People are intimidated by prayer especially in a group setting. This can keep them from going to new levels that will make it more powerful and enjoyable. Here is a simple place to help people engage:
4 suggestions from Jim Cymbala (Brooklyn Tabernacle) to build prayer in your ministry
I am a little late to the game but when Jim Cymbala’s office sent me a copy of their 2007 DVD series I sat down and watched it all in one setting. I recommend it to you as a good series to take your ministry through. Even if you don’t purchase it his advice at the end of pastors is great advice to leaders to trying to build a culture of prayer in their ministry. Here are 4 things I took away:
Personalize what happens to you and your church.
He used the idea of grades in school. Understanding if your church is in first grade or high school in relationship to prayer will make a difference in what you do with prayer. I always encourage leaders to understand their personality and preferences before adding things with prayer.
[tweetthis]Is your church in first grade or high school in prayer? Lead them accordingly! [/tweetthis]
Strategically model prayer
Of course if you want to have a ministry of prayer you must be a person of prayer. But it is also important to model and mentor it to the leaders specifically and the ministry generally. Think of ways to build into your messages things like, “When I was in prayer the other day…” or “One of the things that I am praying for our group…”
Creatively teach on prayer
He talked about pastors who get excited about prayer and then come back and start a service that the church is not ready. Then they are, “double discouraged”. You may need to teach for a while before they are ready. He offered a great piece of advice to not only teach on the how of prayer but the power that prayer has to make a difference. This will get people ready for more prayer.
Give space for prayer in the service
We may think we need to launch 24-7 prayer or a weekly prayer service but the ministry is not ready. A place to start is during your regular service. Find ways to extend prayer into the life of the service. Maybe it will be to extend prayer for a couple minutes after the singing but before the message or maybe it will be extending your prayer time at the end of your message as a model of prayer.
With these four things hopefully you can think of one practical step you could use this week to help your ministry go to the next level.
(Note this was originally sent as part of our leaders Building A Culture Of Prayer Email. If you want to be part of this growing group you can sign up here)
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.
- 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.
