Conduct a Prayer Meeting

Thinking of hosting a prayer meeting but not sure how to organize it? Prayer meetings are a way for people to get together and engage in prayer as a group. With a little preparation and by following a few steps, you can conduct a meaningful meeting full of prayer.

Steps

Planning the Prayer Meeting

  1. Choose a suitable time. Remember that people are quite busy and may not be able to make certain times for a prayer meeting. For example, It may be difficult to get people to come to an early morning or Friday night meeting. Try choosing a time that is convenient for people such as a Sunday afternoon or weekday evening.
    • Think about choosing a time when there is usually a mass scheduled. That way it’s a time that would normally be convenient for people.
    • A prayer meeting usually lasts about an hour, although you can adjust the time if desired.
  2. Get the church leadership involved. Even if you want to host a prayer meeting outside of church you should keep the pastor involved. While others can lead the prayer meeting, it is important to keep the church leadership involved so that people respect the legitimacy of the prayer meeting.
  3. Choose a venue. Usually prayer meetings will be held in a prayer room or other room at the church. You can also host small prayer meetings in other locations such as homes if you choose. Whatever the location, make sure it is ready to host the meeting and is a clean space for hosting prayers.
  4. Announce the meeting to all members of the congregation. Announce the meeting to the members of the congregation. Make an announcement at mass or send out letters and emails. Try to get as many people involved as you can to strengthen your prayers.
  5. Speak to individuals to encourage them to come to meetings. Sometimes people are hesitant to join or try something new. Speak to people individually and encourage them to come to the meetings. Sometimes people need just a little push to join in.
  6. Decide on the format. You may keep the entire group together for prayers. If you are a big group you can also split into smaller groups for prayer. Other options include asking specific individuals to pray for specific issues or asking two or three people to pray for a specific issue and then asking another two or three people to pray for a different issue.
    • You can also do a combination of formats such as beginning with everyone praying together and then allowing people to pray for personal issues in smaller groups.
  7. Plan prayers in advance. Planning will determine the difference between a vibrant, effective prayer meeting and a dull, ineffective one. People need guidance, categories for prayer, models for prayer and boundaries for prayer. You need to keep people’s interest by planning the prayers in advance.
  8. Choose the issues to pray for. Choose specific issues to pray for during the meeting. These issues should be relevant to the people praying and have a clear objective. This is important so that people maintain their motivation for coming together for prayer.

Conducting the Prayer Meeting

  1. Consider beginning with a 1-5 minute period of silence. Beginning with a short period of silence can help people connect to God through themselves. Encourage people to completely focus on God during this time.
    • Alternatively you can sing two or three worship songs before prayer begins.
  2. Give brief instructions about prayer. It can help to give a few instructions about prayer before beginning the prayers. People need guidance and direction in order to feel comfortable during the meeting. This way they will also be more open and willing to participate actively.
  3. Have a short discussion about prayers and requests. Sometimes it is nice to allow people to request certain prayers or topics to pray for. However, be careful that this discussion does not take more than five minutes. It is very easy for a prayer meeting to turn into a discussion about prayer rather than a time for actual prayers.
  4. Read a short passage from the bible. This is not required but can help get people into a spiritual mode. Make sure this passage is short; it should be about 5 minutes long and definitely no longer than 10 minutes.
  5. Pray. The point of a prayer meeting is to pray. If you let people speak about their own personal prayers or read verses for a long time then it is no longer a prayer meeting. Make sure you keep the focus on prayer throughout the meeting.[1]
  6. Use variety. Make prayer meetings different from one another and use different prayers within the prayer meeting. Try different forms for the meetings such as singing prayers, changing between small and large groups, being led in prayer, praying through confessions and taking prayer requests.
  7. Allow people to pray for short periods. Allow people to pray when they feel they want to rather than going around the circle and having everybody pray. Going around the circle is time-consuming and people end up composing their prayers as the circle gets closer to them rather than fully joining the prayers.
  8. Pray for one topic at a time. Choose an issue and stick to it for a time until you are finished praying for that topic. Only once you have finished praying for that issue should you move to another. Keep prayers focused on one topic to keep the people focused and thus make those prayers strong.[2]
  9. Keep things moving. Praying for an hour can seem difficult but if you break it up into shorter prayers, including silent prayer, led prayer, read prayer, large group prayer and small group prayer then you have broken it into smaller pieces. Keep the prayers moving and over time an hour of prayers will no longer seem like a long time.
    • On the other hand, don’t be afraid of silence. Give people a time to let the prayers sink in and connect with their hearts.
  10. End the prayer meeting in a way that gives it structure and closure. One good way to end the meeting is with a Bible reading relevant to the meeting topic.

Making the Most of the Prayer Meeting

  1. Be patient. Praying out loud is difficult for some people and praying for 30-60 minutes can feel awkward at first. It takes practice. Keep working at your prayers and the group will grow together and become stronger.[3]
  2. Allow for spontaneity. You want people to feel comfortable praying so the meeting should be flexible and intentional. Create an open environment for those who attend the meeting so that they can pray with their whole hearts and minds. This will also help to get everyone to participate.[1]
  3. Include children if appropriate. Even though children may have shorter attention spans they can be easily included in prayer meetings. Oftentimes children will pray out loud and fully participate in the meeting, bringing energy to the prayers in their youth.
  4. Be grateful. When God answers your prayers you should be grateful and express thanksgiving. Always express these feelings as a group as part of your prayer meetings.
  5. Celebrate after the prayer meeting. Spend some time together after the meeting. You can have snacks or dinner such as pizza and ice cream. This brings the group together and gets the kids excited.

Tips

  • If there is a tragedy you can pray for petitions first. In other cases, it may be a good idea to pray for petitions last or people will take up the whole prayer meeting praying for what they want.
  • If you want to engage in outreach as part of the group you should always hold the prayer meeting before outreach. It is important not to forget the purpose of the meeting, which is prayers.

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://justpray.org/PrayerMeetingTips.html
  2. ↑ http://www.jwipn.com/pdf/cywtp_chapter23.pdf
  3. ↑ http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2014/05/08/how-to-lead-a-prayer-meeting/

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