How To Run A Prayer Meeting

A prayer meeting is an activity where several believers meet together at a certain place to pray. Prayer meetings are powerful because there is power in the prayers that believers say. In James 5:16, it is written that the prayer of a righteous person has power and is effective. God ordains the prayers that we pray to bring about His will. That is why even though God is indeed sovereign, powerful, and all-knowing, we still have to pray. God uses our prayers to do His will; that is why we sometimes do not have because we do not ask, as written in (You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.James 4:2).

Father in heaven, thank You for the privilege to be part of Your sovereign care of the world through the prayers that we pray. The prayers we pray are not merely petitions but prayers that have power in them and are therefore effective. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

 

How to Prepare for a Prayer Meeting

Preparing for a meeting does not have to be complicated. First, you must prepare the essential things you need for the prayer meeting. These essential things could vary depending on the church since there are practices that vary from church to church. However, in this article, we are going to dive into the essential things that you need in a prayer meeting regardless of whether your congregation is big or small.

The first thing that you have to prepare is the prayer points. Those prayer points are the prayer requests that you are going to present to God as you pray corporately ( Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Philippians 4:6-7). Deciding the prayer points that you are going to have depends on you. If your focus is the church, you can prepare prayer points beforehand that are specifically for the church. If it is election season, you can prepare prayer points to intercede for the upcoming election. You can also have several different prayer points for different sectors of society at the same time if you want. 

If it is you who will be leading the prayer meeting, it would be ideal to think about the flow of the session beforehand. It does not have to be a formal program, just a rough flow of what is going to happen to serve as your guide for things to go smoothly. If you are not the one who is going to lead the prayer meeting because you have other responsibilities or roles to attend to, you can ask someone ahead of time if they will lead. The same goes for other roles that require volunteers, such as those who will usher the people, prepare and set up the venue, and many others. Another important volunteer you should also find beforehand is who is going to lead the worship. 

It would be wise to settle ahead of time your pool of volunteers—those who will do the respective tasks so that everything will be ready before the prayer meeting. If you find and assign volunteers on the day of the prayer meeting itself, it could turn out to be pretty stressful. You may not end up finding enough people because you informed them too late, and they already made some prior commitments. The point is that it is better to prepare everything beforehand and give yourself ample time to deal with whatever unexpected circumstances may happen.

The other essential things you may have to prepare are the sound system, the slides for the presentation, the ushers, and some snacks if you want to provide some. Most importantly, it is vital not to forget the essence of a prayer meeting, which is to come together and devote yourselves to prayer.

Father in heaven, give me the wisdom that I need as I prepare for our prayer meeting. Give me the wisdom that I need to prepare everything beforehand so that things will go smoothly during the meeting itself. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

How to Run the Actual Prayer Meeting

You run a prayer meeting by following the flow that you have prepared beforehand. That is also why thinking ahead about the informal flow of the prayer meeting would be very helpful. Of course, this is a prayer meeting and not a program; there are instances where you have to break off from the flow you prepared. However, that does not mean that you don’t need a plan. Running a prayer meeting will always involve having your plan as your guide as you coordinate and lead the meeting.

As the congregation gathers and the prayer meeting starts, you (if you are the one who will lead) or the person whom you assigned to lead the prayer meeting will guide the congregation by simply leading them to worship and pray the prayer points that have been prepared. It is more about showing people what to do. If you are going to worship, you can ask the people to stand up as you worship God. As you start to pray, you can tell the people to group themselves into specific numbers and pray for the prayer points prepared.

Father in heaven, as I coordinate and run our prayer meeting, give me the grace, strength, and wisdom that I need to be able to lead with excellence. Remind me that in times of pressure, I am not dependent on my own strength but on Your grace. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Running a prayer meeting is unlike running a program for which everything has to be perfect. Though of course we serve a holy God and therefore He deserves excellent service, running a prayer meeting is a matter of guiding a group of believers into prayer. A prayer meeting is an act of worship to our Holy God, just as when we pray to God in our personal devotion to Him.