You may be convinced that a prayer initiative is a great idea, but how do you choose one? Certainly, seek the Lord for His direction. Then I recommend purchasing a sample copy of what I consider to be the best four available. Check them out. Each offers a slightly different format, and will bring about different results.

My Recommendations

Seek God for the City is held each year 40 days prior to Palm Sunday. A new version comes out each year. Seek God’s strength is its Scripture based prayers. I know of no one better than Steve Hawthorne and Waymakers at providing powerful kingdom purposes to pray. You come away understanding the heart of God! You can get materials at www.waymakers.org. Seek God also has a children’s version, and a Spanish edition available.

40 Days of Prayer/Love to Pray! This one was the initiative used by CrossPoint Church in our lead article. Produced by Harvest Prayer Ministries, “40 Days of Prayer/Love to Pray!” by far has the most complete package to make an initiative successful. It offers a resource kit with suggestions for running an all-church initiative, plus provides a teaching dvd, study guides for small groups/Sunday school classes, and sermon outlines and suggestions. It also has a strong praying for the lost component. You can find this material at www.40daysofprayer.net or www.prayershop.org.

Ready for Revival and The Jabez Prayer Guide are two stand-alone initiatives developed by Pray! Books and Pray! magazine. Both, written by prayer leader Jacquie Tyre, are solid, scripture-based guides that move people toward deeper relationships with Christ. Many churches have been deeply touched by praying through them. While older, The Jabez Prayer Guide is still powerful and relevant. Its concepts are kingdom focused.

But of the two, Ready for Revival is my favorite. It opens people up to personal, church, and community revival. You can purchase them at www.prayershop.org.

I have seen each of these resources effectively used in churches. You may want to consider using one per year.

--Jonathan Graf