How to organize and lead prayer meetings #1
An Introduction
Matt 18:19-20
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
In this post I want to talk about prayer meetings—how to organize them and lead them. I am a big devotional prayer guy. I always emphasize the need to have your own personal prayer time, Bible reading time, soaking time, waiting-on-God time, your “secret place” time, (Matt 6:6) but we also need to have corporate prayer gatherings where we are praying together out loud with other believers. There is power in agreement and unity, and God will move on our behalf! It is not just that God will listen to our united prayers, but that He will show up Himself! And there is nothing better than experiencing the tangible presence of God.
Before I was a worship leader, I was a prayer warrior, an intercessor, one who prays beyond my own personal needs. Before I was a youth leader, I was a prayer leader. Before I was a missionary, I was an intercessor. Before I was a teacher, before I was a writer, I was an intercessor. In different seasons in my life, God highlights different ministry and gifting for me to work on and cultivate. The first ministry that He developed in my life, after I became serious about pursuing God, was the ministry of intercession, praying for God’s kingdom to come, God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).
In my life, prayer is the foundation. In my ministry, prayer is the foundation. Devotional prayer comes first, then comes intercessory prayer. You can engage in prayer ministry at any time, any place, with anyone. You don’t need any “tools” for prayer ministry. You don’t need a building, you don’t need a room. You don’t even need people around you, you can be alone in a jail cell or on a desert island. You don’t need a program, you don’t need resources. Prayer is the one thing you can do when you can’t do anything else. You can worship through prayer. Prayer is talking to God, communicating with God, and listening to God.
I want to get you excited about prayer. I want you to have a new perspective on prayer. Jesus proclaimed, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” This is regarding the church. The prayer meeting should be the foundational meeting of the church—not the worship meeting, not the sermon meeting, not the evangelism outreach meeting, not the teaching meeting.
Nowadays, the prayer meeting is the least attended meeting in the church (at least in the western church), if there are prayer meetings at all. The prayer meeting is the most awkward and boring meeting in the western church, where there may be 10 people attending and only 2 or 3 people praying, dominating all the prayer time by praying really long prayers, and it is over in about 30 minutes or less. No wonder why no one wants to come and pray!
The prayer meeting should be the central meeting of the church, the most attended, most dynamic meeting of the church. When people are praying, and praying together, you will see God move. You will see God do amazing things in answering prayers. You will see an explosion of harvest of souls in the church. You will see revival, awakening, reformation. You will see changes not only in the church but in the city, in the country, in the culture.
I don’t want to promote a particular formula for prayer, but I want to provide some tips and ideas that would stir up people’s hearts and cultivate a love for intercessory prayer! I will show you how I would personally lead a prayer meeting, from start to finish, covering topics from international crises to personal provision. Stay tuned for Part II coming soon.
Blessings!
Samuel
