By William
MacDonald
Published
in Interest Magazine, Dec 1985
When I
first heard of all-night prayer meetings, all I could think of was calloused
knees and a prayer list that would be exhausted in minutes. I honestly wondered
how anyone could pray non-stop for hours.
What I
didn't understand was that an all-night prayer meeting, or an all-day one, for
that matter, features a variety of activities. It contains intermittent
singing. It may include short messages on prayer from the Word. Interspersed
with prayer might be brief reports from missionaries or home workers. Slide or
movie presentations often add special interest.
Of course,
prayer is the main thing. This may take many forms. We should worship God for
who He is and for all He has done. We should thank Him for all His blessings
and mercies, including the mercy of answered prayer.
We will want to confess personal sins, the sins of the church, the sins of the
nation, and the sins of the world. We will intercede for our assembly and for
all the household of faith. We will offer supplication for all men, for rulers
and all who are in authority. We will pray for specific countries of the world.
And we should remember the unsaved.
There is no
danger of calloused knees because the posture is changed regularly. At times we
may pray standing, sitting, or even prostrate.
Such a
prayer meeting greatly needs Spirit-led leadership. It is not realistic to
think that a good meeting will just happen without spiritual preparation. Leaders
must he thoroughly trained as to how to make the meeting interesting and
varied.
They should
be rotated regularly to prevent the meeting from becoming predictable.
Even more
important, the leaders should spend time before the Lord in advance of the meeting,
seeking direction as to the agenda to be followed. They should insure against
long dull pauses and long. repetitive prayers. They
must keep the meeting moving.
As soon as
active prayer ceases, the leader should introduce something else. Usually 20 to
25 minutes is long enough to devote to any particular prayer segment. Then the
leader starts a hymn or chorus as a signal to change.
Variety is
one of the keys to an interesting meeting. Leaders should be innovative,
thinking of new approaches to prayer. No two meetings should be exactly alike.
Routine, ho- hum meetings need to be closed down. Sometimes the leader will
suggest that participants pray in one group. He might give out a few prayer
requests and ask specific individuals to take them. At other times, the meeting
will break up into smaller groups. Fixed chairs are not ideal for this type of
format. Movable chairs are needed to arrange and rearrange clusters of
different sizes.
Many people
like to come prepared with paper and pencils to write down prayer requests. The
leader might want to have an overhead projector or chalk board. Sometimes a
slide projector and a cassette player will be needed. Chorus books or hymn
books are standard equipment.
Where does
the fuel for prayer come from? It is provided by:
1. Prayer
letters or missionary magazines, with specific requests highlighted in advance.
If there are enough letters, one can be given to each person, to be prayed over
in small groups.
2. Requests
voiced by people in the meeting. Also, answers to prayer that they might share.
3. Requests
from visiting missionaries or home workers. Sometimes it may be possible to
play a tape recording or to have a live phone conversation. These must be
amplified, of course.
4. Requests
collected in advance by the leader. These may deal with government officials,
the sick, the sorrowing, or those in prison for the gospel's sake. Requests can
be typed, photocopied. and given to all in the
meeting.
Not too
many requests should be shared at one time. This proves discouraging and
requires too much time for an one portion of the
meeting.
When a meeting is to last for hours. there should be short
intermissions so the participants can stand and stretch.
Many of the
principles for an effective all-night prayer meeting apply equally to regular
weekly prayer times. Prayer meetings don't have to be dull or boring. With
Spirit-led leadership and thoughtful planning, such meetings can be so
attractive that people will not want to miss them. The goal should be to
encourage the joy of prayer. When young people say, "We love our prayer
meeting," then an assembly is moving in the right direction.
The prayer
meeting should be one of the most popular—and profitable—meetings of the local
assembly.