By Jacquie Tyre

“Hear ye! Hear ye! Starting next month City Community Church will embark upon a new and exciting ministry. Prepare now to be a part and see the blessings of God pour out through this new work!”

“Prepare now . . . ?” How do I do that?

Does this scenario sound familiar to you? Whether you are a pastor, lay leader, or member of a congregation, opportunities for church-wide involvement come along almost weekly. We usually think of roles like teaching, serving, greeting, gathering or preparing supplies, contacting people, set-up, or clean-up as ways to be involved. But what about mobilizing people to pray before, during, and after the event?

Such moments within church life are optimum times to initiate a new emphasis on prayer. Whether it’s an outreach event, a new ministry focus, a stewardship campaign, a sermon series, or a citywide call for evangelism, this can be an opportunity to engage your congregation in purposeful, strategic prayer. How? By developing or using an existing all-church prayer initiative.

What’s an all-church prayer initiative? It is a plan where an entire congregation (or multiple congregations in a city or nation) are all praying on the same theme for a set period of time (often one week, a month, or 40 days, though it can be any length of time that suits your church). Prayer guides are developed to provide content for a congregation to pray together. Praying through the Window and Pray! World are two initiatives that may be familiar to you. The most popular prayer initiative available today is Seek God for the City, which runs 40 days prior to Palm Sunday each year.

Why hold a prayer initiative? Aside from the tremendous blessing of God that is released when the body prays together, prayer initiatives provide a number of benefits to a congregation. First, they bring a sense of unity in purpose. Second, they will have a long-range effect on the corporate prayer life of your church. Each time an initiative is held, a number of your people will get excited about prayer and will continue to participate in prayer opportunities after the initiative is over. You will see your ongoing prayer ministries grow following an initiative.

How do you do an initiative? It’s not difficult! All you need is a focus, a person who is willing to pray and listen for the Holy Spirit’s direction and communicate it to the congregation, and a pastor who will encourage and support the initiative.

Our Story

A few years ago, our church began a stewardship campaign to raise funds to construct a new sanctuary, fellowship hall, and education space. Our goal was to have 25 percent of the total cost in hand before beginning construction. Wisely, the stewardship committee told us that our prayers for the project would provide the foundation for success.

Teams were set up to oversee the various aspects of the campaign, including hospitality, printing, information meetings, publicity, and prayer. The prayer team set to work to develop and distribute a stewardship prayer focus that would match the campaign theme, “Growing Up Together . . . In Step with God.”

For several weeks, the weekly church bulletin included a prayer focus insert with an introductory teaching, Scripture, application, and prayer point for each day. We also listed specific prayer requests related to the overall project. Our primary emphasis was not on raising money, but on growing in grace and maturity as people of God. We asked Him to prepare our hearts to obey the Holy Spirit’s leading when the time came to make our pledges of finances and service.

The stewardship campaign concluded successfully, with a higher than expected percentage of participation. Actual giving exceeded the pledges made! But perhaps more important was that our people grew in prayer, both personally and corporately, and we took steps to “grow up together . . . in step with God.”

Throughout this time, our pastor and church leaders used parts of the prayer initiative in a variety of ways: for the pastoral prayer, during corporate prayer times, in announcements, and testifying answers to prayer. During this prayer initiative, we found that corporate prayer agreement increased within the congregation. As we followed the prayer emphasis for the week in our personal prayer times, the Holy Spirit wove a beautiful tapestry of insight, revelation, and understanding when we came together for prayer.

How to Begin

A number of prayer guides are available to help you mobilize people to pray. However, developing your own program that focuses on the needs of your congregation often provides the relevance that sparks prayer. Here are some action steps for developing a prayer-mobilizing initiative for your congregation. While an individual can do this alone, working with a team has tremendous benefits. If you are working alone, make sure you seek out people who will honestly critique what you are developing during the process.

1. Pray. Seek the Lord’s timing, wisdom, and favor on what to do. Then proceed with faith and assurance that He loves to hear His people praying.
2. Contact your pastor, or the designated prayer leader, and discuss the idea. Any church-wide prayer initiative must have the approval and participation of the church leadership to be a success. Without it, the core pray-ers will engage, but the majority will not be mobilized effectively.
3. Choose an emphasis. For your first effort, consider something that has broad appeal or impact. Big events like vacation Bible school, backyard clubs, youth missions trips, or outreach events are great starters. Seasons of the year also work well (begin an initiative in January, before Easter, or Christmas). Or develop an initiative around a sermon series. As your pastor preaches through Ephesians, for example, an initiative that has your congregation praying through Ephesians at the same time would be a powerful experience.
4. Decide how long the initiative should last. One week is probably too short, and more than three months, too long. We have found that four to six weeks works well.
5. Choose a biblical theme or key Scripture. As much as you can develop your prayer initiative around Scripture, the more long-term benefits your congregation will reap. Learning to pray Scripture will not only mobilize prayer, but will foster prayer discipleship and understanding.
6. Pray over the theme or Scripture that’s chosen. As you pray, the Holy Spirit will release insight and direction for how to communicate the initiative.
7. Start writing the initiative, seeking the Lord’s guidance. The first words are the toughest to write every time. The more you write, the easier the words will flow. Remember, you are simply defining a place of initiation to get people praying—you are not providing all they will pray.
8. Submit your work to the appropriate church leaders well in advance of your deadline for publishing. Allow plenty of time to accommodate busy staff, last-minute corrections, and printing.
9. Pray as the finished project is released to the congregation. Pray that the Holy Spirit will take the initiative and multiply His purposes among the people, for His glory and the advancement of His kingdom.
10. Take advantage of the heightened interest in prayer. Once a specific prayer initiative concludes, it is sometimes a struggle to keep people engaged. We found that continuing to provide intentional opportunities for prayer (in small groups and for the entire congregation), as well as encouragement and reminders, keep the fires burning. Use this opportunity to remind people of the ongoing prayer opportunities your church has. Highlight each one during the last Sunday morning service of the initiative, or the Sunday just following.

Prayer initiatives can launch your congregation into an experience of joy in God’s house. I have seen a number of churches whose prayer foundation was greatly increased due to an initiative. Start seeking God today to see if He might have something special for your congregation, through a prayer initiative.

About the Author

Jacquie Tyre is the prayer coordinator at Lilburn Alliance Church in Metro Atlanta and the Georgia State Coordinator for the Strategic Prayer Network. She regularly produces initiatives for her church and for Unite Atlanta, a ministry that brings Atlanta-area churches together for prayer. Her prayer initiatives, Ready for Revival: A 40-Day Heart Journey Toward the Fullness of Christ and The Jabez Prayer Guide  (Pray! Books) have been used by thousands.