Prayer Center and the Bible

The Internet can be a great companion in your spiritual journey. There are now many options for praying and finding spiritual inspiration with the aid of daily or weekly devotionals in your email or on the web. Below you will find a few options to explore!




ELCA Spiritual Center
For additional resources and information, please visit the ELCA's Spiritual Center. http://www.elca.org/spiritual.html 

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Note: some of this information is provided by the ELCA's web feed and is available as they provide it.

Daily Prayer

Prayer Ministry
"Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." (Luke 11:1c.)

Prayer Ministry is an intentional response to the powerful gift of prayer that God has given to the Church. Where there is no vision or plan regarding prayer, a church often responds to prayer requests through a prayer chain (that may or may not be effective at the present time) and views the pastor as the one hired to pray. By establishing Prayer Ministry as one of the ministry areas of your congregation (likened to your stewardship, evangelism, and worship ministries etc.), it gives a team of prayerful people the opportunity to intentionally seek God's will and advance the power of prayer in your congregation. The shape that any Prayer Ministry takes is going to be specific to that prayer team, the local community needs, and the openness of that congregation.

-- Adapted from “Growing Your Congregation’s Prayer Ministries: A Key to Strengthening Evangelism and Discipleship in Your Setting,” by Brent Dahlseng

Transforming Congregational Life Through Prayer

Here are some ideas - tried and true - for transforming your congregational life through prayer:

• Have the staff meetings move from brief devotions and mostly business to longer periods of time set aside to share faith and discussing what God is calling you to do in your ministry area.
   
• Move the treasurer's and secretary's reports to the end of the council meeting and spend more of the meeting in prayer, study and faith sharing.
   
• Encourage musicians who lead worship to move from a "gig" mentality into leading the congregation in the worship of our Lord. As they begin to be more open to worship God themselves, the congregation follows suit. Prayer at rehearsal and before worship is important. If you have a contemporary service, change the name from being a "band" to being a worship team. This reflects more than just a title change!
   
• Begin a group of 12 people to spend six months in a study on prayer. Out of this can come a real prayer team who commit themselves to pray for the ministry of the church and its community.
   
• Assist worship leaders to change from seeing Sunday morning as a time before worship to make appointments and socialize with people in the congregation, to gathering an hour ahead with the prayer team, for 45 wonderful minutes of prayer. This can open hearts and prepare for worship.
   
• Set aside a night each week for intercessory prayer. Invite the congregation to attend.
   
• Invite anyone desiring prayer to stay after worship and come to the front of the church where the pastor or one of the prayer team prays with them.
   
• Identify a space - a closet, garden, or intimate place - to be used as a prayer chapel where people can come any time and pray. Prayer requests may be kept there and prayed over by the prayer team at home or in the chapel.

There are hundreds of other ideas that congregations have used to lift up the importance of prayer in individual as well as congregational life. Be encouraged to be creative! Wrestle with the question of what you are doing to grow in your prayer life and how is your congregation advancing the call of Christ to make followers for Jesus.

(Adapted from "Growing Your Congregation's Prayer Ministries: A Key to Strengthening Evangelism and Discipleship in Your Setting" by Brent Dahlseng)