21 Conducting Prayer Meetings!

21

Conducting Prayer Meetings!

Advanced study, research, and use of computers (as useful as they may be in “missiology”) can never be a substitute for fervent prayer on the part of God’s people. Hundreds of Scripture verses and dozens of good books attest to the value God attaches to the prayers of his people. His call to us today includes the call to meaningful prayer, both private and corporate. The lack of real, consistent, intelligent group prayer for the unevangelized world—even in many evangelical and Bible-believing churches—should be a great concern to all who love Christ and want his gospel to spread to all nations.

Many Christians really want to be effective in prayer for missions, but are not sure how to begin. Others are finding their own church prayer meetings unattractive, boring, and dead. Even in those groups where there is an exciting, renewed interest in prayer and praise, they do not always include much emphasis on intercession, and especially intercession for world missions. Bible verses such as found in Matthew 9:36-38 are clear in showing the absolutely vital role of prayer in accomplishing the task of world evangelization:

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then he said unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Laying a Foundation

But what can be done? Stating the facts—even believing in them—is not enough. There must be action! Pastors and church leaders must act, and every church member must cooperate. Here are some basic suggestions which over the years I have observed to be effective:

1. It is vital that church leaders meet together for discussion and prayer on specific action they should make prayer meetings a main event in their churches.

2. There must be loving, firm preaching and teaching on the biblical basis for prayer.

3. There should be wide-scale distribution of good books on prayer to the congregation, along with other informative books such as Operation World.

4.Church leaders should wait on God and prepare in a serious way, planning carefully for each prayer meeting.

5. The work of missions can be made more real and personal to individual Christians if church leaders will—

a. Encourage each one to correspond with missionaries.

b. Urge families to “adopt” a missionary family and present briefly the needs of that family at the prayer meeting from time to time.

c. Arrange for visiting missionaries to stay in homes of members of the congregation.

d. Invite missionaries to share in the prayer meetings as often as possible, arranging for times of fellowship afterwards.

e. Encourage the congregation to visit mission fields and home bases whenever possible.

Specific Suggestions

Now, coming to the prayer meeting itself, how specifically can we get out of the rut which often makes this the most boring, unpopular meeting of the week? I’d like to pass on a few suggestions used effectively for more than thirty years in our work:

1. Vary the format! This is extremely important, as the more accustomed we become to a routine, the less vital it becomes to us. It can be varied by beginning sometimes with worship, prayer, and thanksgiving; other times with a brief challenge to prayer; or with individuals giving specific answers to prayer; or with audio visual materials.

2. Avoid long periods of consistency. Prayer must involve the mind.

Long prayers which does not involve personal involvement allows the mind to drift. Therefore, it is good to break the meeting into shorter segments. Here are some ways to do it (these are also given in the previous chapter).

a. After a time of corporate prayer, break into small groups which will give opportunity for each person to participate. Each group could, for example, be given information about one area of the world and asked to concentrate their prayers on that area.

b. Make good use of videos and slides/CDs or DVDs. Many mission groups have produced very effective ones which are a good stimulus to prayer.

c. Present prayer requests, but keep them short. Long, detailed accounts for prayer not only kill the spirit of the meeting, but they also often leave very little time for prayer. Prayer requests could be written in advance and given out as people arrive. Or, they could be written on an overhead projector, or be presented through Powerpoint using maps of various countries, etc.

d. Keep the ministry of the Word short, but powerful.

e. Read quotations from significant missionary biographies or books on prayer.

f. Delegate individuals to give a brief update on a particular field. This could include statistics (population of region, its religion, etc.—all easily obtained from Operation World), something of the missionary work being done there, as well as any current news regarding that area.

g. Play short messages from missionaries on the field.

h. When showing audio visuals, why not stop for a time of prayer after a while rather than having a long, non-stop presentation.

i. Do not omit the ministry of music. Good music is an aid in worship and will help set the tone for the entire meeting. During a long prayer meeting, it is important to stop the intercession for a time of “refueling,” so to speak, through praise, worship, and thanksgiving.

Frequency and Location

Where and how often should group prayer meetings be held? In addition to the weekly church prayer meeting, I strongly advice that the meeting be periodically held at homes. This opens doors of ministry through the home and avoids the pitfalls of isolating prayer for missions from fellowship and basic spiritual growth.

Around the world, God is working at home meetings. This concept has to be made use of in someway. How sad, on the other hand to see many home groups which have no real interest in prayer for missions.

I believe there should also be spontaneous early morning prayer meetings, lunch time prayer meetings, and days set aside for prayer. Within our work for more than fifty years we have had regular times of extended prayer, often long into the night. I believe this is one of the main factors in the victories we have seen around the world, both with our ships and in our land teams. During these extended time of prayer, people must be made to feel free to leave whenever they wish. They must realize they are not in a spiritual marathon. However, the more information they have about the world’s needs, the more responsible they are to pray for those needs to be met.

Remember, we are in a spiritual warfare. Prayer is one of our main weapons and faith is closely linked with it. We must not expect it to be easy. Satan will counter-attack any effort made towards effective prayer. We must avoid any form of discouragement and press on, whatever the cost. Twenty percent of the world has still not heard or read the Gospel, and what we do in prayer in God’s sovereignty and mercy will be a deciding factor as to whether or not they will. Let us ask God for new ideas and initiatives to be creative in this task that he has given to us. And let us be disciplined in doing our part.