Prayer Ministry Ideas
The following prayer ministry ideas are presented as a springboard for creativity. Many other ideas for prayer ministry have been used successfully and God has many more wonderful, creative ideas that we have yet to use! Take these ideas to God in prayer and ask for His guidance on where to start and what ideas will work best in your church and culture. Then prayerfully choose one or two to begin with and make sure those are running smoothly before adding new ministries.
Prayer Ministry Ideas Download
Prayer Ministries Within the Church
1. Pastoral Prayer Hedge: Develop a prayer hedge around your pastor (and other church leaders) by getting people to commit to praying for them regularly. You could also have a group that meets to pray with/for your pastor on a consistent basis.
2. Prayer List for Special Needs: Start a prayer request and answer book for your church. This could also be done in an online format that people could access on your church website or via a prayer app (see suggestions below).
3. Secret Prayer Partners: Have people fill out a card with their name and prayer requests. Then give the cards to others who are committed to praying for them for a specified period of time. Have a celebration at the end of the time period to reveal the secret prayer partners.
4. Prayer Partners: Encourage the members of your church to find a prayer partner and pray together on a regular basis. This can be set up more formally if you want to keep track of all partner pairs and make sure everyone has a partner. Another variation of this is one-way partnerships in which someone (like an older person) promises to pray for a specific person (like a teenager) for a specified period of time.
5. Prayer Chain: Develop a prayer chain for your church. Prayer requests could be shared via telephone, texts, a WhatsApp group, or something similar. The Echo Prayer app is set up to facilitate group prayer chains.
6. Prayer Room: Set up a prayer room in your church where people can have a quiet space to pray alone or with others. This room can also function as the hub for organizing the prayer ministry. Post this Welcome to the Prayer Room and Prayer Room Etiquette signs to help people honor the room’s purpose.
7. Prayer Request Cards: Place cards in the pews on which people can write down their prayer requests and praises. These can be turned in during the congregational prayer or at the end of the service.
8. Congregational Prayer: Develop a time during the church service when people can share prayer requests and praises. This could also be a time for a short teaching on prayer.
9. Prayer Meeting: A real prayer meeting—where most of the time is spent in prayer—is a huge blessing in a church. Set aside a time each week to meet together for focused, intentional united prayer. For ideas on how to pray together, read the Praying for Rain, Mini-Handbook on United Prayer.
10. Prayer Calendar: Create a calendar with prayer requests filled in for each day of the month. Categories that could be included: specific individuals or families, events that will take place during the month, ministries of the church, and prayer topics such as missions and revival.
11. Prayer Apps: There are a number of prayer apps available that can be helpful for connecting people in prayer. Some options include:
- Prayer Notebook App - A simple app for keeping track of your prayer requests and how God answers.
- Echo Prayer App - A more robust app that helps you keep track of prayer requests and answers to prayer. An inexpensive paid membership allows the set up of groups and prayer feeds that can be shared with the church family or on social media.
- WhatsApp and Signal: Though not specifically designed for prayer, these free apps are great for groups. All messages are safely encrypted.
- WePray - The SDA church’s online prayer room where people can share their prayer requests and pray for others.
12. Prayer Groups: If you have a larger church, consider having multiple groups, each with its own specific focus for prayer. These Prayer Group Suggestions are helpful in establishing a group. Potential prayer groups include:
- Prayer support groups: These can be organized in various groups—-women, singles, men, moms, couples, retirees, youth, etc. Establish a group leader for each group and encourage groups to spend time significant time praying together.
- Prayer for World Missions: Establish a group dedicated to praying for the expansion of the Gospel around the world. You can utilize one of the following resources to connect with mission prayer requests:
- SDA Church World Prayer Requests is updated weekly.
- Global Christian Relief connect with persecuted Christians around the world and pray for them.
- Operation World offers a daily prayer focus highlighting a specific nation of the world.
- Joshua Project highlights the unreached people groups of the world with a daily prayer focus and request.
13. Intercessory Prayer Ministry: Organize people who are committed to engaging earnestly in the ministry of intercession—both for the church membership and for the community at large. Setting up a regular time for people to meet to pray together can be helpful. Share these Pointers for Intercessory Prayer with your intercessors.
14. Senior Intercessors: The older people in the church often have much wisdom and experience in prayer AND more time to spend in prayer than younger people. Connect them with your prayer ministry and show them that they still have an important part to play in the ministry of the church.
15. Prayer Goals: Prayerfully select prayer goals for your church to pray over each month/quarter/year. These could include the following:
- Unity in mission and purpose (John 17:20, 21)
- Authentic community and fellowship among us (Acts 1:13,14; 1 Peter 4:8-10)
- Wholeness and healing in our families, homes, and church (Colossians 3:12-15)
- The indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:17-21; Acts 2:1-3)
- A closer walk with Jesus (John 8:12; Luke 9:23)
- Preparation for the Second Coming (John 14:1-3; Revelation 22:12, 20)
- Spiritual interests in our community (Zechariah 8:23)
- Workers for our church ministries (Matthew 9:38)
Prayer Events
Prayer events are wonderful ways to draw people together and highlight prayer in your church and community. Ask for God’s guidance on what events to plan. There are numerous things you can do, so make sure you are taking time to find out what God’s plans are for your church and community. This Prayer Event Planning Checklist can be helpful for planning.
1. Quarterly Day of Prayer and Fasting: Participate in the quarterly days of prayer and fasting hosted by the General Conference Revival and Reformation Committee. Materials and suggestions available at: www.RevivalandReformation.org
2. Prayer Retreat / Seminar: Plan a prayer retreat/seminar for your church. This can be as simple or elaborate as you like, but remember that there are two primary goals for a prayer retreat: 1) Provide time to group and private prayer, and 2) Inspire people to pray more through Biblical preaching on prayer.
3. Prayer Breakfast: Have an early morning prayer session followed by breakfast and fellowship. Members love this. Consider doing a men’s prayer breakfast in cooperation with men’s ministry and and a women’s prayer breakfast with women’s ministry.
4. Prayer Potluck: A simple after-church potluck followed by a time of united prayer can be an effective way to allow those who cannot meet during the week for prayer to be involved in the prayer ministry.
5. Night of Prayer: Most effective on Friday nights because of the Sabbath atmosphere. Encourage members to take a nap before coming to the service, which could begin at 9:30 on Friday night and end on Sabbath morning around 9:00.
6. Ten Days of Prayer: Join Seventh-day Adventists around the world in ten days of earnest prayer at the beginning of each year. Materials and prayer guides are available at www.tendaysofprayer.org.
7. Personal Prayer Retreats: Spending a day alone with God in prayer and Bible study is a transformative experience. Take a personal prayer retreat yourself and encourage others to do the same. You might just be surprised at what God does in the church through these personal prayer retreats.
8. Forty Days of Prayer: Jesus spent 40 days in prayer in preparation for His public ministry. Moses and Elijah both spent 40 days in prayer. Why not spend 40 days in special prayer with your church family? The 40 Days of Prayer books from Dennis Smith provide wonderful guidance for prayer.
9. Week of Prayer: Dedicate a week to praying together as a church family or join with several area churches to seek God in prayer. Daily meetings can be held at one central location or at different churchees each time. Leadership of the prayer meetings can be one person that leads all of them or the pastors/leaders from the churches can be scheduled to lead the different meetings.
Outreach Prayer Ministries
Can prayer really be an outreach ministry? Absolutely. These Scriptures, Ellen White quotes, and thoughts on the work of Holy Spirit reveal that prayer is truly a form of evangelism.
1. Prayer Walking: Have a prayer walk for your community. As you walk, pray for residents, community leaders, children, etc.
2. Outreach Prayer Group: Establish a group that commits to praying regularly for those who have expressed an interest in the church. Pray for community members, Bible study contacts, visitors, outreach contacts, etc.
3. Drive-through Prayer: Invite people to stop for prayer as they pass your church. Post signs and have prayer warriors available to pray for anyone who stops. This is especially effective if it is combined with a service ministry like a weekly food distribution.
4. Prayer Breakfast: Host a prayer breakfast for the leadership in your town. Use it as a time to pray for the leaders of your town, develop friendships with them, and find ways that you can serve your town more effectively. Plan ahead and make it a really special event.
5. Online Prayer Requests: Set up a space on your church website where people can submit their prayer requests for your prayer team to pray over. Then make sure that the prayer requests are prayed for faithfully.
6. Prayer Canvassing: Go door to door in the community around your church, getting to know people and offering to pray with/for them. Make sure to write down people’s prayer requests and then check back with them in a couple of weeks. This can be an excellent way to build friendships with people and connect with your praying church family. This suggested script and ideas for follow-up are helpful. If people are not home, pray for the occupants of the home and leave these cards and a small tract on people's doors.
7. Social Media Prayer Outreach: Advertise on social media in your local area with your church’s offer to pray for people and their needs. Pray consistently for prayer requests you receive. You can also reach out to those who request prayer and begin to build friendships with them. Central California Conference has been experimenting with this type of outreach in some of their churches. Learn more here: https://www.adventistfaith.com/media/recorder/when-prayer-meets-technology
- Another way to do a week of prayer is to work with several church in the same area to do a joint week of prayer. Daily meetings can be held at one central location for the duration or be at a different church each time. Leadership of the prayer meetings can be one person that leads all of them or the pastors/leaders from the churches can be scheduled to lead the different meetings.