Last night our Prayer Ministry met for the first time this year.
This is the most positive, encouraging, and supportive group in my parish. I love these meetings (which is impressive, because I’m a meeting-o-phobe so avoid meetings as much as possible).
I invited about 30 people to my house and 10 showed up (a perfect sized group).
We met at 6pm and had dinner. I made the main dish which was simply chicken wraps, and asked everyone else to bring something. I don’t worry about trying to organize who brings what; if we have five salads, that’s okay, and if we have five cakes that’s awesome.
Around 7pm I started the meeting with a brief prayer, then (and this is the most important part of leading a group prayer) I shut up and let everyone else pray for whatever they wanted to.
Then, I told the group some specific and amazing things that happened last year; things I know happened because God was honoring their prayers.
After I finished telling them how amazing they are and how much I appreciate their ministry I asked them what they wanted to do this year and I shut up so they could talk (keeping your mouth shut is a good technique for leading a group).
My job for the rest of the night was simply to keep the group on track . . . which was difficult because they have big hearts and want to help everyone in the church.
I also (subtly) made sure every idea had a clear action step attached to it and that someone was in charge of that step.
When the conversation dwindled I closed with a prayer (again giving everyone else as much time to pray as they wanted). They helped me clean up my house and then stayed around to chat for a while before leaving.
Notes:
- I now have a refrigerator full of food.
- My two kids were there and they were loud and noisy, but everyone seemed fine with that. When I invited people, I told them to bring their kids if they wanted. None did, but I let them know up-front that this was a kid-friendly meeting.
- I feel like we are now ready for our parent meeting this weekend.
- I’m filled with joy. The people involved in our Prayer Ministry are the most humble and loving people I know. I cant wait until we get together again.
