6 Ingredients of a Powerful Prayer Service

assorted vegetables

After I wrote the post 4 Prayer Services Most People Won’t Go To, one reader asked what kind formats of prayer service do people want to attend. Although I plan to write more about this in the future, I thought I would at least give some ingredients to get us started.

Acts chapter 4 gives us a picture of a powerful prayer service. Although Dr Luke was probably not writing to give people a workbook on how to run a prayer service he highlights 6 ingredients I see often in successful prayer meetings.

Leader Initiated

The apostles wanted to update the church on what was happening so they called the church together. Most successful prayer services that I see are initiated by the senior leaders. This does not mean that the senior pastor needs to run every meeting, but I often tell leaders to think about their commitment to be involved before another prayer service is added to the calendar.

Begins with worship

These early Christians began with acknowledging who God is in the universe. Any good prayer service is helped by beginning at this point. We move our eyes off of our own needs and onto a God who can answer them.

In prayer we move our eyes off of our own needs and onto a God who can answer them.

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Bible Infused

The prayer service got energy because they stood on the foundation of scripture. Personal prayer gains confidence when praying God’s Word. The same is true of corporate prayer meeting as well. There are many creative ways to incorporate the Bible into a service.

Mission Driven

They were drawn to prayer because they needed God. The church is a part of the greatest mission in the world. Connecting your prayer service to this purpose engages people to something larger than themselves. Men in particular are drawn to this type of meeting and at this point men are less likely to go to most prayer services.

Bold and Audacious Prayer

Even though they were faced with threats their prayer was not for safety, but for more boldness. They didn’t pray to stay safe but for more strength to make a difference. We need more of this in many of our prayer services.

They didn’t pray to stay safe but for more strength to make a difference. Are you?

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Space for God to Respond

After they prayed they were filled with the Holy Spirit. How many of our prayer services do we actually expect God to meet us? How different would our prayer times be if we were filled with faith that the thing we asked for would happen?

Even with these 6 ingredients there is still a lot of creativity that can be brought to your prayer service. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and you might be on the adventure that could change everything around you.

4 Prayer Services Most People Won’t Go To

Please excuse the length of this while I go on a little rant. One of my most popular posts is 10 reasons that people don’t want to go to your prayer meeting. Part of the reason is that leaders realize that although the prayer service is important it is “the least attended service in the church.” Pastors will come up to me and say something like, “People would rather go to a potluck than a prayer service.”

However one of the reasons that people won’t come to the prayer service of the church is that they may fall into one of these categories:

The National Flag Prayer Service

I am not sure if this is a common type of prayer service in other places in the world but some form of these shows up in various places in the United States. These are the prayer services where the main emphasis is praying for the country. From there it moves into some type of prayer for leadership in the government and from there it becomes a political “prayer” discussion. Now I am all for praying for the country but these types of prayer services can easily turn into a political gripe session that is not attractive to new people.

The End Times Chart Makers Prayer Service

The end times charts may not be as popular as they used to be but the heart of those charts live on in prayer services in churches around the world. They start in a very admirable place of calling for urgency in prayer because the time is short. Any teaching or discussion time in the prayer service becomes a place for people to think about the significance of the latest blue moon. This prayer service is a kissing cousin of the National Flag prayer service and may become one service in the right occasion.

The “Grandma’s Got A Hang Nail So Add It To The List” Prayer Service

This is actually one of the most common types of prayer services. The leader starts the service by quoting the verse, “Where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name there am I with them.” From there they go around the room and each person will share a need for prayer. Some of these will be “smaller” needs that may simply speak to the persons comfort in sharing. Sometimes someone is assigned to take down notes and will assign them later. One person will push through and share a deeper need like the fight she had with her husband shortly before the prayer service. This produces empathy from some of the group who counsel and advice the lady. Of course this takes a while. This mean at a point in the service someone says, “Oh we should pray, look at the time.” Prayers are assigned and prayed as people hurry to the close.

The Gift of Intercession Expert Roundup Prayer Service

I have written elsewhere about my ideas on the expression the “gift of intercession”, but at this point I will at least say I am not a fan. This prayer service may be specially designated for “the intercessors” or the format only lends itself to “the super Christians”. Their mantra will be something like, “We are not here to talk, we are here to pray (or storm the gates of heaven or insert your favorite militant prayer phrase).” This prayer meeting may not have a lot of structure. The “open microphone” allow people to get up and pray some impressive prayers. Not any prayer that a new Christian would feel comfortable praying but lengthy and powerful. There is no encouragement to remember Charles Finney’s warning that those who are leading in prayer should pray short prayers.

Now let me be clear, I am not against praying for your country. I believe that we are living in the end times and that does create urgency to our prayer. One of the great benefits of a prayer service is that we can pray for people’s needs. I personally love a prayer service that has a lot of open time.

That said my title for this is, “most people don’t want to go to.” Since most prayer services average 5-10% of the Sunday AM population and the average church in the USA runs about 75 that means the average prayer service has 4-10 people in it. The main 4 people may love the service because they like that format or are drawn to that cause. They are the ones that say, “Why don’t more people come to the prayer service.”

Maybe it is time to think a little harder about how we format or structure our prayer service.

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Maybe it is time to think a little harder about how we format or structure our prayer service. This will be stretching for those who are used to a certain format. This will also require some passion and teaching so that new people become comfortable with it as they grow in prayer. But the effort can be worth it. I have seen a church go from 5%-10% of the Sunday morning attendance in the prayer service to 10%-20%. That simple change transforms the whole spiritual climate of the church!

How to build a better “altar worker” prayer team (Updated and expanded)

A pastor friend asked me how I would improve a prayer team during his services. Here are some thoughts to get you thinking and praying about this team. Pray about what God wants in your culture. Even if you already have a prayer team maybe one of these questions will help you think of areas for improvement.

Why have a prayer team for your services?

Prayer teams can be a powerful point of contact for people with needs. If presented as such, they can also be models of praying for each others to inspire others to pray for each other. Importantly miracles can happen with these teams. Think about the culture God is having you build and how this team would fit with the overall vision. One piece of warning is to be careful on the language you use when introduce this group because you don’t want to create the impression that only certain people can pray. Instead this is a group that have been trained for this setting.

2. Who should be on this prayer team?

This is one of the most important questions when putting together a team like this. Some ideas would be:

Specifically pick a group to be on the team.
You could say that the deacons or elders are automatically the team. This can be great to “call for the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil” (James 5)
You could use your small group leaders or whatever structure you use like that in your church.

Clarifying that the team has been designated for this assignment will help build confidence in the congregation that they can feel safe coming to this group.

3. When in the service should they be used?

If you already have a team simply changing when they are available could bring new life. Two main places I have seen a team like this used is: During the response time at the end of a message and during the singing. Before the singing simply say something like, “Our prayer team will be available during this time if you have a need.”

4. Where should they be?

Most people use the front of the sanctuary for this, but there is no hard rule. Think about your room. Maybe you have space at the back. Even if you use the front you might want to choose one side in case people want to use the other side for personal prayer.

5. What will they pray for?

You may simply have them available for whatever needs people have. You may use them for specific response to your message or be for a specific theme each week like healing or salvation.

6. How will they pray?

I did a specific video teaching on How to Pray for Someone that you could use to train your team in praying with people. A couple of specific thoughts for a service setting: prepare your team for very heavy needs and I have found discernment is key in praying in these situations. Also you will want to give some instruction on how long they should be praying. Again this is something that you can determine in advance or when you call them to their spot say something like, “Our prayer team will be available and we expect a lot of people coming for prayer today so they may be praying shorter prayers.”

So hopefully this will give you some thoughts to get started. What could you do to improve or start and altar worker prayer team?