9 Helps for a Successful Prayer Meeting

As Reformed and Presbyterian Christians, we believe in prayer. We may not be as good at it as we want to be, but every true believer will yearn to spend time with the Lord. This is true of private prayer, but it it’s also true of corporate prayer.

The early church is a good example of this. On the day of Pentecost, we see the church “with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14-15). Later on, we see them praying again, this time in the face of persecution: “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Thus, we are not surprised to find out that corporate prayer was one of the distinctives of the early disciples: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).

Although corporate prayer has always been an important element of the church, it is no secret that many of our prayer meetings are boring, dry, and slow. It is also no secret that they are typically very poorly attended. We can’t help the latter, but we can certainly do something about the former. And who knows, maybe implementing a few tips or rules just might help the attendance factor.

Below are nine helps that have guided our prayer meetings for the last several years, with more or less “success.” I use the word success loosely, knowing that ultimately the Holy Spirit must bless our meetings with His presence if we are to truly call it a success. After all, we aren’t just lobbing up words into the void in order to check a box. The purpose of corporate prayer is to meet with God as His people. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t use a little sanctified common sense when approaching such meetings. If you find these helps useful, great. Use them as you wish. If they’re not helpful, that’s okay too. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to such meetings, so long as we are doing it. But these pointers have come from both experience (good and bad) and my personal study of the subject.

1. Begin with a short devotional or prompt from Scripture to get people's minds on prayer. Keep it short. Keep it from turning into a group discussion. The aim is to warm the heart and get the group focused.
2. No set order. Pray as you’re led.
3. No prayer requests. Instead, pray them. The only reason for prayer requests in the first place is so the thing can be prayed for, so why not just pray for it? The alternative is sheer redundancy & takes up time that could be spent praying.
4. One petition at a time. If you have several things to pray for, there’ll be a chance to jump in again. This keeps things moving.
5. Brevity. No 20 minute prayers. Let someone else pray, then go again. Again, this keeps things moving.
6. Ideally, keep the focus on things related to the church and its mission, not your grandma, your pet, or other personal items. Exceptions can be made for unusual circumstances.
7. Close on time. If your stated prayer meeting is from 5-6, end at 6. If you feel led to extend it, let people know they are free to leave if they need to, but you'll be around to pray some more.
8. Remind the folks that extended silence is nothing to be afraid of. Tell them not to freak out if it gets quiet. Just wait until someone starts praying again, unless the stated time has come to end.
9. Make it a priority to be there. This is the most important meeting in the church, but most of the time they are poorly attended. You might find yourself being the only one there, but so be it. When people see that no matter what, someone's going to be there praying, they'll start to trickle in. We'll know revival has come when the prayer meetings are filled up. In the meantime, you be there.

It's important to remember that every prayer meeting will look differently, and that the different temperaments, gifts, spiritual fervency, and even circumstances will make certain that every prayer meeting is different than the previous one. For some prayer meetings, you may want to set forth specific topics for people to focus on while praying. We have handed out sheets with different examples of things to pray for, such as missions, our pastors, our governing authorities, our city, and our lost neighbors. Usually, we have our elders lead the devotion, or someone who is under care or apprenticing. This is a great way to get some experience leading a group and expounding a short piece of Scripture. These are just some ideas.

It is difficult to navigate the balance between “Spirit-led” spontaneity and orderly structure. Ultimately, the most important thing is that we are gathering regularly as God’s people to seek His face, ask His blessing, and thank Him for the manifold gifts He has given to us as a church. A right view of God assisted by the Holy Spirit will lead to warm, joyful, and vibrant practice, which includes regular evangelism, a commitment to world and domestic missions, church planting, and vibrant prayer meetings. May the God of Revivals grant us an overpowering gift of the Spirit as we come together as churches to lift our praises and petitions to the Lord.

Rev. Ryan Denton is the organizing pastor of Lubbock Reformed Church and an author of several articles and books.