Tag Archives: Culture of Prayer

Culture of Prayer vs Program of Prayer (Expanded)

I heard one of my mentors from afar, Daniel Henderson of Fellowship 6:4, says something that I wanted to pass along to you. He was talking about the importance of building a culture of prayer in your church rather than a program of prayer. I have been thinking about it, and it is a very important distinction. It is also very helpful as well. Here are just a couple of the reasons.

  1. A culture of prayer affects everyone rather than just those in the “prayer ministry”.

This means that you are looking for ways to grow prayer in your men’s ministry, youth group and children’s ministry. This can be empowering especially if you are in a smaller church because you don’t need to create a whole new program than needs to be maintained.

As I travel around speaking at churches one of the things that I find too often is Christians intimidated by prayer. I often speak about the fact that prayer is not just for super-Christians. Part of the reason for this intimidation is the result of people thinking that there are people who pray and then there are the rest of us. There are reasons to have a prayer altar workers team – like being able to train them on the salvation follow up process. But it is important to communicate that one of those reasons is not that not every Christian can pray for needs.

2.  This allows all sorts of opportunities to be moments to grow the culture.

Taking some extra time in the board meeting to model the life of prayer is helping you build a leadership that is praying. When you are already doing an outreach connecting the life of prayer to that event is natural and life-giving. Your goal becomes to have leaders of your men’s ministry who spontaneously take time to pray for each other in a group not just to have an “elite group of prayers.” Now you are multiplying rather than just adding to your churches prayer life.

One way to think about this is as connected to the “spiritual” fire of your church. If prayer is just a program we are containing that fire to one area of the church. By creating a culture of prayer in the church we are spreading that fire everywhere. Ministry begins to happen in different areas of the church at a new level and ultimately spills into the streets.

If you are a pastor or leaders what is one way that you could help build the culture of prayer in your church today? If you are not yet a leader in your church let me encourage you to not be afraid of the life of prayer, but dive right in and see how it changes your life.

35 On-ramps to Engage New People In Prayer

Onramp

I say all the time that prayer is first of all a “get to” before it is a “have to”. Having written a book, Enjoying Prayer, to help people find the joy of prayer I believe that eventually people will want to spend time with God. People who are taught and try a prayer life will want to pray. It is kind of like a freeway; once they get on they will move faster into the presence of God. As a leader it is your opportunity to provide as many on ramps to the prayer freeway as possible. Let me just give you some ideas to get you started

1. Build prayer teams for every church outreach event.

2. Have times of special prayer for missionaries you support or assign out missionaries throughout the year.

3. Schedule a prayer walk/drive around your city.

4. Schedule a prayer missions trip (locally or internationally).

5. Present the idea of praying for your 5 closest neighbors.

6. Have people create a list of 5 unreached friends to pray.

7. Have everyone in the church put a prayer request on a 3 x 5 card and trade them for a week.

8. Start a prayer small group.

9. Make signs of church goals for prayer.

10. Model different postures of prayer in your services.

11. Invite fire fighters, police officers, socials workers, government officials to a time to pray for them.

12. Have a special weekend of 24/7 prayer.

13. Have a week of fasting and prayer (spice it up with doing different types of fasts: TV, Social Media etc).

14. Put a weekly prayer request for the church through your social media channels.

15. Have people sign up for a weekly email with prayer needs of the church.

16. Introduce the church to prayer apps: 7:14, PrayerMate, Voice of the Martyrs.

17. Have open times of prayers in your service when each person prays for their own needs.

18. If you don’t have regular prayer services, start one for once a quarter.

19. Start or expand a prayer team for needs after the service.

20. Hand out world prayer maps (Every Home For Christ -Free).

21. Have a training to teach people how to pray for others.

22. Introduce people to classics of prayer like The Practice of the Presence of God and The Hour that Changes the World.

23. Introduce people to classic prayer people: Praying Hyde, George Mueller, Charles Finney.

24. Recruit people to be prayer mentors.

25. Have special prayer events for ministries, Men’s Prayer Night, 20 something prayer day etc.

26. In small group based churches do prayer training for your leaders.

27. Share selected testimonies of answered prayer.

28. Encourage people to pray for lost people at Christmas.

29. Teach the prayer of thanksgiving at Thanksgiving.

30. Encourage people to pray for new things at the New Year for themselves and church.

31. Encourage people to pray for hurting people and marriages on Valentine’s Day.

32. Encourage people to pray for new life on Easter.

33. Pray for hurting mother’s/fathers on Mother’s/Father’s Day

34. Give opportunities to pray for their country on Independence Day.

35. Use back to school as a time to pray for kids/teachers and administrators.

Pick one that you like on this list and start somewhere. Before you know it a whole new culture of prayer might develop in your church.