IDEAS THAT WORK - Christianity Today

LEADING THE CHURCH TO PRAY

Thomas D. Kinnan

“What can I do to mobilize prayer in my church?”

This question grew stronger and more insistent for me a few years ago. It wasn’t that I or the congregation needed to be convinced of prayer’s value. We had all heard-I had often preached-how essential prayer is to Christian living. But we rarely prayed in any powerful, consistent, or satisfying way.

What we needed was a specific way to actually begin praying, both individually and as a church. We hungered for a hands-on approach that would help make prayer a natural part of our church life.

I told my people, “My dream for this church is to see you praying for one another after every service, asking me to pray for you, even praying for one another over the phone if necessary.”

Our dream eventually crystallized in a program we developed called PRAYER (People Responsive and Yielded Experiencing Results). Since its inception more than three years ago, this simple approach has strengthened the people and ministries of the church.

How does it work?

Every three months, I announce that in a few weeks people will have the opportunity to become more involved in prayer through one or more of the following:

Prayer Partners-Two people who commit to pray with and for one another.

Prayer Corps-These individuals pray daily for the ministries and needs of the church. Each member of the Corps also prays silently during each service-for guests, for people who appear troubled, for those singing or playing special music, for the preacher.

Prayer Chain-People’s emergency needs are sent through a network of those who have committed themselves to pray immediately.

Prayer Vigil-Every weekend, from 8 P.M. Saturday until 8 A.M. Sunday, people pray during a particular half-hour or hour time slot.

Prayer and Fasting-People designate meal times to isolate themselves in the presence of the Lord for prayer instead of eating.

Then we distribute pencils and signup sheets for people to commit themselves, if they wish, to any or all of these areas for the next three months. We collect the sheets and turn them over to a deacon, who, with the help of the church secretaries, pairs the prayer partners and coordinates the prayer vigils and prayer chains. In addition, we distribute a weekly prayer bulletin to inform people of specific requests.

Originally we asked people for six-month and twelve-month commitments, but we have since found three months about right. The shorter period means we have to reorganize every three months, but more people get involved because they don’t feel locked in for an eternity. They can try the program for three months, take a breather, and come back to it.

Each quarter approximately eighty-five to ninety people commit themselves to one of the avenues of PRAYER. In our congregation of 320, this represents about 25 percent. Many involve themselves in several areas (even so, they don’t tie up any more evenings in a busy schedule). For example, in a recent quarter, we had approximately fifty people in the prayer chain, another fifty paired as prayer partners, fifty-two in the prayer corps, and forty-five involved in the prayer vigil. (We don’t ask for written commitments for the “prayer and fasting” area, so we don’t know the number involved there.)

Our children and youth also participate in PRAYER. They have their own prayer vigils. The children’s vigil runs from 6:30 to 8:30 each Thursday night, with each child taking a ten-minute slot; the teenagers pray in twenty minute slots each Saturday evening. The young people have their own prayer partners and commit themselves to be part of the prayer corps.

What has happened?

We’ve seen many answers to prayer: spiritual conversions, physical healings, material blessings. Many areas of the church have grown significantly. Within the first five weeks of the program, our average weekly attendance increased by fifty-three. We were growing before PRAYER began, but the rate of growth has climbed.

I’m not the only one who has sensed a new vibrancy, an expectant spirit in our services. Recently a couple from one of my former churches visited a Sunday service. “What’s going on here?” they asked afterwards. “We sensed the Holy Spirit so intensely during the service.”

Every Sunday, I know many people have invested heavily in the service. They’ve been praying for me and the sermon. They pick me up when I’m not doing my best. In my dozen years of ministry, I’ve never looked forward to worshiping as much as I do now.

Seeing people change gratifies me most. When we introduced PRAYER, people asked, “How can we pray for half an hour? We’ll exhaust our prayers in five minutes.” After the first prayer vigil, people told me, “We didn’t have enough time.”

We asked people what their involvement in PRAYER has meant. Their comments:

“It’s a discipline; it made me pray.”

“PRAYER has taught us how to pray.”

“I’ve become more aware of the needs of the church.”

“PRAYER has made us feel more a part of the church.”

PRAYER is certainly not the only way to mobilize a church to pray, but it has helped us convert our desire to pray into actual prayer.

Thomas D. Kinnan is pastor of Fairlawn Heights Wesleyan Church in Topeka, Kansas.

MORE IDEAS

Missionaries by Video

With missionaries coming home on furlough only once every four or five years, and with new people joining the church in between, how can members really get to know the missionaries they support? The Evangelical Free Church of Chico, California, was wrestling with that question.

Then a church-supported missionary family sent a video tape showing its living situation, family life, and ministry.

The missions committee viewed it and realized they had learned more about the family in fifteen minutes than they had previously over several years. The committee decided to ask other church missionary families to prepare video tapes for the annual missions conference.

The committee asked four missionary families to prepare two fifteen minute video tapes each. The first, to be shown to adults, would give a general overview of the family’s ministry, living conditions, and daily routine. The second tape, intended for children, would show the family’s ministry through the eyes of the children-schools they attend, friends they play with, what they think about their parents’ work.

By providing these broad guidelines and setting a fifteen-minute limit per tape, the committee insured each video would be lively and fast moving. The committee requested that tapes be compatible with American equipment and sent money to each family (through its missions agency) to cover production costs.

“God worked in each situation to make the tapes possible,” reports Larry Hobbs, pastor of caring ministries. “Two families in remote areas ‘just happened’ to have someone there a the right time who could produce video tape. Another family made the tape on its own and did a very good job-not professional perhaps, but not hokey, either. The other missionaries do ‘tentmaking’ work in a video studio, so they had the equipment and expertise.”

Each night of the missions conference, the adults viewed one of the tapes on large-screen monitors and prayed for that family’s ministry. At the same time, preschool- and primary-aged children watched the children’s video.

“The tapes stripped away the missionary mystique to let us see real people living real lives,” Hobbs says. “We could see where they lived, where they worked, the people they ministered to. We could attach faces to names from their letters. We all found it easier to pray for people when we really knew who they were. Several people told me the tapes were the best part of the conference.”

The idea has grown to a year-round way to keep missionaries fresh in people’s minds. The committee not only shows the original four families’ videos in small groups throughout the year, but has asked other missionary families to make tapes. Each month it highlights one of these families by showing its video to adult Sunday school classes.

Christmas Program Covers by Children

The Sunday school department at Christ the King Lutheran Church, Southgate, Michigan, has added a creative twist to the annual Christmas program. Their simple idea involves all the students, saves money, and reinforces the message of the program to both students and parents.

“We were planning the annual Sunday school Christmas program about four or five years ago, and as usual, were trying to figure out how to involve every student,” says Robert D’Ambrosio, director of Christian education. “The planning committee hit on having the children individually illustrate the covers for the bulletin.”

They selected a theme and printed the covers-completely blank except for the name and address of the church and the date of the program.

On a Sunday late in November, the covers were distributed to the Sunday school teachers. They explained the theme to students and had each illustrate that theme on several blank covers, using crayons, colored pencils, paint, or ink. Pupils in the nursery and kindergarten classes colored a predrawn stencil. The teachers then used the bulletins as a pre-session activity on the successive Sundays before the program. Each child signed the covers he or she had illustrated.

The idea saved the congregation the expense of professionally-printed covers, but the real gain was with the students and the people who came to the Christmas program.

“Parents got together after the service to compare covers,” D’Ambrosio says. “They appreciated the personal touch, so they took the bulletins with them. Fewer were left in the pews or on the floor. Each student, by creating an original illustration, learned more about the program’s message. And the students received compliments on their artwork.”

Modern Swaddling Clothes

Christ Lutheran Church in Visalia, California, has over the years collected food, clothing, shoes, and school supplies for the poor of their community. Recently the church came up with an unusual, yet decidedly practical, way to help needy people.

“We were reading the Christmas story as a devotional before a meeting of our social concerns committee,” reports Pastor Paul Thomton. “Someone read, ‘She gave birth to her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths.’ That phrase brought to mind a project some of us had helped with the previous summer. We were distributing food in a migrant labor camp, and as we approached one home, a young mother ran to put a disposable diaper on her naked baby. The very poor, who often lack laundry facilities, depend on disposable diapers, yet have trouble affording them. This woman had been trying to conserve her limited supply. It occurred to us that disposable diapers are in some sense the swaddling cloths of our day.”

The church decided to collect disposable diapers during the month of December. Families were encouraged to buy disposable diapers and offer them in the name of the Christ child. Over 7,000 diapers were collected and turned over to Catholic Social Services, which distributed them to poorer families in the community throughout the year.

Says Thomton: “We have fed the hungry, visited prisoners, welcomed strangers. Collecting disposable diapers has been one way for us to begin to ‘clothe the naked.’ “

What’s Worked for You?

Each account of a local church doing something in a fresh, effective way earns up to $30. Send your description of a helpful ministry, method, or approach to:

Ideas That Work

LEADERSHIP

465 Gundersen Drive

Carol Stream, IL 60188