Skip to main content

5 Prayer Lists Your Small Group Already Has

The other day, I came across a blog post about 7 Prayer Lists You Already Have. Since I love lists, I took the time to read it, and really enjoyed it. Although the post itself is actually aimed at pastors, I thought we could modify it just a bit and make it quite relevant for small groups. So if your group is looking for more resources to help you pray together, think about these 5 Prayer Lists You Already Have:
  1.  Your Calendars. Have everyone look at one event in their coming week for which they'd like the group to pray.
  2. Your Group List. Pray for every person that is a part of your group who is absent at your current meeting. If everyone is there, assign each person a name for whom they will pray this coming week.
  3. Church Ministries. Have someone go to on-line and pray for each of the ministries that are listed on your church's web-site.
  4. Your Church Staff. You can probably get this list from the church web-site or someone else. Spend time praying not just for your pastors, but for everyone on your church's staff. Don't forget the building staff, as well. They make great sacrifices to make the ministry possible!
  5. The Church Bulletin. Go through your church bulletin and pray for each announcement. Sometimes you'll be praying for events, sometimes you'll be praying for people.

One of the greatest benefits of this exercise is that it will help your group learn to focus their prayers externally. While there is nothing wrong with bringing our own requests to God, one of the important lessons we all need to learn is that our prayer is a gift we can give to others!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discussion Questions for Easter

Have several people ask the question, “What’s the most important thing you’ve ever done?” Ask other people, “What do you hope to accomplish in the next several years of your life?” Tell your class that today you’ll be talking about “life mission” or the one most important thing you do that drives everything else. Tell them that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the defining moment in history, so it should be the defining moment in our lives. Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-19. How does the resurrection impact some of the crucial beliefs of Christianity?  How would Christianity be different if there was no resurrection? How would you be different without the resurrection? Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. What are some specific ways that the resurrection gives us hope? If you had been a friend of Jesus when he was on earth, how would the resurrection have impacted your life?  How do you think his followers then were effected by the resurrection? Read 1 Corinthian...
3 comments
Read more

FIGHT CLUB! (iron sharpening iron)

Our youth pastor, Keith Sandison, has implemented "Fight Clubs" with the young men of our church. While these teenagers and young adults aren't actually pummeling each other physically, they are using the opportunity to aggressively challenge one another to be more attentive to their spiritual formation. Right now my son is participating in a fight club focusing on Proverbs. I love it. Keith has created a handout he uses for the fight clubs which lists seven different methods of "generic Bible study". I think the idea started with this post a few years ago, but as he often does; Keith took my thoughts and made them immensely more substantive and beneficial. Check out his system below:
1 comment
Read more

Community Killers Part Four: Complaining

Nothing can tear a group apart faster or more effectively than a spirit of complaining. For some reason, complaints seem to breed faster than rabbits. Once one person’s complaining goes unchecked, it won’t be long until others have joined in and eventually the entire group is sucked into a hopeless vortex of swirling complaints. Often these complaints have little to do with the group, but they have the potential to sideswipe and destroy a group meeting, or if left unchecked, an entire group. Complaints may cover a variety of subjects. Group members might complain about their job, their day, their neighbor, their spouse, or even the church. The role of the leader is to deal with these complaints in a way which is formative for the person, instructive for the group, and glorifying to God. Because a LIFEgroup should be a place where people share their struggles and receive support and prayer, it can sometimes be difficult to know when someone is sharing a difficulty or...
Post a Comment
Read more