Becoming a Prayer Focused Group: 3 Ideas to Boost Your Group's Prayer Time

A group that wants to care for one another must be willing to pray for each other. Sometimes, it's a good idea to spend a significant amount of your group time simply talking about prayer and praying together. Here's an idea for three exercises you can do in one group meeting to focus yourselves on prayer:

1. Begin by praying prayers of thanksgiving. Spend some time allowing everyone in the group to share a few things in their life for which they are thankful. These can be "big" things and "small" things. Once everyone has had a few opportunities to share, select 2-3 people to close this portion by praying prayers of thanksgiving. Before they pray, though, have someone read aloud Psalm 96:1-6.

2. Pass out paper to everyone in the group and have them write their name on the paper, as well as one personal request. Place all the papers in a box and have everyone draw a paper out. Once everyone has a request for which they will pray, give them a few minutes to talk to the person for whom they are praying (remember, each person will need to talk to two people; the person for whom they are praying and the person who is praying for them). Take a brief moment of silence to allow everyone to pray for their person's request, then encourage them to continue praying for this request throughout the week. You may also encourage them to contact the person during the week to see how things are developing.

3. Finally, finish by simply praising God. As a group, discuss the personal traits of God that you most appreciate (his love, his kindness, his wisdom, etc...). Have 1-2 people pray, specifically focusing on praising God for who He is.

Once you've finished, encourage everyone in the group to spend time praying for each other in the coming week. (if your group can do it, it's sometimes fun to set a time each day when everyone in the group will stop what they're doing to just pray for 30 seconds... but not all groups can do this)

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