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More prayer ideas for the Alpha Invitation.
GETTING STARTED:
Choose Your Prayer Event
Coordinate with Other Churches
Advertise Your Event on Alpha Website
HELPS:
Potential Agenda Items for Prayer Event
Prayer Models
Worship Leading
Organizer's Check List
Five Key Prayer Opportunities at Alpha
Choose Your Prayer Event
Prayer supports all that we do. During the months and weeks leading up to the Invitation and Alpha course start date, organizers should consider planning prayer days and events.
Here are some ideas for a prayer event:
* neighborhood prayer walks
* unbroken prayer circles around an area, town or city
* drive by prayer
* prayer on Skype or teleconference(link to pray/teleconference)
* prayer hikes
* all night prayer gatherings
* fasts
* community wide prayer festivals
* prayer retreats
* prayer on capital hills
* prayer & praise nights
* stadiums of prayer
* 24 hours of prayer
* prayer chains
* mountain top prayer
* 1-1-1 (pray for 1 person at 1:00pm for 1 minute each day)
* prayer flights
* prayer dances
* workshops on intercessory prayer, spiritual warfare & fasting
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Coordinate with Other Churches
We suggest you contact other people running Alpha in your area and invite them to pray together.
Remind them to:
* put details of the event in their church bulletins;
* have the Prayer event announced in church if appropriate; and
* make sure that Alpha team members and home group leaders know they are invited
Keep in touch:
Follow up your letters with a telephone call encouraging the local church leader or Alpha course leader to bring a group of people to the Prayer event. Keep in touch with them, asking if there is anything further you can do to help them promote the event in their church. As with Alpha, building relationships is vital to encouraging people to come.
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Advertise Your Prayer Event on the Alpha Website:
Listing your local prayer event on the Alpha website will help people find it and attend. Simply email the details to us.
Meet regularly to pray during the summer for neighbors and friends whom you plan to invite to Alpha in the fall!
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Potential Agenda Items for a Prayer Event:
BACKGROUND WORSHIP MUSIC
WELCOME
WORSHIP TOGETHER IN PRAYER AND IN SONG
PRAYER SECTION I
* Pray for God to send revival to your region!
* Personal repentance
* Personal revival
* Local/national spiritual awakening
* Matthew 9:38 (ask the Lord to send workers to the harvest)
PRAYER SECTION II
Pray for the Alpha Invitation and this fall's Alpha dinners and courses with reference to:
* Participation
* Atmosphere
* Impact
* Pray for Alpha in different contexts:
* Alpha for Youth & Campus Alpha
* Alpha in Prisons
* Alpha in the Workplace
* Thankful hearts
* Increase
* Deepening impact
* Pray for local churches
* Pastors
* Unity
* Boldness and power
PRAYER SECTION III
Pray for any relevant national/international issues(s) in the News.
These are some ideas but tailor your event according to the vision the Holy Spirit gives you! A central vision for this prayer event is for God to send revival to your area. Only He can transform our hearts, our cities and our country!
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Prayer Models:
A variety of ways of praying together helps maintain the enthusiasm of those who are participating. There are four models of prayer that you might like to introduce to your party:
SMALL GROUPS
The leader of the party announces the topic for prayer and says something like:
"Could you please get into groups of three or four to pray?". In each group individuals pray one at a time. After a suitable period has passed, the leader can move the prayer time on to the next phase. If a person has never prayed out loud before, this is the easiest setting in which to make a start.
ACTS 4
This involves everyone praying out loud at the same time. There is a description
of such prayer given in Acts 4:23-30. The leader, having introduced the topic to be prayed for, will direct those present to pray in this way. Some people may feel inhibited by praying aloud with others, and so it may be worth saying that they are free to pray silently.
HALF AND HALF
A variation on the model above is for those at the meeting to be divided into two groups (left side of the room and right side of the room works well usually!). One half of the room prays while the other worships. The MC of the event needs to make it clear what will be prayed for next, explaining that the worship leader will lead one side in singing while the others pray out loud together. After a short period the roles are reversed. It may help to have one person to lead each group. Let each side pray and worship for quite short periods before combining both in worship at the end of the section. It is helpful to have a rather louder worship song for this model.
SILENT PRAYER
To offer contrast to the above models, silence can be very effective at a corporate prayer time. The leader simply announces what is to be prayed for and that those present should allow the Spirit to guide them in a time of silent prayer. The leader should judge how long the silence should continue -- a period of sixty seconds can be very effective.
The importance of clear and confident leadership cannot be overstated. Most people feel reassured, relax and pray more effectively in that context. It may help to have a number of different leaders involved under the direction of one overall leader.
If you want to provide pens and pads for people to write down any prophetic words, impressions or Bible verses, it is a good idea to announce their availability and identify a leader to receive and process such material at the prayer time.
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Worship Leading:
Many of these tips come from Holy Trinity Brompton's own worship department. Your worship leader might find them useful as she or he leads at your Prayer Event.
* Make sure you're confident with the PA. Some of the prayer models need a very confident lead, and adequate volume level.
* Prepare well. Maybe this isn't the best place to use many new, or more obscure songs.
* Keep it simple. It might be less challenging for you, but the worship leader's job is to release worship and aid intercession.
* Choose up-tempo songs with a strong and consistent rhythm. They should also be well known and simple.
* Avoid verbal intros. These drag the pace of the meeting and distract people.
* Check the instruments are tuned and sound checked.
* Smile! Body language is important!
* Lead out of your annointing rather than out of your natural talent.
* Aim to bless rather than impress.
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Organizer's Check List:
VENUE
Book a suitable venue well in advance of the event.
* Make sure you have competent PowerPoint operator.
* Make sure that pens and paper are available for prophetic words, impressions or verses.
* Appoint someone to write down any prophetic words, verses etc that are given during the night. This should preferably not be the MC as it may be too much to do both.
WORSHIP
* Invite a worship leader/worship band to join you and give them a copy of the prayer agenda and suggested songs.
* Check that the venue has microphones, extension leads and enough electrical sockets.
* Make sure that projection slides or PowerPoint technology is available for the songs that are to be used or that you have enough song books.
HOSTS
* Arrange for a team of stewards/welcomers to help on the night.
* Work with this team to get chairs set up.
* Arrange for someone to oversee refreshments during the evening
* Arrange for a team of people to clear up afterwards.
ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT
This is all common sense, but we hope you might find the following list helpful when you are very busy just before the Prayer event starts!
* Make sure there are signs directing people to the venue.
* Make sure that the doors are opened 30 minutes before the meeting is due to start.
* Check that the stewards are in place.
* Check doors to all other rooms are locked for security.
* Check that the PowerPoint or slides are in place and that it all works.
* Make sure that there are Bibles available.
* Check that the prayer point acetates or Power Point slides are ready (if required).
* Check that pens and paper are available.
* Check that the refreshments are set up.
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Five Key Prayer Opportunities at Alpha
Pastor Dutch Sheets wrote: "Evangelism without prayer is like a grenade without a detonator. Prayer without evangelism is like a detonator without a grenade." Prayer lies at the heart of the success of any Alpha course and many churches have testified to the dramatic improvement in the success of their course when they have started to pray for it. There are five situations where praying for Alpha is particularly appropriate.
1. Leaders and helpers pray for the individuals in their small group
As well as committing to the ten weeks of the Alpha course and the weekend away, the Alpha leaders and helpers are responsible for praying regularly for the guests in their group, ideally daily during personal prayer time. We recommend that two leaders and two helpers are recruited to look after eight guests, so each leader and helper may like to take responsibility for praying for two guests. The leaders and helpers are in the best position to pray as they are aware of the needs of each individual as the Alpha course progresses.
2. Leaders and helpers pray together for their small group
In addition, the leaders and helpers of each small group can meet together, maybe before church on Sunday or some other suitable time to pray for the course. This will help to unite the leadership team of the small group and to reinforce the individual prayer referred to above.
3. Leaders and helpers pray together immediately prior to the course
It is helpful for the whole Alpha team to meet each week before the guests arrive for a team briefing and prayer meeting. The items for prayer are largely self-defining eg the weekend away, the Alpha celebration suppers etc. This is particularly important for the session, 'Does God heal today?', as the team can wait on the Lord for words of knowledge, pictures and so on. These can then be read out after the talk and people who respond to them can be offered prayer.
4. Prayer in Week 5 'Why and how do I Pray?'
During the session, 'Why and how do I Pray?' guests are given a theology, model and practice for prayer. This relates primarily to personal prayer, which is a good starting point as people come into a relationship with God. As prayer establishes itself in people's lives, it should be possible to start praying together in the small group. Do not try to introduce prayer to the small group until the end of this session at the earliest. You may find that your group is not ready to pray together until after the sessions on the Holy Spirit. If possible try to pray together at least once prior to the talk, 'Does God heal today?'
Tips for praying with your Alpha small group
Don't rush this! Be sensitive to where people are spiritually. If you are going to open the session in prayer, then we suggest you say something like, 'I have asked John to open in prayer' so that the other guests will not be afraid that the leader might ask them to pray without giving notice at some time in the future. Remember that praying out loud for the first time can be quite an intimidating experience.
When you feel that the group is ready to pray, suggest that the group splits into triplets of all men or all women to pray. This makes it easier for people. The faith of the small group can be built up by feeding back answers to prayer. When you start to pray in the small group, don't pray your longest and most eloquent prayer. The guests will feel that they could never do thatÑ and then they won't! Pray a short, simple prayer and the guest will be encouraged to think, 'Well I could do better than that, and then they will!
One of the leaders or helpers should refrain from praying, showing the group that it is all right not to pray aloud.
5. Praying for Alpha as a church
While it is important that those who are leading and helping on Alpha are praying for the course, we also try to encourage the whole church to pray for the Alpha course. We have found that an open corporate prayer meeting held weekly on a different day from the Alpha course works well. The agenda covers all areas of the life of the church but one of the regular items is prayer for evangelism and Alpha.
This weekly prayer meeting is an integral part of church life and incorporates times of worship.
Anna Davies has run a number of Alpha courses in the UK. She writes: 'We have put a lot of effort into trying to run the past few Alpha courses really well but had seen very little come of it by way of new Christians being born. However the prayer meetings, which began nine months ago, have provided an opportunity for more united, consistent prayer for Alpha and we are now seeing on this present Alpha course a significant change. Nearly every one of the twenty-four people on the course are not Christian and there is an atmosphere of genuine openness to the gospel. We are aware of God being more present in a way that he has not been before and very importantly, he seems to be peeling off some of the things in our own lives that hinder us from being effective communicators of the gospel.'
For more information on running a corporate prayer meeting, including a theology and a model for dynamic corporate prayer, please refer to The Church on its Knees by Jeremy Jennings and the Prayer on Alpha DVD.
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