Lord, Teach Us to Pray: Create an Environment for Prayer

Written by John Franklin

First in a two-part series from a previously published article Lord, Teach Us to Pray.  Easy Ideas to Help You is the second part of the series.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record the process through which Jesus took the disciples to radically change them. Those years of constant failure, as recorded in the Gospels, quickly gave way to dramatic, positive, changes in Acts.

What did Jesus do and what did the disciples learn that caused them to be so wonderfully changed? This question has application for your ministry, too.

A House of Prayer: Prayer Ministries in Your Church

 Probably the best clue comes from the disciples' own mouths. By the time the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11:1 was recorded, the disciples had watched Jesus long enough to know what was ultimately important and from where He drew His spiritual power. Therefore, the request they made of Him was, "Lord, teach us to pray."

They could have asked Jesus to heal, cast out demons, teach or preach; instead, they chose prayer. And they chose wisely. The power demonstrated through Jesus' prayer life has been God's pattern throughout the Bible and throughout history. He has always transformed people and the world through those who have a vibrant prayer life.

If you desire discipleship that transforms, you must help your leaders and members develop a deeper prayer life through the following actions:

Create a Prayerful Environment
Create environments that are conducive to prayer. Prayer is more often caught than taught. People best catch the importance of prayer when a leader helps to create a setting that is conducive to praying. To create that environment you must:

1. motivate
2. build a sense of mission
3. constantly renew the need people have to pray

1. Motivate People to Pray
People don't do anything unless they are motivated. In the Bible, God always sent leaders to prepare the hearts of the people and get them ready to respond to Him.

Help motivate classes and departments through all means available (ex., testimonies, teachings, and challenges). Especially lift up the expectation that God will answer when His people pray.

2. Build a Sense of Mission, Destiny and Passion
All the great prayer warriors of the Bible had a sense of being on mission with God. They had a purpose bigger than themselves, a destiny to fulfill. Such an understanding guided their praying so that:

• Their prayers were God-centered;
• Their prayers sustained them in discouragement; and
• Their prayers positioned them in such a way that God was more likely to answer. Such a perspective also helped them guard against the tendency to have an inward focus.

When prayer lacks freshness, people fall into a rut and prayer becomes duty-driven. God does not answer those kinds of passionless prayers.

Make sure that classes and departments do not fall into a routine. Always look for fresh ways to help members focus on and actually practice prayer.

3. Organize Prayer for Special Events
For example, if your church has a revival coming up, ask members to sign up to pray in home prayer groups before the event.

How you encourage leaders and members to pray is limited only by your imagination, but the idea should be clear: Use all available means, both inside and outside of the church, to help your members understand and practice prayer.

John Franklin lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a former Prayer Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Franklin travels and speaks extensively calling churches to seek God's face in prayer. You may contact John Franklin by email or learn more about John at www.johnfranklinministries.org.

He is the author of And the Place Was Shaken: How to Lead a Powerful Prayer Meeting, A House of Prayer: Prayer Ministries in Your Church, By Faith: Living in the Certainty of God's Realityand co-author of Spiritual Warfare: Biblical Truth for Victory.