How to Lead More Vibrant Prayer Meetings

2 days ago 21

A stylized collage image of praying hands and people to represent the importance of prayer meetings.

Too many churches have taken the prayer meeting back behind the barn and shot it. If those prayer meetings were like some I’ve been to, I’m sympathetic.¹ I’m thinking of prayer meetings:

Where much of the time was spent talking and too little of the time was spent praying.
Where the focus was more on my name being hallowed, my kingdom coming, and my will being done, instead of God’s name, kingdom, and will.
Where someone would start praying and then tediously meander through every topic under the sun.

But the solution to such prayer meetings is not a bullet. Quite the opposite. The solution is a resurrection.

Scripture makes plain from beginning (Gen 4:26) to end (Jas 5:16–18) that humble, desperate pleading with God is God’s means for great work. The spiritually powerful church is the praying church (e.g., Acts 2:42–47; 4:23–35). Let’s resurrect church prayer meetings.

In this article, I offer two solutions for doing so:

Change the content
Change the structure

1. Change the content

If anything needs a bullet behind the barn, it’s our misplaced priorities in prayer. Prayer meetings consumed with our (dis)comfort, our (un)ease, our health, and our interests will lack power and inevitably languish. We must change the content of our prayer meetings to align with God’s priorities.

We do this by taking our cues from the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9–12). We do this by learning from the many exemplary prayers in Scripture.² The more our hearts seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Matt 6:32–33), the more powerful our prayer meetings will become.

There is no shortcut for this. It happens as we camp out in the Bible. It happens as we walk through this torn and tattered world with the Bible lighting our path. It happens as we come to know the heart of our God and let delight in him shape our whole orientation. Nonetheless, some practical and specific guidance is in order. I recommend including the following.

Begin with God

Start the prayer meeting by orienting people toward God. This involves praising God for his character and attributes or thanking God for his care and provision. Ways to do this include:

Singing songs of adoration
Assigning people to read a verse from Scripture about God
Prompting people to use one word to complete the sentence, “God, you are [fill in the blank].”
Encouraging people to identify what they are most grateful for in their personal lives, their church, and salvation history, and then voice those prayers of thanksgiving

Include confession

The Bible is saturated with prayers of confession. Our prayer meetings should be, too. Consider prompting people to confess personal sins, sins of your local church, sins of the universal church, and national sins. Ways to do this include:

Using a passage to prompt examination (e.g., the fruits of the Spirit or the beatitudes)
Mixing silent and voiced prayers of confession
Allowing individuals to voice a brief confession and the whole group respond with a refrain (e.g., “Lord, have mercy”)

Lead intentionally

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Direct the petitions to align with God’s heart. Deliberate, focused leadership keeps petitions from drifting toward a plea for comfort and ease. Pray for various areas of your church: pressing needs, leaders, ministries, missionaries, and certain demographics (e.g., widows, marriages, children, shut-ins, singles). Keep in mind the Bible’s priorities, like the advance of the gospel, care for the marginalized and hurting, wisdom for governing officials, revival, justice, righteousness, and the day of the Lord. Practical ways to lead the time well include:

Allowing a Scripture passage to guide prayers, working through it phrase by phrase.
Dividing people into groups, each praying for a different ministry instead of having everyone pray for every area.
Gathering around and laying hands on those being prayed for, such as church leaders or those facing acute needs.
When praying for the lost, having individuals use a simple formula like, “For [name], who [short description]” with the group responding, “May they hear and believe the gospel.”
Preparing more categories of petition than you’ll likely cover, allowing you to move at a brisk pace and follow what God’s Spirit is doing.

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2. Change the structure

The Bible’s models of prayer display far greater variety than is often reflected in our prayer meetings. They include long and short prayers, sung and spoken prayers, individual and corporate prayers, prepared and spontaneous prayers, call and response prayers, and silent prayers. Our prayer meetings will be strengthened if we structure them to match this variety. As you prepare, seek to do the following:

Vary the lengths

Design your prayer meeting around varying lengths of prayers, always keeping in mind Jesus’s teaching on brevity (Matt 6:7–13). Consider mixing in one-word prayers, one- or two-sentence prayers, and longer prayers that might last a few minutes. Ways to do this include:

Specifying the length when intending shorter prayers (e.g., “one-sentence prayers,” “brief prayers”) and repeating those instructions at least twice, including just before going to prayer.
For longer prayers, assigning their specific topics to designated people (perhaps volunteers) so that there are a fixed number of people praying, each with a singular focus.
Including responsive prayers in which the person praying says something short, but the whole prayer meeting responds with a set prayer (e.g., “Hear our prayer”).
If doing something more complex like a responsive prayer, practicing the format once or twice before beginning so people aren’t distracted by it while praying.

Use different sources

Most prayer meetings depend almost exclusively on spontaneous prayers offered by those attending. While this is a good staple, there are other sources worth tapping into, e.g., songs, written prayers voiced together, and Scripture. Ways to do this include:

Tying prayers to Scripture as much as possible. Encourage people to use Scripture throughout the prayer meeting. But don’t limit the use of Scripture solely to the prayers of Scripture (for example, set aside time for people to voice promises of God found in the Bible).
Drawing on written prayers from sources like the Bible, a good hymnal, the Book of Common Prayer (1662), or The Valley of Vision. (Suggestion: Use the word “pray” rather than “recite” or “say” when introducing written prayers.)
Transitioning smoothly into songs to maintain a posture of prayer. For example, announce that a time of prayer will close with a particular song, then simply begin singing it when the time comes. A cappella or minimal instrumentation works best.

Diversify groups

We strengthen our prayer meetings when we vary how we organize the groups praying. Have people pray on their own, in pairs, in small groups, or all together. Ways to do this include:

Allowing time for silent reflection and prayer. (Repeatedly specify that the time will be silent: It can be embarrassing to pray aloud only later to realize it was meant to be a time of silent prayer.)
Exploring creative ways to group people, e.g., splitting men and women, using tables or rows, or assigning topics to spots in the room and letting people choose where to go.
When forming smaller groups, stating explicitly that participants don’t need to pray out loud, as some aren’t comfortable doing so.
As a general rule, using the large group for shorter prayers and smaller groups for longer prayers.