The following guidance offers a little guidance on delivering group prayer. If you've any contributions to make or any experiences you want to share, please email me and I'll add them to the site. Thanks.
Introduction
Group prayer is a vital component of faith community life. It offers communities an opportunity to share, to focus and to come together as a single body.
To successfully lead group prayer can be a deeply nourishing and valuable experience, both for the leader and for the community to which they belong. Whilst prayer between a person and God is often personal and individual, is sharing across a community offers a shared intimacy which can bind a community ever deeper.
Prayer as a Performance
“Most men and women are forced to perform parts
for which they have no qualification” - Oscar Wilde
Leading group prayer can often be an intimidating prospect for a person. For many of us, whilst we choose to belong to a community or church and share a common approach to praise and faith, we understand that the nature of our individual faith, our relationship with God and our approach to prayer is unique. We may feel ill-equipped to feed others with prayer when our own need for nourishment is so apparent to us and we may believe our faith in God is to scant, simplistic or doubtful to offer support to others through prayer.
I have attended and led group prayer on countless occasions, both through work with the YMCA and during my present life in the L’Arche Kent community. Some experiences of group prayer can remain with me long after the meeting itself has finished and on occasion, group prayer has helped me learn or recognise something in myself, in my relationship with God or in my relationship with others that has entirely reshaped the DNA of my faith. As leaders of group prayer, our wish is often to offer this experience to others through the reflection we deliver.
The God of washing up
As a member of the L’Arche community, I, like many, find a deep sense of the presence of God in the ordinary life – the God of Washing Up, the Anointing of the Shaving Cream, the Sermon on the Sofa. Experiences such as these bear witness to the truth in the Beatitudes, feed me personally in my faith life and provide the DNA reshapening that my bony bodies screams for. Whether the person I share these moments with realises their impact or rehearses their delivery, I very much doubt, yet the damage is done and I experience, and am grateful for, the change. As leaders of prayer, the value of the group prayer we deliver is held not simply in the words or dynamism of our speech, but in the opportunity to group and commune. Every moment in a family’s life is not necessarily precious in itself, but every family is in itself precious. Similarly, the mere explicit expression of this communion through group prayer articulates our belonging. As such, a leader of group prayer must recognise that they do not control and limit the spiritually nourishing act of coming together, nor should they fear lacking spiritual the food to nourish others.
Group prayer structure
The nature and structure of group prayer will vary greatly depending on the context, membership, confidence of participants and time available. Prayer leaders may choose to simple silence approaches to prayer or complex orders of prayer; again dependent on the nature of the group and its context. I’ve enjoyed Quaker-led prayers as times of deep shared silence amongst friends at Greenbelt, to Hungarian prayer dancing at L’Arche to leading prayers during a disciplinary hearing at the YMCA. Understanding the nature, ability and confidence of your group is important if you are to deliver group prayer which welcomes, embraces and joins people rather than distracts and excludes them.
Often, combining several prayer approaches can be useful; these include:
- Silence by candle-light
- Conversational prayer (examples of conversational prayer)
- Personal reflections
- Bible readings
- Short reflections by Christian writers
- Poetry and prose
- Clipart and printed photos
- Props (eg leaves, flowers, brittle wood, buckets of water)
- Tasks (communal drawings, collages etc)
- Songs (Christian and secular)
- Background music (Taize, classical or contemporary)
- Dances
Enjoy silence
Silence can be deeply uncomfortable at times, for those unused to prayer and those used to lively praise and worship; yet in group prayer, silence offers us a chance to listen both to God and to the group, a chance to clear your mind, welcome God and find lost words for him. Short silences do not sometimes allow people who feel uncomfortable to relax, so it is important to allocate adequate time to the silence to allow deep conversations with God to begin, develop and complete. Silence also heightens attention and can make background noises distracting, so if your environment does not offer a peaceful silence, consider soft background music to support the silence and candles or props to focus the attention.
Focusing on God rather than agenda
It is often tempting to preach, to educate or to deliberately reshape one another through prayer. Certainly preaching and sharing has a valuable role to play in offering group prayer, however we should be careful to avoid using prayer as an opportunity to group-manipulate. During my time with the YMCA, I recall pushing the CEO hard for my Association to support the redevelopment of a local night shelter that had struggled for several years to find a permanent home. Before the Directors Management Group prayer time, I suggested to the prayer leader we focus on prayers for humility and recommended Matthew 25: 34-40. Before the reading, I asked for prayers for the Night Shelter who had seen yet another planning permission request rejected. That prayer group ultimately led to the night shelter finding a home at the YMCA – leaving me overjoyed yet with a deepseated regret for the prayerful manipulation I’d introduced to a time of fellowship.
Matthew 25: 34-40: “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
Group prayer is a time of fellowship, of communion and belonging with entire focus on a conversation with God amongst friends and hidden agendas and masked intentions have no place in the room.
Conversational prayer
Conversational prayer can be a deeply powerful way to share a group dialogue with God. Yet equally, some can find conversational prayer extremely unnerving, either because they fear speaking in group, because they fear exposing the nature of their prayer dialogue with God or because the fear bellows of ‘Praise the Lord’ at the end. It can be useful to encourage those who wish to pray silently in the group to do so, so that no member feels obliged; or perhaps to encourage all to simply say one name in turn or word for the group to focus on in their thoughts and prayers.
There are vastly different approaches to conversational prayer. The following are taken from gretcom.org and I thank them for their contribution.
Examples of leading conversational prayer.
- Introduce prayer topics one at a time. Using this method, the leader introduces a topic which the group then prays about. When the group finishes praying for that topic, the leader introduces another. Both the number and types of topics introduced may vary. Below is an example:
- "Thank You" for one thing (e.g., the Lord Jesus, God's love, His forgiveness, the beautiful day, etc.).
- "Thank You" for something that has happened in your life 'in the last 24 hours.
- "Please help ..." (yourself or someone else).
- Ask for one thing for yourself.
- Thank God for how He will meet those desires and requests.
- Allow the group to share prayer requests.
- As a prayer request is offered, you may wish to ask another member to be responsible to pray for that request during the prayer time.
This ensures that each person's request will be prayed for by at least one other person during the prayer time.
- You may wish to have group members record on a sheet of paper each request as it is offered. They could then refer to the list during
the group prayer time as well as throughout the week as a reminder to continue to pray for one another.
- You may allow group members to volunteer to pray for requests without assigning them or writing them down. The group would then rely on their memories during the prayer time.
- You may wish to pray for each request as soon as it is given, before allowing the next request to be shared.
- Pray through Scripture. This method allows the group to use one or more passages of Scripture as their prayer guide. You are free to choose passages from anywhere in the Old or New Testaments that you feel will be appropriate. The following is an example:
- Choose a Psalm of praise (e.g. Psalm 103, Psalms 145-150).
- Teach the group to pray using the following procedure: The first person reads a phrase or an entire verse aloud, pausing to pray a simple prayer as inspired by the Scripture and led by the Lord. Other members of the group join in audibly or silently agree. The next person reads a different verse, pausing to pray aloud as he is impressed by the Lord. Each continues in like fashion around the group.
4. Introduce the ACTS acrostic.
- Adoration
- Confession
- Thanksgiving
- Supplication.
Adoration
Definition: Worshipping and praising God, exalting Him in your heart and your mind and with your lips.
1. Read Psalms such as 103 and 145 or another favorite praise Psalm.
2. Take time to adore God, praising Him for His attributes such as His loving kindness, His holiness, His compassion, His majesty, etc.
Confession
Definition: Agreeing with God concerning any sins he brings to mind in order to restore fellowship with Him.
1. Review I John 1:5-9.
2. As you spend time adoring God, He wilt bring to mind what you need to confess.
3. Allow time for confession (let God speak to each person about any unconfessed sin), silently before the Lord.
Thanksgiving
Definition: Giving thanks to God for who He is, what He has done and what He will continue to do in your life; a prayer expressing gratitude.
1. Look at I Thessalonians 5:18, Ephesians 5:20, Psalm 108:3, Psalm 50:23.
2. Spend time in thanksgiving.
Supplication
Definition: Imploring God by means of a petition or an entreaty.
1. Read Philippians 4:5,7; Psalm 116:1,2.
2. Lead the group in supplication, praying aloud.
5. Introduce the PRAY acrostic (may be developed in the same way as ACTS).
- Praise.
- Repent.
- Ask for someone else.
- Your own needs.
6. Pray for the fulfilment of the Great Commission, using Scripture.
a. Win men to Christ through prayer.
1. Pray that God will prepare individuals' hearts to understand and respond to the gospel (John 6:44).
2. Pray that God will raise up believers to share the gospel with the unbelievers (Matthew 9:37,38; Colossians 4:3).
3. Christ's victory over him (Ephesians 6:12, Corinthians 4:3,4; 2 Timothy 2:25,26; 1 John 3:8).
4. Persist in these prayers (Daniel 10:12,13a; Luke 18:1-8).
b. Build men in Christ through prayer.
1. Thank God for them (Philippians 1:3).
2. Pray for deliverance from evil (unprincipled) companions (2 Thessalonians 3:2).
3. Pray that they will walk worthy of the Lord (Colossians 1:10).
4 Pray for wisdom and revelation in their knowledge of Christ (Ephesians 1: 17).
5 Pray for them to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man (Ephesians 3:16).
6 Pray for their unity in the Spirit with other believers (John 17:23).
7 Pray that their love may abound and that they may approve the things that are excellent (Philippians 1:9,10).
8 Pray for boldness and opportunities to present the gospel to others (Colossians 4:3, Ephesians 6:19,20).
9 Pray that they may completely mature and be fully assured in all the will of God (Colossians 4:12).
10 Persist in these prayers (Ephesians 6:18).
c. Send men for Christ through prayer.
1. labour shortage in the spiritual harvest (Matthew 9:37,38; Romans 10: 13-15).
2. 1 Make a list of candidates to be sent by the Lord (Isaiah 6:8; Matthew 9:37,38) and pray persistently for them.
3. Pray that laborers will be thrust forth 'into specific communities and countries.
4. Claim the fulfillment of the Great Commission in your area and the world, according to His command and promise (Matthew 28:18-20; 1 John 5:14,15).
5. Mobilize and teach others to pray for laborers (2 Timothy 2:2).
6. To help expand the group's world vision, pray for a specific country, overseas mission group, or overseas Christian workers. (Your group may want to "adopt" a country to pray for regularly.)
7. Sing a hymn or Christian song, and afterward, use the words of the hymn to guide the prayer time.
8. Select one or more attributes of God, and spend the time meditating on those attributes and praising Him for His attributes.
9. Share answers to prayer and spend the time thanking God for the answers and His faithfulness.
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