The following are ideas to begin a church prayer meeting, before the different diocesan transformation goals are brought to the Lord in prayer. Choose one or more of these ideas which might be helpful in your setting. 1. Read Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. a. Read the verse through slowly a number of times leaving silence to enable people to still themselves or b. Read through the first 8 words of the verse by reading one word and leaving a pause i.e. Be followed by reading two words and leaving a pause i.e. Be still and so on or c. Play the song (with or without the visuals): Be still and know (Christy Nockels). You can find this song on YouTube by putting, Be still and know Christy Nockels into the search bar. 2. Give people a heavy stone as they arrive. Explain to people that you are going to hand over any burdens / worries of the day to the Lord so that you are free to focus upon Him and His purposes for the prayer time. a. Invite people to hold the stone, and as they do that read Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. b. Ask the Lord to show people what burdens /worries they are carrying. After a pause invite people to hand over those burdens to the Lord, symbolically laying down their stones as they do that. Invite people to receive the Lord s peace and to draw close to Him. 3. Read Matthew 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. a. Rejoice together in the truth that Jesus is present with you. You may like to do something symbolic like lighting a candle that is placed in the centre of the prayer group, or by lighting some incense that is placed in the centre of the prayer group. b. Spend a few minutes praising Jesus for who He is. One way to do this would be to use the refrain: We worship You Jesus for who you are and for what you have done repeating these words after the prayer meeting leader speaks words of praise like, Lord Jesus you are good, Lord Jesus you are kind, Lord Jesus you are perfect love, Lord Jesus you are our Saviour, and so on. 4. Use a simple prayer and song to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit. a. You could sing Taize s Come Holy Spirit, descend on us or Veni Sancte Spiritus or Come Holy Spirit (Loralee Thiessen) from Songs of Fellowship book 2. b. After you have sung the song leave silence then the leader says, The Lord is here and everyone replies His Spirit is with us 5. Pray a Psalm together e.g. Psalm 23. a. The prayer meeting leader reads the 1 st verse of the Psalm and people are encouraged to pray it, for example after the words The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing are read, people could pray things like: We praise you that you provide for all of our needs, We worship you our good shepherd, Help us trust you with our lives, Thank you that we never lack anything and so on. b. After a while the prayer meeting leader reads the 2 nd verse of the Psalm and people pray it until the whole Psalm is read.
6. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead people into the presence of the Father. a. Encourage people to sit quietly and listen to their breathing. b. Then invite people to imagine that their Heavenly Father is standing in front of them. c. As they take in a breath encourage them to pray: Abba Father and as they release the breath pray I belong to you. Repeat a few times, slowing down until people begin to relax into God s presence. 7. Give people a piece of chocolate as they arrive. Explain that they are going to spend some time focusing on the Lord s goodness. a. Invite people to savour the chocolate slowly in their mouths as you read through Psalm 103:1-5. b. Now pass a Bible around the group and encourage people to say a one sentence prayer of thanks when they are holding it. e.g., Thank you Lord for my family etc. If people feel unable to do this, tell them to simply pass on the Bible. c. Now pass a Bible around the group and encourage people to pray a one sentence prayer of praise e.g., I praise you Lord for your forgiveness etc. 8. Read Psalm 100:4-5 and sing together two to three worship songs without a break between them. a. If you don t have a guitarist or pianist, make a playlist on an ipod/mp3 player and worship together. (Tip: play the songs quite loud so that people aren t embarrassed by hearing their own voice.) 9. You could use a more liturgical beginning to the prayer meeting, for example the following prayer from www.northumbriacommunity.org One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. Who is it that you seek? We seek the Lord our God. Do you seek Him with all your heart? Do you seek Him with all your soul? Do you seek Him with all your mind? Do you seek Him with all your strength? Amen. Christ, have mercy. 10. Invite people to pick up a Bible and for a couple of minutes look in the book of Psalms and find a verse of praise that says something about the Lord s character e.g. Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. (Psalm 36:5) a. Once people have found a verse, invite people to read them out one at a time, leaving a pause between each one. b. Follow this by singing a song of praise together. c. You could then encourage people to be still in the Lord s presence and wait upon Him, asking Him to speak to the group through the power of the Holy Spirit. d. Share and then pray any words of knowledge, etc.
11. As people arrive, give them a simple written prayer to pray to get them used to hearing the sound of their own voice! Encourage people to leave a pause between each prayer. Examples of prayers you could use are below: a. Lord we humble ourselves before you we need and long for you here. b. Our souls thirst for you come and satisfy us with your love. c. Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us. d. Lord teach us to pray. e. O Lord have mercy on us cleanse us from our sins. f. Not our will be done but your will be done. g. May our lives bring honour and glory to your name. h. Father God we trust you fulfil your purposes here, etc. 12. Project a picture of Rublev s icon and invite people to focus on it. a. Lead them in a simple reflection on the character of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. b. Invite people to reflect on the amazing fact that they are invited into relationship with the Godhead through the sacrifice Jesus made for them on the cross. c. Finish the reflection by reading James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. 13. Invite people to come into the Lord s presence with a song. a. Use the simple song, Come into his presence singing, Alleluia and encourage people to add their own verses e.g. Come into his presence singing, Jesus is Lord / God is so good / We love you Lord, and so on. (Tip: Give people a minute to think of their own verse.) 14. Place a cross in the centre of the Prayer group. Read Hebrews 12:1-3 then lead into a simple meditation something like the following: a. We are encouraged by the author to the Hebrews to throw off everything that hinders us from walking with Jesus. So in a moment of silence ask yourself the question: Is anything hindering me in my Christian walk? Ask the Lord to help you throw it off. b. We are also encouraged to throw off the sin that so easily entangles and that can become like invisible chains around us. (Hand out pieces of paper-chain that you have prepared before the meeting). As you hold your chain ask the Lord to show you any sins that are tying you up. Let s pray the shortened form of the Jesus prayer together three times as we repent of our sins: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" (x3) Come and lay your chains at the foot of the cross and receive His forgiveness. c. Finally we are encouraged by the author to the Hebrews to run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Let s fix our eyes upon Jesus now as we listen to or sing the song, Turn your eyes upon Jesus. (There are all sorts of versions of this old hymn for you to choose from.) 15. Explain that the prayer meeting will be structured around The Lord s Prayer. a. Begin by praying Our Father in heaven and encourage people to be still as they marvel at the wonder of being invited to freely approach their Heavenly Father. (Leave a pause.) b. Follow this by praying Hallowed be your name and encourage people to speak out words of praise to their Heavenly Father. c. You may choose to print out some of the names of God eg Jehovah-Jireh ("The Lord Will Provide"), Jehovah Rapha ( The Lord Who Heals"), Jehovah M kaddesh ( The Lord Who Sanctifies, Makes Holy"), etc and use these to lead into praise. d. Follow this by praying, Your kingdom come, your will be done and move into praying for the Diocesan goals.
16. Lay out a bowl of fruit in the centre of the prayer group and give each person present a card with a fruit of the spirit written on it. a. Read out Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. b. Explain that Jesus perfectly exhibited the fruit of the Spirit in His life. Encourage people to worship Him using the word that they have been given e.g.: We praise you Jesus for you are perfect love, We worship you Lord for you are full of joy, We bless you Jesus for you are faithful and so on. If this is too hard, people could simply say, Jesus, You are love, Jesus you are joy etc. c. Encourage people to ask Jesus to grow that fruit of the Spirit within the life of the church family e.g.: Lord please fill us with your Holy Spirit and grow the fruit of love/joy/peace..in this church family. 17. Encourage people to share the Peace with each other. In a group where people don t know each other well, ask people to share their names at the same time even with people they do know! a. Invite people to go and stand with two other people and briefly share one thing that they would like to give thanks for. b. Once people have shared, encourage them to pray very simple prayers of thanks together. c. Then invite people in their small groups to simply lay hands on one another and invite the Holy Spirit to come and fill them afresh with God s love. d. After a few minutes move into praying for the Diocesan goals. 18. Project a worship song from YouTube with good visuals, encouraging people to draw close to the Lord as they watch and listen e.g.: Chris Tomlin s Love ran red. a. Alternatively you could use some instrumental reflective music e.g.: Ruth Fazal s Songs from the River Volumes I-V to help people begin to engage with the Lord. b. At the end of the music leave some silence and encourage people to listen to what the Lord might want to say to them. 19. Invite a couple of people attending the prayer meeting to share simple testimony of how the Lord has answered their prayers. (Brief them before the prayer meeting) a. You may also want to share answers to prayer from the previous prayer meeting. b. Follow the testimonies with a couple of songs of praise and thanksgiving before turning to pray for the Diocesan goals. 20. Ask the Lord to speak to each person present in the prayer meeting and then read 2Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.. a. Leave a pause then invite someone else to read the verse again. b. Ask people what they understand by this verse. c. Invite someone else to read the verse again. d. Ask people to share anything that God might be saying to the church through this verse. e. Invite someone else to read the verse again. f. Pray asking the Lord to help you humble yourselves and pray and seek his face and turn away from sinful lives. g. Move in into praying for the Diocesan goals. allageworshipresources.org