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The Blessing of Praying Seniors |
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By Jonathan Graf
While as believers, we should all have some desire to pray, often our
prayer lives are affected by the various seasons of life. We pray more
when circumstances require it, or in seasons when we have a deeper
understanding of its importance. One of the general truths of most
churches is that the one group of people who likely pray the most are
its seniors.
Most church prayer meetings have a greater number of older believers
than younger ones. When I put on a prayer weekend in a church, in many
places more seniors will show up than any other age group. Why? Because
over the years of experience, a greater percentage of seniors than any
other group has learned the importance of prayer. They understand that
they cannot do things on their own; they need God to work.
The problem in many churches, however, is that they do not recognize
what a prayer force this group can become. Churches often ignore this
group’s ministry potential. Churches just try to keep them active and
busy with events and fellowship opportunities. Instead, they should
foster this group’s desire and ability to minister within a church
through intercession. The church that fuels seniors’ ability and
interest to pray, will be highly blessed spiritually . . . and with
unity. People who are actively praying for a ministry are far less
likely to be grumblers and complainers about that ministry!
Here are a few ideas on how to use seniors.
- Pastor, make seniors your personal prayer team. Provide them
with items to pray each month (at the least) and weekly is even better.
It doesn’t have to be a lot of items, but they should be meaningful and
specific. Having a handful of prayer needs related to your ministry and
family on a 5.5 x 8.5 sheet each week or every other week will suffice
(some items can even be repeated week after week).
- Develop
seniors into an army who will storm the gates on behalf of your church.
Organize them into teams who will pray while a church board meeting is
going on. Put them in teams to pray during the morning service. Ask
them to come in once a month or every other week to pray for the
spiritual life and health of your church. If you stress how important
that role is, and continue to encourage them in that ministry, they
will be blessed and will bless your church.
- Use them to
cover those time consuming every day needs. Most churches’ entire
ministry of corporate prayer revolves around praying the “make my life
better” personal needs of its members. While it is important for the
body life of a church to cover those things, seldom do church prayer
meetings focus beyond them. If you have a group willing to focus on
those things—like a seniors’ group—use it. That is a valuable ministry.
Not only does it focus prayer on something that needs to be covered, it
frees up time in other prayer meetings to focus on the kingdom things
in the life of your church.
A century ago, at age 26, Wilbur Chapman became the pastor of a famous
Presbyterian church (Bethany Street) in Philadelphia. His first Sunday
there an older gentleman came up to him and said, “You are much too
young to be the pastor of such a fine church as this.” Wilbur thought
he was a kook. But the man went on to say, “But I have determined to
pray for you. And I have a friend who will join me. Each week we are
going to pray that the Holy Ghost’s power falls on you when you step
into the pulpit to preach.” Wilbur reported that those two men soon
turned into 10 men, than 20, than 50, and eventually more than 200 men
would come each Sunday morning to pray for the Holy Spirit’s power to
anoint Chapman. Over the next three years, that church saw more than
1,100 people come to faith in Jesus Christ through its ministry. More
than 600 of them were men.
Your seniors can be a warring army if you encourage them to be!
--Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network. He is a popular speaker, and is available at
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The Praying Pastor 