Meaningful Prayer Opportunities
A key to drawing people toward prayer is giving them exciting events. A Year of Prayer Events for Your Church (PrayerShop Publishing 2007) does just that. Written by Sandra Higley, former assistant editor of Pray!, and current director of member relations for the CPLN, this book provides all the information you need to put on 15 different prayer events in your church.

Everything from a concert of prayer, an all night prayer vigil, a women’s prayer tea to a kids’ prayer fest and a praying through your building event are include . . . plus 10 more. With this book in your arsenal of resources, you will never be at a loss again to come up with a good prayer opportunity in your church.

Dynamic Prayer Meetings
Many of us are familiar with dry, cover all the request prayer meetings of earlier days. In fact, that memory keeps many from prayer meetings. If you can convince people your prayer meeting is different, they will come out more readily. Fresh Encounters by Daniel Henderson (NavPress 2004) can help you do just that. It explains how to put on an upward focused (on Jesus Christ) prayer meeting rather than a horizontally focused one (on people’s needs). The book also offers a number of prayer formats in its appendices.
   
The significant influence on Lynchburg Church of the Nazarene, mentioned in our lead article, Fresh Encounters is changing the way many churches pray together.

Strong Leadership
Another reason many churches struggle to change the flavor of their prayer meetings is due to leaders who let everyone’s agenda dictate what happens. Dynamic prayer meetings are led by leaders who seek God for their agendas and who lead firmly.  Simply learning how to effectively lead a prayer meeting can change them for the better.

And the Place Was Shaken by John Franklin (Broadman & Holman 2005)  provides excellent direction and insights for those who lead prayer meetings. While it covers more than just leadership issues—in fact it is an excellent resource on all aspects of corporate prayer meetings—its unique offering to pastors and prayer leaders is its practical help on the dynamics of leading effectively.

All these resources are available from www.prayershop.org.
--Jonathan Graf