Conducting a Great Prayer Time

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Conduct a Great Prayer Time

Every healthy small group prays together. A great prayer time can open members up as they share deep and personal joys and pains. How do you make the most of this time? How do you avoid insincere and irrelevant prayer requests? Here are some suggestions:

  • Watch the clock. Make sure you end the discussion with a priority for enough time to pray. New groups may only need 5 minutes, while a group that’s been together for several months might need 10-15. A group that’s been together for a couple of years might take 30 minutes or more.

  • Give some guidelines. Request should be personally meaningful to the requester and rich in detail. We shouldn’t spend group prayer time praying for an unnamed friend of a group member’s coworkers. "Unspoken" requests should remain unspoken - they only lead to speculation or gossip.

  • Write them down. Ask a member of the group to volunteer to keep a list or journal the groups requests and send them out to the group at some point throughout the week.

  • Affirm confidentiality. Remind the group that what is spoken in the group should stay with in the group.

  • PRAY. Ask one person to offer a prayer over all the requests, recognizing God's presence during the request time and asking his blessing over the items shared.. This does not have to be long. Remember that the act of sharing requests is in itself a prayer (see Matthew 18:20). Because God is present in Spirit, it’s not necessary to repeat everything that was just shared.

Content taken from The Essential Guide for Small Group Leaders by Bill Search.

Loving Your People, Training, Prayer