Justification for a 36-Hour Prayer Vigil - Answering the Questions of Whether We Pray to Be Seen by Men and Whether Group Prayer is Better

Our church is in the midst of 36 hours of straight prayer.  We have created a prayer room for people to pray in.  We have rotations so the room is not empty and people have signed up for the slots they would like to fill.

One individual that I asked if they would sign up answered that they would not because they do not want to pray to be seen by men.  I knew this would be a view that some would have, but this person has been the only honest one to express it with me.

Before I get into my answer to that thought, let me express that the prayer event is going extraordinarily well.  People seem to be encountering God and are excited about it.  That was what it was designed for along with helping to transform our church and local community for the Lord.  God is in the prayer answering business; we are in the asking business.  God is always there; we just need to open our eyes to see Him.

So here is what I replied to the individual who expressed his concerns about praying to be seen by men.  He told me that he did not need to come to the room to pray.  I could just tell him what to pray for and he would pray for those things.

There are lists and prayer requests written all around the room, so it's not that easy.  I have no idea what other people have put up as prayer requests.  I made nearly 50 prayer requests and posted them.  Also, there is a prayer walk to pray around the church and many other things in the prayer room that are not replicable as only prayer requests. 

Also, biblically the church prayed together a lot.  There is nothing wrong with what we are doing as you imply.  I don't know anyone that signed up to be seen by men.  We're trying to bathe our church community and town community in prayer for 36 hours straight.  There is power in collective, unified prayer.  Power that this church hasn't seen because they have not done it.

As a local church, we haven't been a praying church, and prayer is one of the key elements of the early church as expressed in Acts 2:42.  This is an attempt to get that prayer fire started.  I'm glad you pray a lot on your own.  We need that.  We are attempting to develop an environment of corporate prayer because we need that too.  What we need to do as a church to reach this community for Jesus cannot be done by our own strength; it must have God and that starts with prayer. 

There is a place for group prayer and prayer events in a church.  When the Bible was talking about being "seen by men" in prayer it was talking about people who would make public displays of prayer with the intention of the prayer being seen by men, not prayer influencing God.  In this case, people are praying alone in a room.  No public display there.

How would we balance the examples of group prayer with avoiding being seen by men?  We could go so far to avoid being seen by men that we would never have any corporate or group prayers.

You don't need to feel forced to do it.  I just wanted to give you the opportunity in case you missed it.  If you change your mind, you can still sign up.  You can sign up anonymously so nobody will know it's you if you are uncomfortable with people knowing you signed up.

He then replied that what we are doing is not group prayer.  It's just people praying one at a time at the building.  I replied: 

You will need to ask those who experienced the room and ask them if it was a worthwhile experience.

Would it be better for two or more to gather together and pray? It would be good, but you would have to ask the people who participated if it would be better. I think both have their place and serve different purposes. Unfortunately, our last group prayer meeting that we attempted ended with just me and one other person's wife showing up on the fourth week of it. It ended there because I am not going to spend an hour in prayer with another person's wife without their husband there. About four months before that, the group prayer meeting ended with only one other person besides Lindsay and me showing up. It's my duty as a minister to try to create something that will remedy this problem because giving lessons about it, reading books about it, and preaching about it has not been working.

There really hasn't been a desire in our church for group prayer, and the group prayer is usually boring. That was part of the motive behind the prayer room. It is nearly group prayer. When people read through the praises and requests people have written on the walls, whether it is group prayer or not, it is a real unifying and uplifiting experience. I hope people catch an excitement for prayer because our church's success depends on an excitement and passion for prayer being among us. Most people don't spend an hour in prayer and this encouraged them to encounter God in a way they have not before or do not regularly. I hope the experience helps their prayer life flourish and become more passionate.

It's my responsibility to create programs and ministries to help people in this church grow. As I sit here in the church during the last hour that someone is in that room and evaluate the comments people have made to me as a result of their experience in that room, I would have to say it was successful. There are things I will tweak to make it better next time, but it served the purpose of helping people encounter God and fostered a passion in prayer.

So we can disagree on whether it was done to be seen by men or whether it is as useful as group prayer. To me, those are irrelevant discussions because I saw people who had encountered God, felt His love, and have a growing passion for Him. To me, that is what I do all this for.

The second part of our mission statement is that we would share the passions of Jesus. I think this program helped people to grow in that. That's why it was done. It could have completely failed. I was concerned about that, but on this side of it, I am thankful.

It is my hope that God would spur in everyone's hearts a passion for Him during this time.  I want them to feel His calling on their life, the peace He has for them, and the joy of His presence.  I want to be a praying church.  It does appear to be working.  May God continue to bless this endeavor.

Bringing Back the "Out-of-Style" Prayer Meeting - How to Improve Group Prayer Meetings

One of the things I hope to reintroduce in August at our church is the Midweek Prayer Meeting. 

Here are some of the links I found useful in my research along with excerpts. 

Whatever Happened to the Weekly Prayer Meeting? by George Verwer

Samuel Chadwick, one of God’s great men of past years, taught that Satan’s greatest aim is to destroy our prayer lives. Satan is not afraid of prayerless study, prayerless work or prayerless religion – but he will tremble when we pray. If Chadwick was correct (and many other great men of God have said similar things), then we have a problem. If there is any part of our church life that seems to be in trouble, it is the prayer meeting. IN fact, in an increasing number of churches, for all practical purposes, there is no such meeting at all. 

The lack and neglect of such meetings is, I believe, one of the greatest mistakes in our Bible-believing churches, and such deception by Satan represents a far greater enemy than liberal theology or the cults. In fact, a clear study of 2 Corinthians 10:4-7 would show us that prayer is the principal means through which we are going to stand against the enemy whatever way he might attack us. We seem to be blind to the nature of spiritual warfare and feel that as long as we have a full Sunday school and good numbers on Sunday morning then all is well. Could it be true that if the Holy Spirit left us, very few changes would be made? Would everything go on as usual?

Prayer is one of our main weapons and faith is closely linked with it.  We must not expect it to be easy. Satan will counter-attack any efforts made towards effective prayer. We must refuse any form of discouragement and press forward whatever the cost.

Conversational Prayer Meetings (download only) by William Lantz

When children line up in front of a department store Santa Claus, each has his turn to talk to Santa.  But even though a group of children may be gathered around, what takes place is merely a series of individual communications.  To me this line-up of children seems analogous to the kind of prayer which is called group prayer, but which actually is a series of individual prayers to which others in the room are allowed to listen.  In such a situation there is no real group activity.

I have come to believe that group activity is important to prayer.  Group prayer should be like a time when the children of a family talk something over with their father.  At such a time the procedure is something like this: the children with their father may discuss plans to go to the zoo.  Each one who cares to (including the father) makes a comment or two about this.  Then the conversation may turn to household chores, then the matter of swings for the backyard, then the children’s school activities, and so on to other topics.

Conversational group prayer doesn’t consist of orations but of phrases or sentences from various individuals on one topic until the topic is covered.  Ordinarily it is rude in group conversation to make a statement about a topic and then go on to something else without giving others a chance to say anything.  On the other hand it would be rude to interrupt a speaker or orator to comment on one of his topics, no matter how many subsequent topics he might also discuss before he finished.

    Thus the “rule” for conversational group prayer is this: limit your prayer to one topic at a time.  It may take just a phrase to express it, or a sentence, or two or three sentences – but just one thought.  It could be some bit of adoration, perhaps a thought of thanksgiving, maybe a note of confession, petition, or intercession – but just one idea.

    Then wait and let others add something on that topic.  Perhaps someone else’s addition will remind you of another aspect of that topic for which you would like to pray.

    Then when it seems that everyone has finished on a topic, you or anyone else may introduce a new one.  You may pray many times during the meeting but only a single thought each time.  The prayer meeting thus proceeds topic by topic.  (Incidentally, the same topic could again be introduced later if some important neglected aspect comes to mind.)

In summary, the two rules for conversational group prayer are these: (1) Pray one thought at a time, allowing someone else a chance to add anything he wishes on that topic; (2) Proceed topically, not leaving a topic until everyone who wishes has had a chance to pray something about it.

Tuning Up a Boring Prayer Meeting by Dave Ruark

Can you imagine how weird life would be if all your conversations were like most prayer meetings? You’d be at a party, maybe standing in a circle with friends, and one person would talk constantly for five or ten minutes, hardly taking a breath, covering six or seven topics. Finally that person would finish, and the next person would start saying basically the same thing for five or ten minutes. Maybe the next person would squeeze the person’s hand next to them to let them know they weren’t going to say anything, but then the fourth person jumps in for their five minutes on those same topics, and so on around the circle. How boring would that be? Would you chose to stay in that conversation or would you excuse yourself to go get some more food or drink and find someone else to talk to? This is why it’s so hard to get people to come to pray corporately.

Here are the ground rules for having conversational prayer (they would also work as good ground rules for having a conversation at a party):

1. Stick with one thought at a time, allowing someone else to add to that topic before proceeding. I call this “paragraph” prayer.
2. Proceed topically, not leaving a topic until everyone who wishes to contribute has had a chance to pray something about it.

If you follow these rules you will be amazed at the difference you will have in your times of corporate prayer (and it may really help your social life too).

Ruark lists 6 good results of Conversational Prayer.  He goes on to describe them in more detail.

1. It shows love and respect for others present.
2. It's considerate of attention span.
3. There is no need to have all of your thoughts organized.
4. There is less self-consciousness.
5. It can be deep and real.
6. Conversation prayer cuts down on the amount of unplanned silence in a prayer.

Prayer Meetings by Charles Spurgeon

He provides a great list of hindrances to the prayer meeting.  He goes into details on each one.

1. Unholiness
2. Discord
3. Hypocrisy
4. Long prayers
5. Little sermons in our prayers
6. Lack of being direct with our prayers.
7. Lack of real intensity in our prayers.
8. Lack of faith.
9. Inconsistency in our prayers.

It is of no use for me to preach to the people, my dear Christian brothers and sisters, unless you pray for them. It is of no use holding special services for the quickening of the spiritually dead unless the Holy Spirit is brought to them by our prayers. It may be that you who pray have more to do with the blessed results than we who preach.

I think I have told you of the old story of the preacher who had been very successful in his preaching, but a message came from heaven to him that it would not have been so if it had not been for the prayers of an old deaf brother preacher, who sat on the pulpit stairs and pleaded with God for the conversion of the listeners. It may be true. We may appear to the eyes of men to have the credit of success, but all the while the real honor may belong to someone else, and I do certainly myself always ascribe the conversions brought about in this church to the prayers of God’s people. Let it always be so ascribed, and let God have all the glory in it. But do pray for conversions. Never give up praying for your unconverted wife or husband! Never cease to pray for your unconverted children. Never let the devil tempt you to be silent concerning your ungodly neighbors, but day and night, in the house and on the road, lift up your hearts to God in real prayer, and say to him, “Oh! that Ishmael might live before you!” He has given us his pledge that he will answer: believe it, and you shall see it, and you shall have the joy of it while He shall have the glory. Amen

Primitive Prayer Meeting by Charles Finney.  This is a great message.

The fact is, brethren, our modern prayer-meetings are too cold and too constrained. Christians are not earnest in prayer. Their souls cannot become deeply burdened and earnestly agonized in supplication; they do not thirst enough for spiritual blessings, and have not the deep communion with God which is requisite for prevailing prayer. You know what a burden is felt in a prayer-meeting when the heart is thoroughly broken; when pride is abased, the soul humbled, and the entire energies are drawn out in earnest supplication. But there are few such meetings for prayer now. There is a lack of sustaining unanimity. It is a law of mind that union of heart sustains the interest and power of prayer. Did you never observe how you can sustain another in prayer, if you enter deeply into his sympathies? You uphold his faith and his fervor.

There is a wide difference between that and a meeting in which the heart has free scope, and the Spirit of God is not straitened, but ranges with free scope and melting power. I have seen prayer-meetings in which manifestly the whole congregation went forth before God in mighty prayer. Some of you have seen such prayer. The hearts of the people were moved as the trees of the forest before a mighty rushing wind.--Words seem as if frightened with irrepressible emotion. You can see that God is there. Everyone feels it. An awe of the Holy Presence pervades each heart. And yet they are not afraid, but are drawn into sweet confidence and most earnest pleading. Literally they seem to pour out their hearts before him. This is true prayer, and meets the idea of social praying. It is a union of hearts before God's mercy-seat, the Spirit coming down to make intercession with their spirit with groanings that cannot be uttered. Every prayer-meeting should bear this character, modified only according to the type of those circumstances that call for prayer.

 

The Vital Place of the Prayer Meeting by Erroll Hulse

One of the results of the revival in Korea is the multiplication of daily early morning prayer meetings. I questioned a Korean pastor recently and he assured me that daily early morning prayer meetings (5am in summer and 6am in winter) are part of the lifestyle of evangelical Christians of all denominations. Are these Koreans more angels than men?! Yet Bob Sheehan told me that as a boy he was impressed by the devotion of his father, a working man who laboured from 7am to 7pm daily, yet attended without fail a prayer meeting at 6am on his way to work!