By Jonathan Graf
What’s a prayer leader to do? There seem to be too many days of prayer: National Day of Prayer, Global Day of Prayer, International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, and Day of Prayer for Children at Risk. And those are just some of the events clamoring for our participation.
Then there are the initiatives—Seek God for the City, Praying through the 10/40 Window, 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World, 30 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World, PrayWorld. And what about the ongoing calls to prayer—First Friday, the Presidential Prayer Team, Hollywood Prayer Network—to say nothing of denominational prayer emphases your church should highlight?
A church can only focus on so much. As a prayer leader, how can you make choices about what you should participate in—and what you can forego?
Each church will be different in its needs, so my broad answer is that you need to genuinely seek God for His desires for your church. But let me suggest some guidelines that may help you discern what events your church should participate in.
1. Use the National Prayer Accord principles. The National Prayer Accord was originally devised by Jonathan Edwards and others prior to the First Great Awakening. Their thought was that each church would pray around the same basic theme of revival. But churches would also pray weekly or monthly in their own circles, quarterly with other churches in their community, and nationally once a year. A prayer rhythm focused this way is a pattern easily handled.
Make participation in the National Day of Prayer and/or the Global Day of Prayer as your once-a-year emphasis. Then look for three other times you can join with other churches in your community for a prayer event. Select a concert of prayer to highlight praying for your community, or choose some of the other days to participate together.
2. Select by tiers of importance. What seems to be a fit for the personality of your church? Is your church a strong missions church? Then you will want to use at least one missions focus. Does your church seem to have a strong heart for Israel? Then certainly highlight the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem.
3. Select by levels of effort. Another way to proceed is to choose at least one or two initiatives that take some effort to organize—and then add anything else that can be done with ease. For example, select a prayer initiative like Seek God for the City or one of many 40 Days of Prayer. These will take some promotional effort, but the rewards of participation are enormous for your church. A prayer initiative for your congregation will bring long-term results of more interest in prayer.
As a prayer leader, however, you can only handle one or maybe two prayer events per year that require this level of effort. But you can highlight other events throughout the year that do not take effort. For example, even if you can’t spearhead a National Day of Prayer event, you can certainly publicize other prayer gatherings in your community on that day. While you might not be able to do a big event around the Day of Prayer for Children at Risk, you can get information and prayer guides to people who might be interested in participating. And praying for Hollywood might not involve your entire church, but you can provide guides for those who have a burden for the entertainment industry.
4. What does your leadership want? Another possible plan of attack is to gather your pastor(s) and key leaders each fall and review all the possible prayer events you can participate in during the coming year. Before such a meeting, gather all the information you can on every possible day and be ready to make your recommendations. Talk as a group about each one, and together map out the year.
One possible starting point for gathering information is past issues of Prayer Connect magazine (or the website prayerconnect.net). Many of the possible prayer events in a calendar year are listed.
While there are a lot of possibilities, don’t be overwhelmed! Seek the Lord and plan ahead. Then watch what happens as you take advantage of these calls to prayer.
