Prayer Methods and Approaches

A Great Commission Prayer Ministry becomes a reality as churches use various methods and training to accomplish their prayer ministry purposes. Use the following methods and approaches to aid in the building of your three-part Great Commission Prayer Ministry plan. 

• Lighthouses of Prayer—Homes where believers commit to pray for, care for, and share Christ with their neighbors. 

• Prayer Journeys—A comprehensive plan to involve the entire church body in on-site prayerwalks, drives, and so forth. Taking Prayer to the Streets: Prayer Journeys Resource Kit teaches how to use prayer field teams and support teams that help every person in the church pray for and share Jesus with every person in the community. Also see Follow Me: Lessons for Becoming a Prayer Walker for Bible study lessons. 

• Praying Your Friends to Christ/Evangelistic Prayer Training—An excellent way to teach Christians how to pray evangelistically. 

• Concerts of Prayer—Concentrated times of corporate and individual prayer. 

• Prayer revivals or retreats—Excellent opportunities to provide prayer training, focus, and inspiration for congregations. 

• Intercessory Prayer Room Ministry—Provide a place where individuals can come to the church and intercede for believers, unbelievers, evangelism/mission efforts, worship services, and community concerns. 

• Prayer Groups/Triplets—Women’s, men’s, youth, and children’s prayer groups provide great ways to encourage focused prayer for missions, evangelism efforts, revival, and so on. Women on Mission® prayer groups—ongoing groups that focus on personal prayer growth and concerted global missions praying. Visit www.womenonmission.com for more information and to visit the Women on Mission Prayer Room; Missions Mosaic magazine provides monthly plans for these groups. 

• Prayer Chains/Watchman Network—An excellent way to link believers in unified focused prayer for crisis times in a community. 

• Prayer Initiatives—Involve the church body in community, national, and international prayer efforts for evangelization and awakening. Participation in the National Day of Prayer is one way to do this. 

• Prayer Partners—Link believers in pairs throughout the congregation for accountability and inspiration in prayer. Visit www.praytimer.org/register to become a prayer partner with Strategic Focus cities across the United States. 

• Praying for missionaries—Visit www.imb.org/pray for daily prayer requests. E-mail glheidt@cs.com for Canadian prayer request e-mail. Also call 1 800 395-PRAY (7729) for current international prayer requests, 1 800 554-PRAY (7729) for current North American prayer requests and (604)585-PRAY for Canadian requests. Write to the IMB or NAMB for the Global and North American PrayerGrams and the WMU® for annual prayer guides for the North American and International Weeks of Prayer. IMB and NAMB missionaries are listed on their birthdays in these WMU magazines: Accent, Missions Mosaic, and Nuestra Tarea.