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

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...

Community Killers: Crisis

Here is Part Two in my series on dealing with "Community Killers". Today the topic is "Crisis". Every group experiences crisis at some point. Death, illness, divorce, and financial ruin are just some of the issues that can threaten to destroy a group. These crisis, however, are not to be feared. Rather, they should be embraced as an opportunity for the group to care for one another in unique and deeply meaningful ways. The following are five suggestions (certainly not an exhaustive list) which can help a group handle crisis successfully: Openness. The first step in a group’s efforts to deal with crisis is simply knowing about and understanding the crisis. If a member does not feel comfortable sharing the crisis issues in their life, the group cannot come to their aid. A willingness to share not only the crisis situation, but also the details can significantly impact the degree to which the group can offer assistance. The role of the leader sometimes requires a per...

Humility: It's Not All About You

Without naming names, when have you observed a person who seems to be only interested in “moving up the ladder”? What are some of the character traits of a person like this? • Read Genesis 11:1-9. • Generally speaking, who were these people focusing on, themselves or God? Why was this a problem? John Calvin thought that verse 6 was God ironically saying, “This people have conspired against me, and since they can speak to one another in the same language, how can their plan be defeated?” In other words, God wasn’t concerned, he found it humorous that the people thought so highly of themselves. • Read verse 4. What do you think it means that they wanted to “make a name” for themselves? • What things do we (you) often do try to make a name for ourselves? Why is it important to us that people think highly of us? • Read Romans 12:3. What do you think it means to think of yourself with “sober judgment”? Why are we sometimes slow to “judge” ourselves? How can we judge ourselves in a heal...