We held a prayer workshop at our church on Saturday.
Like many, our church has a variety of issues and the Board of Education felt a morning of prayer could help.
We learned a lot about prayer, prayed, and left after three hours feeling like we had accomplished something.
What did we cover?
Prayer workshop: Individual prayer
We spent the first half-hour, 9-9:30, reviewing what prayer is.
Using the PRAY acronym, one of our Sunday school teachers explained how he taught his students to pray.
He’s taught children ages 7-10 for twenty-five years.
The rest of his outline:
- Pray Without Ceasing – 1 Thessalonians 5:17
- Praying versus “Talking at God”· T
- The Spirit of God will bring these things to remembrance – John 14:26
- Prayer is through the Spirit (Spirit – Soul – Body). The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing soul from spirit – Hebrews 4:12
- God gives you the desires of your heart – Psalm 37:4
- With man it is impossible, with God all things are possible – Matthew 19:26
- We don’t pray as we ought – Romans 8:26·
- God gets the glory – John 11:40
A prayer workshop without prayer?
Of course not.
On the half-hour of the three-hour workshop, we broke to put into practice what we’d been taught.
From 9:30-9:55 (providing five minutes to return), we took our notes from the first teaching and prayed about our own life.
Some used the PRAY acronym, others used the ACTS acronym.
We also handed out a list of the “26 attributes of God,” in case we couldn’t think of anything to praise God about!
Living with prayer and requests
Two members of the Board of Education split the 10-10:30 section.
The first speaker, me, talked about Adventures in Prayer and the need for honesty.
As I’ve written many posts about prayer, please see the list here and choose your subject!
Our church sends prayer needs through email as people request them.
Our board head felt concerned about the need to preserve privacy better–to encourage others to ask for prayer.
She taught a 15-minute prayer workshop on how to write a request.
She then broke us into groups and gave us a prayer request to rewrite for more privacy.
The exercise was helpful to participants–enabling them to see how to frame a request and maintain anonymity for the subjects.
We then all wrote a personal request.
Praying with another
We spent the second prayer time with one other person.
We shared our prayer request with that person and prayed together.
Twenty-five minutes can be a long time to pray–particularly with someone you don’t know well. Several people brought Bibles (from the library shelf) and shared Scripture.
I prayed with someone from my Bible study. In addition to our written request, we prayed for friends we knew.
Because there’s confidentiality when friends pray together, we also shared other personal concerns.
My prayer partner moved away several months ago; this time was refreshing for me.
Corporate prayer
After individual, then shared prayer, we moved into corporate prayer.
Our Lutheran Church has put out a “call” for a new pastor. This subject is of great concern to many.
The pastor took this half-hour portion and worked through a specific list of things to pray about as a church body.
For other churches not seeking a new pastor, this section of the prayer workshop would incorporate other “group” needs.
Using Bible passages, he explained how and why we should pray a specific way.
At 11:30, our group shared “popcorn prayers.”
Here’s the definition:
A format of group prayer in which people pray aloud by taking turns in no particular order.
1996 Lutheran Woman Today vols. 9–10 3: It’s called a popcorn prayer because it seems to pop from one side of the circle to the other, and the effect is like that of com popping on the stove.
Of all corporate prayers, this has been for us the most participatory, and often the most joyful!
Dictionary of Christianese
We finished with an amen!
Putting together a prayer workshop
Our churches have different needs, but prayer is at the heart of Christian ministry.
While our church has an email prayer list and a small group gathers the last Sunday of the month, we hadn’t had a real call to pray together like this in a long time.
Certainly, our many Bible studies pray together.
Friends pray for each other all the time.
But something about reviewing the ways and means, and practicing, made this morning special.
Why not have a teaching/praying time yourself?
Tweetables
How to set up and run a prayer workshop. Click to Tweet
Personal, shared and corporate prayer: a how-to. Click to Tweet
People want to pray for me,
and I’m not quite certain why.
Sure, the physical is misery,
but I’m not afraid to die.
I treasure every moment
as if it were the final one
and in this I am content
and feel my joy has just begun,
for in truth, cancer freed my soul
from the mill-wheel striving path
that led to a chimeric goal,
one at which, today, I laugh.
If you care to, please do pray,
but know, dear friends – I am OK.