April 6, 2010

From 12 to 50+

I just noticed in a post from October that we had 12 attend our prayer meeting that particular Wednesday. We’ve been running 50+ for about 6 weeks now. The format is simple.
  1. We have a meal, (30 minutes)
  2. We put the plates away and formally begin with prayer.
  3. Each person that wants to can share what God did in their lives that week, or what they learned of God and wanted to share with others, or an experience telling someone else about Jesus.(15 minutes)
  4. We sing. (10 minutes)
  5. Someone tells a passage of scripture as story. (5 minutes)
  6. We talk about it and find ways to apply and obey it. (15 minutes)
  7. We break into groups of 3 or so, to pray for one another. (15 minutes)
  8. We close, and put the tables away and benches back into their places, and talk.
I do believe the meal is a draw, but the scripture as story and the opportunity to pray with one another is what keeps people involved.

3 comments:

  1. Stephen,

    Thanks for this description. Does this prayer meeting occur as part of a church's organized meetings?

    While the meal may be a draw - and some people may come only to eat - I would suggest that eating together is extremely important for community and fellowship, and as a context for teaching.

    -Alan

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  2. Alan, this is our regular Wednesday night prayer meeting. We did add a meal in December of last year, and I did have to go through some work to defend the idea, and give it a 3 month trial period. Now it is widely accepted (especially, by those who participate).

    It provides our church a lot of face to face time, which has been lacking for the last several years. Many people didn't know the names of the people they sat next to for the last 3 years.

    The small group prayer time has also really helped, as not only do people get personal time having someone pray for and with them. There is a lot of modeling happening here. Several people had said they didn't know how to pray until they prayed with so-and-so.

    Since we have 4 tables set up for eating, I am not sure how to use the moment for teaching. The community and fellowship has been great, though.

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  3. Stephen,

    I don't know if you saw my latest post "Meeting Around the Table of the Lord", but we ate and taught and discussed around tables. It was the first time we tried this. We usually teach and discuss in a circle, then pull out the tables to eat together. We do this as our weekly church meeting.

    -Alan

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