drawn from the Strasbourg liturgy.
This was one of the unexpected pleasures of our prayer meeting. We have many children in our church and many in our services. They are full participants, often praying aloud when we divide into small groups of 8 to 15 people.
We share a meal after our prayer services. Some churches may be too big for a fraternity like this, but most of them aren’t. Eating pizza and ice cream together excites the children and makes the night an event of expected communion and a moment of prayer. hard work, do your best.
Praying aloud is difficult for some people. Praying for 30 to 60 minutes may seem embarrassing at first. I think we grew up praying together as a church, but it requires practice.
Perhaps in some churches and cultures, God’s people may continue to pray for hours, but in my experience in this country, we have to get things done. Half an hour of prayer can seem intimidating until you divide it into 3 minutes of silent prayer. 4 minutes of guided prayer, 5 minutes of prayer reading, 8 minutes of prayer in large groups and 10 minutes of prayer in small groups, praying for five different elements.
I can repeat it: plan! The biggest difference between a dynamic and effective meeting and a boring and ineffective meeting is planning, I learned it from Bem Patterson, both through his teachings and his example. Many churches leave the prayer meeting because no one knew how to plan one. people praying one after the other for 30 minutes doesn’t make most people interested. People need categories for prayer. They need prayer models. They need theological limits for prayer. The pastor should spend a lot of time preparing to guide his members in prayer.
Have expectations when you pray. And when God answers prayer, don’t forget to thank Him. I will never forget that it was just after the beginning of our monthly prayer service that God began to open the door to buy the current church building. Whoever was in the service will forget the prayer time we had for a student with cancer and their newly celebrated marriage. We pray for babies and the holy elders. We have seen people be healed and some departing to be with the Lord. all churches pray for this kind of thing, but we have been blessed to be able to pray together for these people.
Listening to prayer requests for 25 minutes and praying for 5 minutes is pleasant, but it’s not really a prayer meeting. Asking your pastor to organize a traditional service for the elderly may be a wonderful idea, but it’s not a prayer meeting either. singing four hymns, preaching for 30 minutes, and then praying for the sick list for 10 minutes is not what we’re talking about. Make sure your prayer meeting is filled with prayer.
In the book Prayer Changes Things, the third in the Crucial Questions series, Sproul provides an overview of the purpose of prayer in Christian life. In a pleasant conversation with the reader, he explains why to pray and guides us in his practice, through biblical quotations. According to Sproul, while we should not expect our prayers to change God’s mind to act against his will, we can be sure that prayer changes things, including our hearts.
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