Thoughts on Our Prayer Gathering

I think that Monday Night Prayer for me has not only stepped up into a new level of intimacy between me and the Lord in those corporate times, but it has overtaken my personal prayer life. Every answer to prayer we have seen corporately has awakened my heart to not give up on the thing the things that i have been praying for in my personal life. That persistency has taught me to completely understand that "holy stubbornness" Carl Toti talked about in his sermon. I want to see prayers answered in my life no matter how silly they seem to me letting go of my fear of migraines, seeing my dreams come true, and to the prayers are not so silly to me like seeing my family members saved, even the ones that seem to have the hardest hearts. 


I do not know how long some people have been praying for some things to come to pass such as revival or their love ones to come to Christ, but I do know  that God is walking among us. He is changing the heart of those willing to listen and seek his face and that excites me. There seems to be alot of attacks and tears being shed, but I think the Lord is using this time to draw us closer to Himself. What the enemy is meaning for bad the Lord is turning and using for good and his Glory. I think as we keep praying and seeking for revival and rain, the Lord is going to become evident and intimate to those willing to see Him. Mathew 6:33 says "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" 


Erin Mullins (Elife prayer teams)

Famous Prayer Quote

William McKinley, Jr. (1843-1901), 25th President of the United States

Let me repeat the oath administered by the Chief Justice: “I will faithfully administer the oath of the President of the United States…” This is the obligation I have reverently taken before the Lord this day. To keep it will be my single purpose and my prayer. Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers…who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.  From his First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1887

Multifaceted Nature of God

I have watched this month as God has shown up in different ways at different times at our prayer gathering.  You begin to realize how multifaceted God is.  Two weeks ago there was such an excitement about the gathering.  People would clap during a prayer because they were so excited about what was being prayed.  You just sensed faith in the place where we gather.  The energy of God was in the place as He was empowering and encouraging us.

This past week though was so much more of a peaceful night.  We had an acoustic set from our worship team and you could sense peace over the skating rink at the end of prayer.  So much so I encouraged our people to take some time and just be still and let Gods peace encourage them.  During that time I quoted some verses that came to mind like 1 Peter 5:6 & Matthew 11:29,30.  The peaceful nature of God was the encompassing feel of the night.

I am glad God knows what people need and at the right time they need it.  Some nights it is empowering, other nights compassion, some nights peace and others joy.   I love is how multifaceted God is and how He comes each night with the part of His nature we need most.

The Right Presentation

I went to a ordination service for a pastor in another denomination the other day.  I realized in that place the appropriate attire for me to present myself with was a suit and tie.  I rarely ever wear a suit and tie anymore, but  it was the the right presentation for that day in that place.  


I think there are appropriate ways to present ourselves to God in prayer. Humility is an important way to present ourselves to God when we come to prayer.  2 Chronicles 7:14 says "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."   and   James 4:6b - “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you.  ...¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.


I am convinced that we learn to by humble before God.  It is something we can equip people to do.  We can't force them to do it, but we can help them understand how to go there.  A few of the ways we try and help people practice humility as our Monday night prayer are: 

1. Encouraging people to have postures of prayer.  
2. We encourage people to kneel from time to time.  
3. We let people know that raising their hands in worship is an expression that is welcome at prayer and is also biblical.
4. Letting people turn their palms up in an expression of "I need you God" is something we do from time to time.  
5. Letting people pray on a mic who will model humility.  
6. Encouraging leaders to model vulnerability if they are leading prayer.
7. Model authenticity in prayer (being real) and not posturing.   This is a value we teach in our prayer training.

24 Hours of Prayer

This past Easter season we wanted to stretch our faith and pray for 500 first time commitments to Christ.  This is over double the numbers of FTC at last years Easter weekend.  We knew it was a big prayer goal.  An increase in prayer would be needed to meet this challenge God had put in our heart.  We doubled our staff prayer times on the week preceding Easter and this year we added 24 hours of prayer during the weekend.  We have intercessors praying during each of our services so we decided to have 24 straight hours of intercession.

We did sign ups for our whole church and had about 70 sign up to participate.  We scheduled people on hour blocks.  We had a handout in our prayer room that people went through as they prayed.  So from 12:30 pm on Saturday to 12:30 pm on Sunday people were praying.  In the night many would walk through the skating rink (place where we have worship services) and pray or would stay in our prayer room and pray through the agenda.  We had live worship at two of those hours.

On Easter week and the following week we had well over 500 first time commitments to Christ.  I think 24 hours of prayer will become an important part of our prepartion for key weekends where we target the lost.

Pray with Patience in Trouble

Romans 12:2 says “Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.”


I find all too often I think of trouble as a virus to dealt with and get out of my system immediately.  Lately I have recognized that trouble can be a true catalyst for the maturing of my faith.  I wonder if trouble is a tension to be wrestled with rather than a problem to be solved.  If we recognized that trouble was a part of our existence, a part of our pathway to maturity we might be more apt to take Paul's advice in Romans 12.  Be patient in trouble (it is maturing your faith) and keep on praying (not just to get out of trouble but pray to hear God on how you can mature in the midst of trouble.)


Prayer is so much more than looking for God to be our cosmic Santa Claus giving us whatever makes us feel good.  Prayer is encountering the God of the universe who wants to mature us into the image of Himself, an image that loves greatly, is rich in mercy, and willing to persevere to a wise end.

Getting People Involved in Prayer Gatherings

Prayer gatherings are about getting many people involved in prayer and taking their next steps in growing in prayer.  Here are a few ways we try and do that at our Monday night prayer gatherings.

1. Prayer Ministry Time
    Having people stand for various needs and all the people around them gather around them to pray. This helps everybody be involved.  We usually encourage 1 or 2 of these people to pray out loud for that person.  This involves the people praying out loud but also models for those who have never prayed out loud how to do that.  We might pray for single moms one night or people dealing with hopelessness or people who are dealing with illness, etc.  We often do this toward the end of our prayer time.

2. Open mics.
    We may pray for a particular topic for the night such as revival.  We let people come to the mics at will and pray.  We do have parameters.  People are encouraged to pray sentence and paragraph prayers and not pray chapter prayers.  We have some people assigned to mics to lay a hand on the shoulder of anyone who is going too long and straying away from the topic that night.  On another night we may have people give thanks to God as we did this past Monday night.  We asked people to pray sentence prayers beginning with "God I am thankful for..."

3. Specific people praying.
    We may pray through various topics in a given night.  I may say take a moment and pray for people to get saved this coming weekend.  We give everyone a few minutes to pray and then someone that has been asked beforehand will pray on a mic to close that topic.  If you aren't a large prayer times you can do the same thing with just having those people specified to pray out loud.

4. Prayer Teams
    At the end of our corporate prayer we have teams of people up at the front to pray for anyone who wants to come forward and receive prayer.  We have worship music praying in the background for 15 minutes after prayer has dismissed.  Our prayer teams have gone through a 1 and 1/2 hour prayer training before they can be on a prayer team.

These are just a few of the ways we try and get people involved in our prayer gatherings.  We know that Jesus said his house should be a house of prayer.  We are trying to get as many people involved in helping that happen as we can.

Setting an Environment for Prayer

We have found that a little preparation before the gathering on the environment makes a big difference in the gathering itself.  One of the elements we put into play in our weekly prayer gathering is playing worship music 15 -20 minutes before prayer begins.  We have found that this little thing begins to move peoples hearts towards a focus on God before we begin the corporate gathering.  We have people that will come and just sit during this time and be with God or pray as they wait for the gathering to begin.  Another thing we do is turn the lights down as the music begins.  This helps the mood of the evening.