OK, so you really want to start one [Hooray! Good for you!], but have never done it before and/or you want some ideas on how to go about it.
Keep in mind that you do not need to be a spiritual giant or know much of the Bible to do this. All you need is PRAYER, a heart to have the meeting, and a belief that God is leading you to do this.
Here are some suggestions:
- Pray. Ask the Lord for wisdom and direction in this
- Decide WHERE and WHEN you can host a prayer meeting regularly. “Regularly” can mean daily, M-F during lunch hour, once a week, once every other week, etc. More frequently is better than less frequently. If it’s being held at a workplace where most or many have lunch at the same time each day, doing it during lunch hour can be ideal. Other possible locations are: In your home, at your church, in your school, or in your neighborhood (a public place like a community center, or someone else’s home). If meeting anywhere other than your home, get permission for the meeting from the person(s) in authority before starting, making sure they know the room you plan to use, and the start/stop time for the meeting. Find a place where there will not be a lot of noise and/or distractions
- Decide how long (in minutes/hours) the meeting will normally be. Shorter than 30min. is not recommended.
- Commit yourself to attend each meeting, even if you are the only one who comes. If/when that happens, stay and pray the whole time. Someone else may show up very late. Don’t give up if the numbers are small. Often, great revivals have started with just 2 faithful people praying regularly for a time. The meeting I started had only 2 members for the first 3 years.
- Promote the meeting. Putting an ad in a newsletter or talking about it on a social media site (like Facebook) can be very good, but don’t neglect telling others in your one-on-one interactions of daily life – either in person, or in text/phone/email messages.
- Establish good leadership. If you feel/believe you are not qualified to lead the meeting, pray for and seek one believer (or couple) who has a heart for prayer to join you and do the leading. You can still be the host. Keep in mind, no Christian needs to understand everything about prayer, or even be very good at it – we just need to PRAY! [so maybe God wants you to lead it]
- Perfection NOT required!
(for more help regarding starting/running a prayer meeting, contact me at admin@prayersforfreedom.org)