If I Were a Pastor Today Wanting My Church to Be a Praying Church,
And My People a Praying People, My Strategy Would Include the Following…
I would take these seven steps as soon as possible:
1. Make sure my own personal prayer life is all it can be, spending significant time with the Lord on a daily basis. Prayer is like writing poetry or prose, painting or drawing a picture, playing a musical instrument or playing a sport. You don’t do it well every single day, but unless you do it every single day, you’re never going to do it well at all. The pastor is the pacesetter. The prayer life of my people won’t rise any higher than mine.
2. Begin praying God would give my people a spirit of prayer and commit myself to keeping prayer on the front burner in my life, home, and church.
3. Get alone with my spouse on a regular basis (once a week, even for one meal would be
good) to fast and pray for a Spirit-wrought Spirit-brought revival of prayer in my church.
4. Work with my church board to establish the priority of prayer in our lives and in our
church, including reading and discussing with them Jim Cymbala’s book, Fresh Wind,
Fresh Fire.
5. Establish the habit of reminding myself and others that prayer is not merely important, it
is essential; in other words there are some things God wants to do but won’t if we don’t
ask.
6. I would also keep reminding us that prayer is the defining mark of God’s house. Said
Jesus, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” And I would strive to especially
make that evident in the way we do worship services and prayer meetings.
7. Elevate the place of prayer in the Sunday morning worship service. Instead of the service
building up to the sermon, have it build up to the prayer time at the end. See how Jim
Cymbala explains this in Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.
Here’s a list of some additional action steps to choose from:
1. Have a 40 days of prayer emphasis, including providing my people a daily plan of Scripture readings on prayer, doing a sermon series on prayer throughout that time, and having two or three special prayer gatherings, including a “Concert of Prayer” on the fortieth day. This could be done any time of the year but would be a good way to start a new year.
2. Look for ways to strengthen and grow areas of prayer already in place in the churc
h. For instance, if there’s already a prayer meeting, emphasize it more. Remind people that the attendance at the prayer meeting, not the Sunday morning service, is the barometer of the health of the congregation.[1]
3. And if my church did not have a prayer meeting, I’d start one. I would have only a little tiny bit of music and/or Bible study, if any, and stick to the business of praying.
4. Be creative and come up with as many options and ideas as possible ways for people to engage in prayer, both in the church and in their own lives.
5. Teach on prayer in sermons, Sunday school classes, small groups, membership classes, etc. Include practical pointers on how to pray. And don’t leave the subject of fasting out of the teaching. After all, Jesus said some prayers REQUIRE fasting if they are to be effective.
Footnote:
[1] This document was prepared in response to requests from a number of pastors who have hosted our Prayer Warrior Boot Camp at their church.
[1] Said Charles Spurgeon: “The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it may we judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.” Even the great pulpiteer, Charles Spurgeon, knew the awesome ministry his church had was not because of his preaching, it was because of their praying.
And then some additional action items to consider:
1. Be a student of prayer. Read about it, study it, scour the internet for ideas. Read some of the great classics on prayer, such as Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer. Touch the World through Prayer by Wesley Duewel is another good one, as is The Forgotten Rules of Prayer by K.C. Hairston.
2. Ask around to find out what other churches are doing to be both a praying church and to teach their people how to pray in their personal lives. It’s a good way to pick up some fresh ideas.
3. Have prayer request index cards for people to fill in, and then lay them along the altar so people can pray for them at the close of services and stop by to do so during the week.
4. Encourage prayer as a part of every aspect of the church. Sunday school, youth group, worship team and music practices, board and staff meetings, etc., all make prayer an important part of what they do when they come together.
5. Enlist some volunteers to be sequestered and praying during the services for the services.
6. Have a concert of prayer once a quarter, possibly on a Sunday evening.
7. Bring people and groups forward for special prayer during services—including laying on of hands when appropriate—school teachers at the start of the school year, teams about to go on mission trips, high school graduates at commencement time, missionaries and others representing ministries who have come to the church to speak, and others.
8. Develop a “PRAY FIRST” mentality. In fact, there’s a book and several websites by that title. Check them out.
9. Read the biographies and writings on prayer of great prayer warriors: Martin Luther, John Knox, Ludwig von Zinzendorf, John Wesley, George Mueller, Amy Carmichael, David Livingstone, Andrew Murray, George Washington Carver, Corrie Ten Boom, and others. Be inspired and motivated by them, and use them as illustrations in sermons and studies to inspire and motivate your people to pray.
10. Collect motivational sayings to use, print in bulletins and other places to encourage praying. For examples, see page 27 in your Prayer Warrior Boot Camp field manual. Google “Quotes on Prayer.” Check out Charles Spurgeon. He has some great ones.
Finally, one last action item, but by no means the least
“Always pray and never give up.”
Luke 18:1
Want To keep this information a little closer to home? Here's a downloadable PDF for your convenience
Thomas Ramundo Ministries, Inc.
Prayer Warrior Boot Camp
thomasjramundo.wixsite.com/trmin
517-740-9534 or 517-740-7154
Email prayer requests to gotfaithwillpray@yahoo.com
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