#ReimaginePRAYER...My notes from a ministry leader's request to design a church-to-church prayer initiative

#ReimaginePRAYER...My notes from a ministry leader's request to design a church-to-church prayer initiative

FROM: A Church Ministry Consultant:

Phil,

I have a new request

Next year — I want to go from church to church - just to pray with the pastor and anyone he gathers.

Would you have a Prayer Guide I could use for this ministry?

•I want to encourage the pastor and the church.

•I want to see them begin their passion and desire to grow and make disciples.

Prayer is my Achilles Heel —

TO: My Colleague (I was in the role of Prayer Consultant for the churches he coordinates)

Would each pastor determine:

• day-time-place?

• invitation-only (key intercessors/leaders) or church-wide-event (everyone, youth)

• pastor’s office? Sunday School room? Sanctuary?

Format is important:

• Is the size of the gathering best served in one small group circle or a several circles?

• Avoid pews/rows…use an open space

• Prayer can be encouraged with a brief scripture teaching, inspired with singing praise with God-directed lyrics, modeled with a variety of prayer styles

These ideas came to me while on a prayerwalk…

I took my own advice and began to reimagine how you might use these meetings with pastors and their people to not just once again tell people what we know (that we need to pray and pray more) but to engage them in conversation of vertical (prayerful) and horizontal (interaction among the church).

Here is what I am envisioning ~

A.S.K.

An invitation to everyone in our congregation to participate in a faith-driven conversation; asking, seeking, knocking in prayer for a Spirit-led, Scripture-fed vision of how we become prayer-driven people, families, ministries.

•Asking: personal and small group prayer focused on asking questions before designing programs.

•Seeking: practicing the discipline of listening for God’s voice rather than listening our ideas on a wish list through personal reflection and group discussion.

•Knocking: engaging the entire congregation to press forward into the plans God’s Spirit reveals to us.

1. Everyone receives a set of brief articles they commit to read and prayerfully reflect upon, and to report their feedback (questions, scripture, required changes)

2. The thought-provoking content will be distributed as handouts and available on the church’s website (or the association’s).

3. Everyone is encouraged to read 1 assigned article each day for a week; daily journaling their feedback.

4. The pastor convenes a gathering to discuss and discern what the Spirit is saying to their congregation.

>I am suggesting you facilitate that conversation.

5. The pastor convenes a gathering of church leaders to submit a plan of how to implement a vision of becoming a more prayer-driven group of people.

>You may want to facilitate this step as well.

A.S.K.

Resources:

I will submit prayer-driven articles for you to consider.

I will provide a strategic but simple set of 3 questions members/participants will respond to as a way of getting insights more than merely different ideas.

I will offer my website as a common site if that is beneficial but the more this is branded locally, the better.

Gatherings:

I will provide you with a format for the church and the leadership gatherings.

I think this will help the pastors pursue a different mindset about prayer. By involving every member of the congregation, everyone has a little bit more ownership, and this does not become simply a sermon or a fresh paint job on our current meetings-formats- programs.

Praying you will see a clear path from the Lord…even if that means we need to start our dreaming over!

Please let me know how I can serve you in that journey,

Phil

{Scroll down for a list of prayer-focued articles}

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#ReimaginePRAYER...My notes from a ministry leader's request to design a church-to-church prayer initiative

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