Children and Prayer

A vast majority of people make decisions to give their hearts to Jesus Christ when they are children. But at the same time, the statistics regarding those who grew up in the church, who leave the church as young adults, are absolutely abismal. What happens? Somewhere, something falls down. I wonder if it has anything to do with the level of prayer that a church prays for its kids and teens?

Many churches are getting more and more serious about seeing their kids prayed for. One of the most popular plans is to assign adult intercessors to each child in the church. Here's a simple ideas to get you started:

Prayer Cards
Develop an information card, complete with photo and important facts, for each child and teen. They can be made in Sunday school classes, or during children's church and youth meetings. Take photos of each child (bring a digital camera and printer to church). Paste the photos on 5.5 x 8.5 card stock paper. Write important facts below (child's name, number of siblings, school name, etc). For older children and teens, you might include other facts about their dreams, desires, etc.. Don't put anything a child is not comfortable having others see.

After these prayer cards are completed, give them to adults to pray. If possible, make an announcement about the program in church, the bulletin, etc. If you can have some platform time, make sure adults know why the church feels this is important to do. Set up a sign-up table in the foyer of the church for a number of weeks. There you will have adults pick up the cards. We recommend having a master list so you know which adult is praying for which child. You may want to put the phone number of each intercessor on the list. This is so you or the church can call them if anything significant (emergency health need, etc.) comes up in the life of the child. Keep setting up the table each week until all the cards are gone.

Instruct teachers to inform you when new kids come to church. You will want to get cards made for them as well. We also recommend making new cards every year. You want to have a resign-up each year. But allow those who want to, to sign up for the same child he or she prayed for during the past year. Solicit these people before you go public with a new program.

About three years ago, the church I was going to at the time, set up a similar program. I took a card of a four-year-old boy named Jonathan (my name). After church one day about six months later, I introduced myself to him; shook his hand, and told him I was praying for him. His mom especially was blessed. Today, years later, living a thousand miles away, I still have that card in my Bible. I pray whenever I see it. Your people will do that, too.

Jonathan Graf