As I train and coach leaders, many of the questions I receive focus on small group prayer. Several years ago, I was leading a group and tried something new. I had been studying what makes a small group “Christ-centered,” the first vital sign of a healthy small group (from my book, Small Group Vital Signs). One of the things I realized was that you can tell what Christ-centered practices a group has by how they pray.
“How can I get people in my group to pray out loud?”
“What can we do to go deeper in our prayer time?”
“How do I keep our group engaged during prayer time? We spend more time sharing requests and stories than actually praying!”
Does your group take prayer requests and then pray them back to God as if He isn’t present?
Do people give answers or fix?
These questions make it clear whose power the group members are most reliant on. If you know God is present with you and his power is with you when you meet, how would you pray differently than you do now?
How I filled our group prayer time more Christ-centered practices.
1. As we enter into our prayer time, I remind group members that as we meet together in Jesus’ name, he really is there with us.
2. I often remind them of Matthew 18:20 or 1 John 1:3, for instance. I read one of these verses and discuss the implications for our prayer time.
3. I remind the group that as we share our prayer requests with one another, God is listening, so we don’t need to repeat our prayer requests back to him as if he didn’t hear them the first time!
