How do you get a church praying and enjoying it?

There is no short answer or short cut to this. It will take a number of years to develop a culture of enjoyed prayer within a church. Often this involves getting the church leaders enjoying prayer amongst themselves, after which the leaders invite the rest of the church into this place of encounter and God’s presence. Sometimes this is best done in smaller groups, so people can learn from one another and stir faith, believing God’s promises together. There needs to be a sense of unity amongst the church when they pray together - and crucially these times need to be led well, otherwise the church will not come with anticipation and excitement before God’s throne of grace together, but will see pray as a duty or drudgery.

What if we have tried to pray as a church before, and it did not work?

This is the story in many churches. Prayer times have gradually dwindled and eventually only the ‘faithful few’ turn up, before finally the meetings get cancelled for good. It is often useful to understand why this happened.

Did people come just to socialise, and not much prayer took place?

Were the prayer times well hosted and led, so that church members felt safe and able to pray together?

Was there representation by the key leaders in the church, to demonstrate this was th epriority of the church?

Was there a sense of God’s presence or was it just a list of items on a board that was rushed through before getting to the ‘next thing’?

Did people just preach or talk without much prayer?

Often it can help to have someone outside the church come to see and experience the culture of prayer in the church before definte steps cna be taken to get the prayer furnaces fired up again.

How come only a few people in our church turn up to pray? How do we get everyone involved?

Often prayer is seen as something for the leaders only, of for older or more experienced believers, rather than something for the whole church to be involved in. If the prayer times have become stale and are not well led, of if the leadership of the church does not come along, a church quickly sees it as a low priority and stop showing up. Prayer is a declaration of our dependence on God, that we can’t do it, but He can, so when a church stops believing that God can and will act, there ceases to be a reason to approach him in prayer.

How do I get my leadership team and eldership team praying?

Churches can get very busy, with meetings, committees, events and programmes. Before long we are more excited about these meetings and programmes than the one the meetings are about - Jesus. When the leadership team of a church does not take dedicated and extended time out to pray amongst themselves, this same attitude will be in the wider church. But if an eldership team consistently meets to pray and worship God, before the get to business, something will begin to shift immediately. The next step is to see this move to the wider church, and this is often best done by the leadership team meeting in smaller groups across the church to pray. In doing so, the church learns to pray. The next thing, the church will be asking the leaders to set up times of prayer on a regular basis and the excitement and enjoyment of these moments in God’s presence together becomes contagious.

If you would like to grow as a leadership team or eldership or entire church - please get in touch we would love to help you on this journey, and see all other areas of church life affected significantly (mission, leadership, preaching, discipleship, pastoral care, worship.. and much more).

Contact us on info@concertopfprayer.org.uk