Intercessors for America has just opened a new online store, that has valuable resources to help you pray for the nation. IFAresources.com has more than 100 products available--everything from prayer guides, to DVDs to books.

Sorted by topical categories, the store is easy to find what you are looking for. IFA also features many of the classic resources of Derek Prince, who wrote prolifically on praying for a nation.

Perhaps its strongest category is Revival and Transformation, which highlights many interesting resources, but features most of the works and DVDs of Dr. Alistair Petrie. His newest release, which just came off the presses, In Holy Fear, is currently available. 

PrayerShop Publishing is soon releasing a new book, Pray the Word for Your Church, which is a 31-prayer guide of Scripture prayers to pray, plus a journal to keep you on target in praying for the leaders and ministries in your church. Here is a sample prayer:

Speaking Truthfully with One Another

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Ephesians 4:25

Heavenly Father, I come to You today confessing my great need of the work of the Holy Spirit in the deepest places of my heart.  It is written in Your Word that You desire truth in my inner being, so I ask, Father, that truth be found at the core of who I am.

I know the words that I should bring into Your presence, but the falseness of my heart so often escapes me. O God have mercy on me I pray. Shine the spotlight of the Holy Spirit on every corner of my heart, expose all darkness and every lie. (Pause and be still in God’s presence).

I come to You, Father, on behalf of my church community and ask that in the hearts of my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, truth would also be found. Jesus said that it is out of the overflow of our hearts, that our mouths are fed with words to build up or to tear down. So I ask, Father, that we might be people of truth deep within our hearts.

May we put off everything that is less than truth I pray. 

Destroy exaggeration, deception of all kinds, false flattery--every expression of falsehood.

May the ways that we lie to protect ourselves, or to avoid admonishing one another, be put to death. 

Instead, teach us to speak the truth in love to one another that we might encourage one another to grow up in Christ and continue in our pilgrimage with Him until we see His face.

In all things, in every opportunity, may we be those who encourage and build each other up as we speak truthfully with one another.  Do this I pray that Jesus, who is the Way the Truth and the Life, would be seen and proclaimed with greater freedom and joy among us. Begin with me Lord, for this is the desire of my heart.

I ask this in submission to Your Word, O God, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Psalm 51:6; Isaiah 29:13; Luke 6:45; Colossians 3:9; Ephesians 4:15; Hebrews 10:25; 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Prayer Connect magazine is now offering its best-selling issue, "Solid Foundation: The Power of Praying Scripture" as a free download. If you have not seen this exciting new prayer resource, check it out at http://www.prayerconnect.net/profile/sample.

Prayer Connect will inspire and challenge you to go deeper in your prayer connection with Jesus.

13 December 2012

Author - Jonathan Graf

In a recent interview with Outreach magazine, Washington D.C. pastor Mark Batterson hit the nail on the head in describing the difference between a praying church and one that does not really pray.

"Prayer is the difference between the best you can do and the best God can do. So if we’re not praying, then the best we can do is the best we can do, and that’s not good enough. When we get on our knees, the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting. Prayer creates the culture and gives people a heart for evangelism, because when you get into God’s presence, you start to get His heartbeat. “

My ministry for the past 15 years has been to try to get pastors and church leaders to understand that prayer will make a difference in their ministries. They need to fight for it and convince reluctant and belligerent leaders who do not value it or recognize its importance (or remove them from leadership if possible if they won’t buy in).

So many churches—in fact, probably most churches in the Western world—are simply operating in their “best we can do strength.” They are ministering out of obedience to the Word, but not out of dependence on the direction and presence of the Holy Spirit and His power. They see some results, so they think they are fine.

But imagine what each church could do if they actually moved beyond their own strength, into the realm of relying on God’s strength for ministry. I still remember when Tommy Barnett spoke at a Prayer Quake prayer leaders’ convention a decade ago. He talked about his church's struggle to get people involved in corporate prayer, praying for direction and power of the Spirit for their church. But that emphasis had a profound effect on the ministry of First Assembly of God. He said in the four years that they had been significantly praying, his church saw more people come to faith in Jesus Christ through their ministry than in his previous 42 years of ministry combined!

Pastor, prayer leader, church leader, as we enter 2013, I challenge you to consider prayer. Fight for it in your church! It will change the way you do church, as it invites the power and presence of God in your midst.

Jonathan Graf is the publisher of Prayer Connect magazine and the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network.

I recommend three resources to you in your quest to grow prayer in your church:

 The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson will inspire you of the power of prayer. It is available at prayershop.org

 Be Jesus in Your Neighborhood  and Shine His Light will inspire your people to pray for, care for and share Jesus with neighbors and friends

(C) 2012 Prayer Connect magazine.

Ema McKinley was in severe pain, wheelchair-bound for 19 years. Read about her meeting with Jesus on Christmas Eve this past year. A true story that was published in the recent issue of Prayer Connect, magazine, it is available for anyone to read at www.prayerconnect.net.

Feel free to Facebook post it or email it to your friends. It will highly encourage you as you seek to grow in faith and effective prayer.

The article on hindrances to corporate prayer that some of your gave me insight into a few months ago, was just posted live at prayerconnect.net.

While there are many hindrances, I discuss six primary ones.

1. No Personal Prayer Life

2. Poor Past Prayer Experiences

3. No Expectations

4. Fear of Complaints or Discomfort

5. Staying in Control

6. Church Is for Me

Check out the article at prayerconnect.net

I have often wondered why so many believers do not pray much, if at all. (Statistics show that more than 80% of western believers would say they have a poor prayer life.) Before I go any further I need to get right out front, that I am not a great man of prayer either. I have certainly improved greatly over the years, but I struggled for the first 30 or so years as a believer to pray almost anytime other than when a crisis was in my life (or the life of someone I cared about).

Prayer has always been something that easily gets forgotten in the church and in the lives of believers. Only decades after the early church was birthed in a prayer meeting in Acts, leaders were challenging, even begging, people to pray. James has to remind people to pray when they are in trouble and when they are sick. Paul tells them to pray for each other, to pray with thanksgiving when they are anxious.

Why does prayer get lost in the shuffle at church and in our lives? Why don’t we pray more? There are lots of reasons—in a discussion on this topic with several national prayer leaders a few years ago we came up with more than 15. But I want to focus on four major reasons.

1. Many believers do not pray because they are not really converted. In any church today—no matter what the denomination—there are people who at one point in their life prayed a prayer, went to a confirmation class and/or were baptized, but it “didn’t take.” They did it because it was the right thing to do, not because they were truly surrendering and giving Christ their lives. With no Holy Spirit indwelling them, they only pray when desperate, out of guilt, because it is expected or for show.
2. Other believers do not pray because they are no longer surrendered to God. They maybe once truly gave their hearts to Jesus Christ, but now they are back in control of their lives. An unsurrendered believer will not pray much. Why? Because all true prayer is an act of surrender. It is saying “I can’t do this; I need You to do something.” And when we say that, we are giving the Spirit the right to take over. An unsurrendered person finds that difficult to do.
3. Still other believers stopped praying out of disappointment with God. They prayed for something they wanted to see happen—perhaps even desperately prayed—but what they prayed for never came about. So they got angry or disappointed with God. That disappointment and confusion caused them to walk away from prayer.
4. Finally some believers do not pray because of the attack that comes. This often happens to people who have been at times strong intercessors or people of prayer. But the relentless attack of the enemy on a praying person has taken its toll on them. It is easier to pray less and let things stay “quieter” around them. I once had a believer tell me she did not want to pray in a situation because “that just riles up Satan.”

Actually, Satan uses numbers one through three in every one of our lives from time to time to keep us from prayer. As believers who want to pray more effectively, we need to continually stay aware of the things that are keeping us from it. I encourage you to regularly ask the Holy Spirit to draw you to prayer. Encourage others to get past these hindrances, too. Despite the struggles, the rewards are worth it!

Jonathan Graf is the publisher of Prayer Connect, the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network, and the author of The Power of Personal Prayer and Praying Like Paul.

© 2012 www.prayerconnect.com. For information on subscribing to Prayer Connect, click here.

Just a week ago, I spent a day at an interesting church. Rising out of the corn fields of central Iowa is the town of Newton. Hard hit by the recession, Newton’s main employer having gone out of business. On the edge of Newton stands a dynamic praying church of 800, Community Heights Alliance Church.

After preaching in the morning services and teaching in Sunday school, we were holding a concert of prayer that evening. The pastor was a little anxious about who would show up. It was the kick-off to their fourth annual week of prayer. We were using a large side room called the Gathering Place. As the people kept coming, more chairs had to be set up. Eventually close to 200 people filled that room for what became a dynamic beginning to the week.

The highlight was watching 20 or so kids lined up down the center aisle, with all the adults laying hands on them or lifting their hands toward them as we prayed over them.  And they weren’t safe, tame “Lord, bless them,” prayers. They were prays that were praying down the Kingdom of God on them!

I was struck by several things that day. First, the hunger of the people to connect with God was palpable. They were excited by what God was going to do as a result of prayer. I was also struck by something lead pastor Cory said to me. He had been at the church only four years, so this was not primarily a result of his ministry. “I have never been in a church before where we have seen so many adults come to Christ,” he told me. It was exciting as they watch lives and families be transformed.

They recognize that it is the result of prayer. They regularly and consistently pray for specific people to come to Christ; and they pray that the person who gave the name for prayer would become the one to lead the individual to Christ. It’s working!

The last thing that struck me was something I had never seen in a pastor before—at least not on a busy Sunday. I watched Cory talk with people (individuals and couples) before or after one of the gatherings—a typical thing for a pastor to do. But four times I watched Cory put his hands on the person or couple, bow his head and pray for them. My host, an intern named Mark who was over the prayer ministry, told me that Cory challenges his staff every week to not just talk with people, but pray for them on the spot. That is absolutely what you expect to see in a church that views prayer as important—people doing it without it being “prayer time.”

God is up to something at Community Heights; and it is coming out of prayer. What might He do in your church is your people caught a vision and passion for prayer?

--Taken from www.prayerconnect.net, the website of Prayer Connect magazine.

In John 13-18, at the last supper, we have an interesting snippet into the life of Jesus. Like a parent who is leaving his child at college for the first time, Jesus covers everything important his “kids” needed to know before leaving them on their own for the first time. In this talk, Jesus reveals something they had never heard before: “Ask in my name.” Pray in my name. It was so important that he comes back to that point three times.

They got it. In Acts four we seek a crippled man healed in the name of Jesus. Throughout Acts they continually call on the name of Jesus. We need to learn what that means to ask and pray in Jesus’ name.

For many of us, however, that phrase has become just a perfunctory tack on, to indicate the end of a prayer. “Okay, my prayer is over,” or “your turn to pray,” are more what it means in a prayer. Most believers—including myself—jump past that important theological truth like it means nothing.

A recent study on the topic in order to preach on it, really impacted me. I was struck by how much I had forgotten what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. While I can’t do justice to all that it means in a blog entry (books could be written on the topic), I hope this stimulus will encourage you to pray with more power and authority.

Praying in Jesus name gives us a level of authority that no other created being in the universe possesses! We have three “types” of authority because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

First we have a legal authority, very much like a business manager has been given by an owner.  Whatever a manager decides is binding, because he was given that authority by the owner. We represent Christ as ambassadors Scripture says. An ambassador acts in the interest of a nation in a foreign nation. God has given us authority to act for Him on earth—to represent Him. When we pray in Jesus’ name, what we ask for needs to be in line with what we know He would do.

Second we have the authority and rights of a child-father relationship. We are co-heirs with Christ. This gives us access to the throne room. But because of who God is, we are given a huge level of authority as His heir. When we pray, we have confidence, because we know who our Father is. The more we know Him, the more we know what He would want to do in a situation—and we can declare that to be done.

Finally, we are in bride-bridegroom relationship, and have all the authority that comes to a bride when she gets married. When a couple joins, everything the one has now also belongs to the other. Everything Christ has is ours! But we also have to recognize that everything we have belongs to Him. That speaks of huge surrender. When this comes to prayer, it means that it can no longer be what I want . . . but what we want. I can only pray what is in synch with what my bridegroom also wants. That speaks of intimacy.

So the next time you tack on “in Jesus’ name, Amen” on to the end of your prayer, consider what it implies. Better yet, it might be good to think of that even before you pray! Maybe it will change  how you pray.

Jon Graf is the publisher of Prayer Connectand the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network.

It’s true. I long for a day when prayer seldom will be mentioned in church. Now before you drop your membership to CPLN or report me to the heresy watchdogs, let me explain.

My dream is to see churches so committed to prayer that it is just done! It is so much a part of the spiritual DNA of a congregation that no one has to beg “please come to this prayer gathering.” People just come to pray.

Or the worship leader or prayer leader doesn’t have to fight for space to get some prayer times in the morning worship service . . . it is expected. Or people naturally participate in group prayer and get excited about what God is going to do in response. Or before or after a service you see pairs of people with heads bowed, praying for each other . . . spontaneously. Or when a decision is hard to come by in a board meeting, everyone realizes that they need to spend some time in prayer . . . and someone just starts praying!

Wow! Wouldn’t that be something.

So why isn’t that the DNA of most western churches? There are lots of possible reasons. Of course Satan hates to see a praying church, so he is working mightily against that happening. But I suspect there is another reason that is pretty prevalent in churches.

Prayer and its results cannot be controlled. And we like control.

In our western society today, rare is the church that does not adhere to a tried and true order of a service . . . and a pretty set time that the service should take (an hour, an hour and 15 minutes and so on). So because that is what the people want, and what seems to work the smoothest, we time everything (there is even program software to help us do it!), and schedule everything to make sure it fits the popular timeframe. So even if a pastor, as he prepares his message “gets something from the Lord,” it has to fit in 25 minutes . . . or he can beg the worship leader to remove a song or two, but that could be dicey. Easier just to shorten the message.  In that kind of a setting prayer is pretty much a perfunctory thing that we control. No one is really encouraged to pray, “in the spirit,” sensing what the Holy Spirit would have them pray. Instead, the pray-er knows to keep it short and to stick to the purpose—is the prayer a welcome, a bridge to something else, etc.  Heaven forbid if the person praying starts to get moved and prays too long. That would really muck up the plan.

Any church elder’s meeting or board meeting begins with prayer--usually one or two people, asking God for wisdom and to bless the meeting. A smaller number of boards might spend 15-30 minutes or more in prayer, but that is rare. And very few boards indeed would think to break into the meeting with prayer at a crucial roadblock moment. Why? Perhaps the reason is as sadly innocent as no one thinks enough of the importance of prayer to remember to do so . . . but I think the underlying issue of giving up control is at work here too. You see when we actually use prayer as a way to seek real direction from God—to hear His heart on a matter—we give up control. We have to obey what we hear. And that is often too uncomfortable for boards and leaders to do because the status quo may change. Years ago I was in a very uncomfortable situation at a ministry where I worked. A core of us had heard God say to do something differently. We had worked through it and discussed it, feeling this was of God. But when push came to shove with obedience, neither the individual who would have to incorporate this change nor our leadership would do it. It was not what conventional wisdom said to do . . . and what the industry typically did. It is much easier not to seek God!

Prayer cannot be controlled. Prayer opens the door to change, to rearrangement, to going off bulletin, to seeing the power of God displayed in the midst of His people. Prayer gives the Spirit “permission” to respond in whatever way He wants to respond. And deep down, our western, gotta-be-in-control mindset does not want to go there.

A recent news story in the premiere issue of Prayer Connect, “Mercy Drops of Revival” tells what happened when a pastor listened to God and threw away his comfortable plan. Prayer took over, and a mini revival that lasted several months profoundly altered his ministry. (You can read this article in the news section at prayerconnect.net.)

For many, sadly, that is too dangerous, and unconsciously prayer is kept in a safe, perfunctory, filler role in the life of a church. As a prayer leader or church leader, I encourage you to pray that God will open the eyes and hearts of your church leadership to realize that they must give up control . . . and pray.

We all need reminders, encouragement and resources to keep us moving forward in prayer. For me, reading a fresh perspective on prayer from a book or magazine can provide help. Participating in a new prayer gathering is another great stimulus for growth. The internet is a vast gold mine of information as well. One excellent website is harvestprayer.com. There you can find dozens of articles on aspect of prayer, resources, and opportunities to sign up for daily devotions on prayer or an excellent monthly email newsletter called the Messenger. Each issue of the Messenger includes a lead article, an idea to enhance personal prayer, a link to the website of a praying church, information about upcoming events and resource information. You can sign up on the home page of harvestprayer.com.

If you know of great websites with prayer helps, I encourage you to share those with others in a comment to this blog.

Few things work better than a conference to encourage, challenge and equip people to go deeper in their experience with Jesus Christ and prayer. Year after year, the Church Prayer Leaders Network receives comments from those who have attended our conferences telling us how much the event impacted them.

Our next event will be held October 29-30 in Lititz, PA (Greater Lancaster). It's theme is Awaken: Praying the Fullness of Christ into Our Lives and Churches. The keynote speaker is David Bryant, perhaps the most passionate voice on the centrality and supremecy of Christ in the United States today. Each attendee will receive a free copy of Bryant's recently revised landmark book, Christ Is All!.

The cost is $45 (includes lunch and free book), but until Sunday, October 24, use the code Eastern8 at registration check-out and receive a discount of $8.00. Group rates are available and pastors and their spouses can register for half price: $22.50 (pastors must call 812 238-5504 to register at that rate).

Practical workshops will also be presented by Jon Graf and John and Kery Shuey of KingdomQuest Ministries.

Why not come a day early and enjoy Lancaster County.

Click here for more information.

In most churches in the western world, only a small fraction of believers participate in expressions of corporate prayer. This is a sad statement, and it is the reason why the American church is virtually powerless.

One of the most significant reasons why many do not participate is that corporate prayer in most churches is not corporate prayer, but personal prayer done in a group. By that I mean, usually everyone brings their own prayer practices into the larger group. This can make the prayer time dull and frustrating for many participants.

Here are two personal prayer practices that hinder true corporate prayer:

1. Long Prayers that Remember Everything. Many people forget that they are praying with others. When they launch into prayer, they pray as long as they would if at home (5 to 15 minutes or more) and remember everything on the prayer list. So the prayer time becomes only four or five people filling the hour, each praying a long prayer that goes over everything again. This group can never grow because there isn’t time for more people to pray. It also is intimidating to newer believers who aren’t used to praying long prayers. Powerful corporate prayer should cover one topic at a time and people praying only about that theme.

2. My Agenda Should Be Your Agenda. Many prayer groups are killed by people who refuse to accept that the group is to focus on a specific prayer topic (for example: community transformation). Those people bring up what they would pray for in their own prayer time, the things that are on their own hearts, their cousin’s health need, a missionary they support, etc. In most prayer groups, the leader doesn’t stop this, thinking it would be cruel not to pray for whatever is brought up. But this weakens the group dynamic and says that everyone’s agenda is more important than that of the church leader who is given the responsibility of leading the prayer group. I have watched many prayer groups start well, only to eventually die out because they reverted to being a session to pray for everyone’s agendas.

If a church wants to see a weekly corporate prayer time grow, it may very well need to address this issue. Is your group struggling because your prayer times are dominated by personal prayer practices rather than corporate ones?

-Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network. His desire is to see churches become prayer-based. He is available for prayer weekends and consulting with your leadership team. Contact him at jong@harvestprayer.com.

I was recently in a small church that for years has struggled to grow beyond 60 people. They are dear, sincere people who want to trust God to use them in greater ways in their community. I challenged them to focus more on kingdom issues in their prayers (as opposed to just the needs of the congregation).

In a Facebook chat a few weeks later, the pastor’s wife commented that they had tweaked some of the way they were praying. And a neighbor had prayed to receive Christ that week. I will continue to pray for a renewed passion to seek the kingdom as they pray together.

Despite the fact that many churches do not have significant corporate prayer expressions, most prayer leaders and pastors believe praying together is important. But what are the benefits? There are many benefits, but I want to share three significant ones with you.

1. Praying together invites the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

In 2 Chronicles 6-7 we see the dedication of Solomon’s Temple. While “the whole assembly of Israel was standing there” (2 Chron. 6:3) Solomon prays a dedicatory prayer in which he invokes the presence of God. “Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. Now arise, O LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.” (6:41-42). Of course the presence of God entered with dynamic power.

There is a different atmosphere in churches that pray together and who have praying people. Worship seems more powerful. There is a sense of connection with God that is not there in non-praying churches.

A number of years ago at our prayer leader’s convention, Dr. Tommy Barnett, pastor of First Assembly of God Church in Phoenix, Arizona, said, “The presence of God in the midst of a church is directly proportional to the amount of prayer that takes place there.”

When the Spirit of God is manifestly present, other things happen. People hear Him speak, giving direction and encouragement (Acts 13:2-3). He will do that as you pray together as a congregation.

2. Praying together increases the faith of a congregation to believe God for the miraculous.

In Matthew 17 and Mark 9 there is the story of the father who brought his demon possessed son to the disciples. They could not cast it out. The boy was taken to Jesus, who spoke a word and the demon left. Later the disciples come to Jesus and they were baffled. Why? Because they knew how to cast out demons. (The story takes place after they had been sent two-by-two into villages casting out demons and healing the sick.) They asked Jesus why they couldn’t do it.

Jesus said two things: “because you have so little faith” (Mt. 17:20), and “this kind can come out only by prayer” (Mk. 9:29).

I wonder if the disciples attacked this demon issue cavalierly or routinely. They knew the words to say, the steps to take. But nothing worked because they were not prayed up enough. Their faith was not there as a result.

There is a clear connection between prayer and faith (beyond the fact that we are supposed to pray in faith).

I believe the most significant thing that is lost in a church that does not have corporate prayer is faith. The main reason most churches are stagnant and do not see God at work in miraculous ways in their midst? Most churches and individuals do not know what it is to pray in faith anymore.

But faith grows as we pray together. Here’s how it works. Maybe I personally am going through a tough time. In the midst of it, I try to pray with trust and faith, but it is difficult because I only see the issue. If I go and pray with others, however, what happens? As I listen to others pray with more faith than I have, my faith grows.

Here’s how it works in a corporate situation. Let’s say our church is planning to build. I’m an elder who is skeptical of the plans because they are beyond what we can afford to do. I go and begin to pray with others regarding this. God can now put a heart of trust in me, He can bring me to unity with others, He can give me the faith to believe Him for the miraculous—His vision and plan for my church. When I only pray by myself, that is less likely to happen.

3. Praying together moves people from seeking their purposes to desiring God’s purposes.

Most people’s prayers seek the best fix for a situation. We typically pray whatever we are told to pray for a situation, with no real thought of “What does God want to do here?” Something happens to that dynamic, however, when people pray together. They start to let go of their desires to see their purposes fulfilled and start to open themselves up to what God wants.

The value of this to a church is huge when it comes to ministry and decision making. If people pray together over an issue, even if people come to prayer thinking they know what the church should do, praying together opens them up to God’s desire.

People who are disgruntled with decisions a church has made usually have not prayed with the body over that issue. Pray together and watch unity grow.

The Challenge

Jeremiah 29:11-13 is a powerful promise written to a corporate body of people. “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’”

The “all” there is numeric—God is saying if all of you would seek me, you will find the plans I have for you. If we want to see God’s blessing in our churches, if we want to see Jesus’ transforming power, the dynamic ministry of the Holy Spirit in our midst, then we need to pray together.

Let these benefits encourage us to continue to rally for more times of praying together. For an expanded version of this article click here.

--Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network and the founding editor of Pray! Magazine. He is available for prayer weekends in your church; contact him at jong@harvestprayer.com.

Over the past decade, I have watched the genre of books available for prayer leaders expand from a few to dozens and dozens. There are so many resources available today for prayer leaders that the question becomes:
Which ones do I purchase first?

Let me review what the Church Prayer Leaders Network recommends in a few key areas. This list is not to say that other books are not good, but it is simply the ones that we find the
best for those seeking to grow more interest in prayer in the local church.
(All are available at www.prayershop.org
where you receive a special discount as a CPLN member.)

Resources
on Prayer in the Local Church

The Prayer Saturated Church by Cheryl Sacks is by far the most thorough
and most practical on growing a deeper level of prayer in the local church. If a prayer leader can only purchase one
resource, this is it.

My House Shall Be a House of Prayer, compiled by Jonathan Graf and Lani
Hinkle. This product offers very practical help for church leaders trying to
simply grasp what it means to be a praying church. It then offers suggestions
on developing five key areas of prayer.

On Corporate Prayer

Fresh Encounters by Daniel Henderson and Margaret Sayer provides
encouragement, challenge and practical ideas on developing a dynamic corporate
prayer meeting that focuses on Jesus Christ rather than the fix-it needs of the
congregation.

And the Place Was Shaken by John Franklin provides insight and practical
ideas for someone learning to lead a corporate prayer meeting. Everyone who is
in charge of a prayer meeting needs to have this book.

For Small Group Prayer

Together in Prayer by Andrew Wheeler is the only book available in this
area. A prayer leader at Willow Creek-McHenry, Wheeler offers very thorough
advice and ideas on moving prayer in the small group from being dull and weak
to more dynamic and kingdom focused.

Bible Studies to Disciple in Prayer

Power Praying by David Chotka is a new release that is a book and workbook
combined. It can be read by an individual or used in a small group/Sunday
school setting. It is a very unique treatment of the Lord’s Prayer that will
leave the user challenged to be more kingdom minded and bold in his or her
prayers.

Teach Us to Pray by Fred Hartley is a 13-week, fill-in-the-blank Bible
study that focuses on the prayer life of Jesus. It has an excellent three-week
study of the Holy Spirit’s role in prayer and how we work with Him as we pray.

Devotional

Love to Pray by Alvin VanderGriend is bar non, the best book on prayer
that can get an individual, a congregation or small group more fired up to
pray. Its 40 days of content, set 5 days a week for 8 weeks, will give users a
complete theology of prayer and take them deeper than they have ever been.
There is a teaching DVD available and materials to turn this into an
entire-church 40 day initiative. There is also an 8-week curriculum for
children available (Kids, Love to Pray, Too by Kathleen Trock) and a
children’s version of the devotional, I Love to Pray.

Personal Prayer Life

The Power of Personal Prayer by Jonathan Graf is an easy-to-read,
thorough treatment of prayer. Its 17 chapters cover basics like where to pray,
how to pray, and who do we pray to, then the types of prayer, and finally a
taking it deeper section that includes things like kingdom prayer, hindrances
to prayer, faith, praying scripture and perseverance to name a few topics.

Men and Prayer

Prayer Coach by Jim Nicodem is the best on the market. Written in a
humorous style with sports and personal family illustrations that men can
relate to, this book will get men over the hump of prayerlessness into trying
to connect with God more regularly.

Children and Prayer

Prayer Saturated Kids by Cheryl Sacks and Arlyn Lawrence offers challenge
and encouragement that children can become powerful prayer warriors in your
church.

Prayer Rooms

Making Room to Pray by Terry Teykl offers practical insight into
developing and maintaining an inviting prayer room at your church.

Creative Prayer Stations by Stephen Trine, offers practical suggestions
and content that will allow the user to develop more than 20 prayer stations in
their church or prayer room. It can be used to develop a prayer room with
rotating stations or to set up a week of prayer using your entire church
facility by putting prayer stations around the building.

Red Moon Rising by Peter Grieg tells the story of the modern 24/7 prayer room movement. It is full of tremendous testimonies of transformation that came out of prayers offered in prayer room settings . . .
and on taking the prayer room to the streets.

Prayer Events

A Year of Prayer Events for Your Church by Sandra Higley offers 15
suggestions for possible prayer events to hold in your church. Enough detail is
given to allow even the most creatively challenged prayer leader to shine in
developing these events.

Training Prayer Teams

Praying Grace by Terry Teykl is a training manual for altar prayer
ministry teams. It offers practical advice on everything from questions to ask
before you pray, listening to the voice of the Spirit as you prayer and “use a
breath mint before ministry.”

Upfront by Dave Buts is a DVD presentation to train people to pray with
others in the worship service.

Prayer for Pastors

Giving Ourselves to Prayer, compiled by Dan Crawford has 80 chapters,
each written by a different professor, prayer leader or pastor, covering four
key areas of prayer: The Theology of Prayer, The Personal Prayer Life of the
Pastor, The Corporate Expression of Prayer and The Global Impact of Prayer.

Preyed On or Prayed For by Terry Teykl. This is an excellent resource to challenge people to pray regularly for their pastors.

All of these books are available at discounts to CPLN members at www.prayershop.org.

Jonathan Graf is the director of the Church Prayer Leaders Network and the founding editor of Pray! magazine.