By Jonathan Graf

I’m often struck by something odd in the prayers of Old Testament intercessors. Many times, when faced with a difficult situation, when they went to prayer they didn’t pray much about the problem. Their focus was upward rather than outward.

We never see Nehemiah pray about the wall, Jeremiah only in passing mentions the Babylonian onslaught, and David often changes his attitude mid-pray. Why? In many of their prayers, they simply focused on who God was, what He had done in the past. As they did this, everything around them faded away into unimportance. God would be faithful as He always had been.

While they couldn’t articulate this, I am positive one of the primary reasons most people do not participate in all-church prayer meetings is because they do not sense a connection to God while there. They are bored with praying for needs and situations that they will never know the outcome of. At most prayer meetings the focus of the prayer is on circumstances not on God.

A number of churches today are finding that providing a more dynamic, God-focused prayer meeting will bring people. The Brooklyn Tabernacle has known this for years—it’s one of the reasons it draws 2,000 plus to its Tuesday night prayer meeting. Grace Church in Eden Prairie, MN, has just completed a year under its new pastor, Dr. Daniel Henderson—a man who lives and breathes the importance of corporate prayer. Their Sunday night “Fresh Encounter” prayer meeting, which focuses on worship and the attributes of God, is largely responsible for changing the entire atmosphere of the church. People are flocking to it—from area-wide churches, not just Grace—because they sense the presence of God there.

King of Kings Church in Manahawkin, NJ believes one of the reasons God is blessing it with life, is its vibrant, God-focused, Thursday night prayer meeting.

Of course you shouldn’t stop praying for needs in the life of the church. But find ways to do that so it doesn’t stay the focus of your corporate prayer meeting (if you have one). Find ways to encourage more people to pray through a list of needs (offered in the bulletin, or emailed to church members each week). Make sure small group praying for each other and prayer chains are functioning well. Offer a time for leaders and trained prayer teams to pray for people’s needs during a Sunday morning worship service. Positioning teams around the sanctuary at a set time in your musical worship part of the service works well; or at the end of the service.

Then change the focus of your prayer meeting! Weave worship—with songs that are all focused on exalting Jesus Christ or on God’s attributes—throughout the prayer meeting. Have set times of prayer in groups, but around a theme that a leader gives to the people—no prayer requests! Then, when you have had a few prayer meetings under your belts, try something bold to get people to come. Without warning people that it’s coming, turn one Sunday morning worship service into a God-focused, worship-based prayer meeting. At the end, tell people that they have just experienced the new format of our Wednesday (Thursday or whatever) night prayer meeting. If they want to keep meeting God in that way, come to the weekly prayer meeting.

For help on how to develop this kind of prayer meeting, purchase Henderson’s book, Fresh Encounters: Experiencing Transformation through United Worship-Based Prayer (NavPress 2004). You can purchase it through your local Christian bookstore or go to https://store.prayerleader.com to receive your CPLN discount.