Having a fruitful prayer life is not just a pipe dream for those of us in student ministry. Even though our schedules are hectic, there are three ways that we can inject a healthy prayer rhythm into our ministry.
Unify – I firmly believe that there is power when believers are united in prayer.
This summer I’ve challenged our middle school team to pray for the same things all summer. At the beginning of the summer we came up with five spiritual goals for our students and three specific numbers-based goals to pray for. I challenged them to pray for these every day along with a Psalm that fits with our summer teaching. The result is that we are aligning ourselves with God every single day.
Keep a Record – The Book of Psalms is essentially a collection of recorded prayers. These prayers have become the foundation for Jewish and Christian prayers throughout the centuries. There is power to having a record of prayers. It allows you to go back and see where God was at work stirring your heart over the years. I don’t journal regularly, but I wanted to keep a record of my prayer life. So, I took some butcher paper from our children’s ministry and put it up on the back wall of my office. Whenever I am praying for a meeting or have someone to pray for, I jot down a quick prayer. It’s cool to see the record of what I’ve been praying for over the semester.
Pray-peration – Preparation is key to success in any area of ministry. We schedule many of our ministry activities way in advance, but do we take the time to prepare Spiritually? A few weeks back Johnny Derouen, Professor of Youth Ministry at Southwestern Seminary, challenged our staff to pray for each aspect of our gatherings. He wanted us to pray not only for the worship and message, but for the games, welcome and even pray over each individual seat. We’ve been doing this for a few weeks and the result is that we are aware that every part of our gathering has a Spiritual component. It’s helping us to see with fresh eyes how God can use everything for His work of drawing teenagers to Himself.
What about you? What is the single most effective prayer practice you do each week?
