For the past several years we have been doing a time of prayer in our worship service where congregation members would call out those who were in need of prayer. It had always seemed to work well. We would usually have 5-10 names lifted up by members, and after each one we would respond with “Lord hear our Prayer” then the leader closed by leading us in the Lord’s Prayer.
I recently had a meeting with one of our ushers. During the course of the conversation we began talking about the service. He said, “You know I’ve been here for 4 years now, and I have yet to hear one of the prayer concerns.” Wow! I had never thought of it. It made me wonder how many others had the same experience. Were people really hearing, and praying for the concerns lifted up?
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to pray for them, it was just that with everyone facing forward, and with the size of the congregation, a concern lifted up was only being heard by those surrounding that person.
In a completely different conversation I was talking with one of our speakers about ways to do things differently in the service. One thing we were discussing was that sometimes people are reluctant to call out a prayer concern because they do not like speaking in front of others, or think their prayer concern is not important enough to mention.
After listening to both of these we brainstormed on ways we could make our prayer time more effective and meaningful. We came up with a simple solution.
As people walked in we handed them an index card. We set out markers in the chairs. During the greeting time we told our members we were going to do something a little different. We wanted them to write down their prayer concerns that they wanted us to lift up. We also asked them to notate if they wanted their concern added to the church prayer list. We invited them to place them in a basket, located in the middle of the room, at anytime during our worship set.
While we played the next two songs, many people brought their cards to the basket, then quietly returned to their seats. After our worship set is the Children’s message. During that time our prayer leaders collected the concerns and read through them. They were able to bunch alike prayers together, they also could edit them for privacy concerns etc…
When it came time for the prayer they started out by opening in prayer, and then two people read off the concerns. Sometimes they would group 2-3 names together and then the congregation would respond with “Lord hear our prayer.”
Where before we would have 5-10 concerns lifted up, we had over 35 concerns mentioned and prayed for.
Though we may not do it this way every week, we definitely will be using this again in the future. Here’s why:
1. All prayer concerns were read into a microphone and heard by all of the congregation.
2. People felt more free to share their concerns anonymously.
3. We have a written list of things people are in need of prayer for.
4. It added an interactive element to the prayer time.
How do you do prayer time in your service?
photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagoogoo/
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