Are Prayer Leaders Their Own Worst Enemies?

By Jonathan Graf

I have recently been struck by the fact that those who are most passionate about something, often find it hard to help others get involved with what they are so passionate about. The same can be true for many of our network members. You are passionate about prayer. You want to see prayer grow in your church. You want to see a dynamic prayer meeting established in your church. But I wonder how many of us are our own worse enemies where prayer growth is concerned.

PrayerLeader OnLine interviews Bryan Chappell, the author of Praying Backwards

Q. Bryan, what did the Lord use to stir you to write a book on prayer? 
I have wanted to encourage believers to believe in the power of prayer without making God into a genie or their prayers into magic formulas. Disappointment in our prayers or distrust in our God will always result from thinking that by snapping our fingers or praying "just right" God jump to do precisely what our human wisdom determines. The Creator of the Universe is not waiting for us to tell Him how to run the world, but He is telling us how to turn to Him and trust His wisdom to make this world and eternity better than we can imagine through our prayers

Spiritual Revival and Children

By Kim Butts

A great many adults and churches today are praying for spiritual revival. While revival might be a complicated concept to teach children, the idea of spiritual hunger is not. One of the best things you can do for your church Children's spiritual development is to teach them to pray in a way that grows hunger for God. When God fills that hunger, that's revival! Here are some ideas:

Teach children to recognize quickly the presence of sin in their lives, confess it, and repent of it. It is rare in this day and age to find people who are willing to admit their sins, and a sensitivity to sin will be valuable to children as they grow. Children need to understand that nothing we do that saddens God and grieves the Holy Spirit is acceptable in His sight—even if it is a very small thing. Teach them that as soon as they recognize sin, they should confess it to God and repent. Then, be sure to help them learn confidence that the Lord's loving forgiveness and willingness will cleanse them: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1:9).

Praying for Missionaries . . . Biblically

By David Butts

The most effective prayer is one that comes directly from God's Word. When we see something in the Bible and know it to be God's will, then we are able to pray with greater faith. This especially applies to our prayer for missionaries. In the Bible, we find a number of prayer requests from the first great missionary, the Apostle Paul. Each of these requests should be included in our prayers for missionaries.

The In and Out Prayer Meeting

Does your church have multiple offerings for adults on the night your corporate prayer meeting is scheduled? Choir practice, worship team practice, kids programs, youth, adult Bible studies? Though it would be wonderful to not have anything that competes with prayer, here’s one church’s creative solution.

Westmont Alliance Church in Westmont, Illinois has a two-hour prayer meeting on Wednesday nights, running from 6:30 to 8:30. Other options are available from 7 to 8, such as a Bible study, worship practice, etc. The prayer time, however, is broken into six 20-minute segments, with each segment focusing on a different prayer topic. Some topics are the same each week, but some rotate through every several weeks. Topics include things such as: missions, pastors, spiritual health of church, the sick, community transformation, etc. While some people come for the entire time, the idea is to let people come in and out of the prayer meeting, showing up for the subjects they are most burdened to pray for. Other ministries that meet on Wednesdays give permission for a person to slip out of their meeting to go to a 20-minute prayer time.

PrayerLeader OnLine
March 2006
Vol. 3, No. 3

Introduction
Our annual convention is fast approaching. This year's event, once again partnering with Prayer Quake, is held June 14-16 in Mesa, Arizona. The last time we partnered with Prayer Quake, almost 1,400 people registered for the conference. It was a powerful time of meeting God! We hope many of you will be able to come. Try to bring some others with you! We know they will be blessed.

Check out the feature in the right hand column of this newsletter for more information.

Blessings
Jonathan Graf
President