After we recognize the problems of prayer meetings, we can start taking practical steps to help people better understand what prayer is, how to pray, and how to become answers to our own prayers.
Cancel Prayer Meetings
You may want to cancel all your church prayer meetings, or at least the regularly-scheduled prayer meetings.
There is nothing wrong with having a time of corporate prayer on an occasional basis in response to a deep need or issue that is facing the entire congregation. But a regularly scheduled prayer meeting is most often unhealthy for the life of the church, and leads to many of the problems mentioned in previous posts. So cancel it.
But this does not mean we cancel prayer. Not at all!
Don’t Cancel Prayer
With some targeted teaching on prayer, and modeling of a healthy prayer life, pastors and church leaders can actually unleash the power of prayer within their congregation.
Rather than meet simply to pray, meet to go serve the community, and before you go, spend a few minutes in prayer for eyes to see and ears to hear the needs and issues that people in the neighborhood are dealing with.
Then remind the people that as they serve others, to maintain that prayerful communication with God to listen for what He might be leading His children to say and do. This sort of prayer can set a church on fire!
This is the active prayer life of the church.
This is the prayer of faith that moves mountains, feeds the multitudes, cleans up the city, and reaches thousands for Christ.
As a church moves out into the community with prayers of faith and acts of service, the true power of prayer is unleashed within the community of believers, and they begin to see prayer for what it is and how it works.
Let prayer meetings cease, not because prayer is unimportant, but because it is too important to be held hostage in a back room of the church building.
Do you want to pray like never before?
Do you what to talk to God like you talk to a friend? Do you want to see more answers to prayer?
If you have these (and other) questions about prayer, let me send you some teaching and instruction about prayer to your email inbox. You will receive one or two per week, absolutely free. Fill out the form below to get started.
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Some Christians struggle to pray not only in a group but on their own and need to be an environment where praying out load is a natural thing. There will be some Churches where the leaders are quite controlling or their prayers make one think they are showing off. Some even think God, being very old is a bit deaf so they shout loudly. Praying in a small group say three or four where you can trust others and wont feel silly is often a good place to start.
Take a book of prayers and read them out to get used to your own voice praying. Eventually you will succeed. But never stop trying and God will reveal Himself to you.
Big prayer meetings are not my thing, however I will no knock it as prayer will cause a shift in the atmosphere as Heaven joins in with the praise.
I will continue to keep saying God does not care how but He does care if we don’t.
Love Clive
It’s not a bad idea praying a book of prayers out loud to get used to the sound of your voice praying. Sometimes, this is what holds a lot of people back.
I love the Book of Common Prayer and some of the prayer books out there. The best, of course, is the Psalms.