These prayer group best practices include a section of prayer group best practices for group organization/logistics and logistics and a section with best practices for what to do during the prayer times. Using these will help you stay focused on your main prayer mission, use your prayer time wisely and add power and purpose through the use of the spiritual gifts of each member.

Prayer Group Best Practices in Organization and Logistics

Designate a prayer group leader or co-leaders

Every group needs a leader or co-leaders to keep the group organized, informed and functioning well. Often leaders start a prayer group and invite potential members to join. The leader’s responsibilities may include sending group emails or texts with prayer requests, arranging meeting times and places and running meetings.

Know your prayer group mission

Top of the list of prayer group best practices is having a mission statement. If your prayer group doesn’t already have a mission statement, spend time praying over and discussing what your mission is. Is your mission to provide healing prayer? Support the church staff and mission? Meditate together? Pray for salvation for others? Pray about local or national causes? Pray and support each other, such as in a prayer group with similar life experiences, like single parenting or dealing with teens? Study how to pray? Offer in-person prayer over people? Pray a list of requests?

Once you know your mission, put it in writing and remind the group of it often.

Establish attendance norms and duration

Do you want an open, drop-in group where anyone can come whenever they need prayer? Or do you want a more private covenant group where members agree to join together as a group on an ongoing basis?

The duration of the prayer group also needs to be addressed as to how many weeks or months a prayer group will last. Some prayer groups might only last a month or two, especially if it’s praying for a specific event like an election. Others may last indefinitely.

Although I lead an ongoing prayer group that’s been in existence for 15 years, I make it a point at the beginning of each year to contact each member individually to ask if they would like to continue with us for another year. This gives everyone a chance to reassess where God might be leading them to serve at this time.

Run on time

An important prayer group best practice is to begin and end on time. When a prayer meeting goes past ending time, it’s awkward and distracting when someone has to leave.

If there’s a pressing prayer need still in progress at dismissal time, momentarily stop prayer to allow those who need to leave to do so. Then go back to the unfinished prayers with those who can stay longer.

Pray for the prayer group

Pray for the group leaders, for God’s direction, and for help in their intercessory work. Prayer is also necessary to solve problems and to ask God to provide for the needs of the group such as recruiting new members.

Find a meeting place with few distractions

Group prayer requires privacy and quietness. Noise and movement are very disruptive. When choosing a meeting place, think about what goes on the hallway or window outside the room. Avoid busy times like preschool pick- up, choir practice or youth group meetings.

Welcome those who aren’t comfortable praying out loud

Most prayer groups pray out loud one by one so everyone can agree with and build on each other’s prayers. However, many people don’t feel comfortable praying out loud for a number of reasons. They may feel intimidated by the inspiring way others pray or they may lack experience praying in a group.

If you have newcomers who aren’t yet comfortable praying out loud, it’s good to state that the group welcomes both prayers said out loud and silent prayers of agreement.

Keep in touch with clergy

If you’re a church related prayer group, make sure the clergy is informed of your meetings and ask them how you might pray for them from time to time.

Encourage and care for the prayer group members

Intercessory prayer can be a draining ministry, especially since you are often praying about all of the crisis situations and tragedies in the church, community and world. Pay attention to attendees and care for intercessory prayer team members . Make sure to offer frequent encouragement and words of appreciation. Also, make sure to share specific examples of the way situations have improved as a result of their prayers.

Prayer Group Best Practices for What to Do During the Prayer Time

Focus more on God than on the problem

The essence of prayer is having a dynamic conversation with God to get his viewpoint on things. Prayer invites us to take our eyes off the problems and look toward God. We need to remind ourselves of who God is as revealed in the Bible and what we’ve learned through the testimonies of others and from our own experiences of his goodness. We gratefully address him as our God who loves, hears, cares, gives hope, rescues, saves, forgives, reconciles, sustains, protects, encourages and provides.

Spend time thanking God for what He is doing

Answers to prayer come in all shapes and sizes and it’s important to share what are commonly called “praises” during every prayer group meeting. (The word praises is shorthand for praising God for something He has done.)

Sharing praises is a prayer group best practice you don’t want to overlook, especially since we tend to only count solutions and resolutions as praises or answers to prayer. Remember to spend time sharing what God is doing in small ways, too. Celebrate progress, change, daily strength and renewed hope. An example would be thanking God for a good night’s sleep for someone in pain.

Pray more, talk less

It’s easy to get side-tracked when members give long explanations of a prayer need and other members jump in to describe similar situations they’ve experienced.

A best practice for prayer groups is to spend an equal or larger amount of meeting time praying vs. sharing and discussing requests.

Keep prayer requests confidential

Keeping prayer requests confidential is a pillar of the best practices for prayer groups. Because many prayer requests are very personal, when they’re repeated outside the group, they can be taken out of context and cause embarrassment to everyone. Individual requests and things prayed by group members should be regarded as strictly confidential unless the person gives permission to share it.

The only times confidentiality should be broken are crisis situations that need the attention of a trained professional or clergy person capable of intervening. These exceptions would include a person who is a danger to themselves (suicidal), a threat of harm to others, abuse of a child or vulnerable person, a life-threatening medical emergency etc.

Pray the high road concerning politics and personal opinions

Not everyone in a prayer group shares the same personal opinion on debatable matters. Prayer group leaders and group members should avoid expressing their own opinions on matters not related to the Biblical truths of Christianity.

Debatable issues can include politics, medical treatment alternatives, church governance, family issues, traditions, etc. Don’t assume that everyone in the group thinks the way you do!

You can pray well on debatable issues by bringing these concerns to God for his guidance, wisdom and intervention without expressing your judgements or opinions.

If you have a very strong personal opinion, consider praying privately in your personal prayers or with one or two others you know to be of like mind on such matters.

Turn off your “fixer” instincts

We’re all fixers. When a problem is brought up as a prayer request, our first response is to find a solution. We’re ready to jump into immediate action, offer platitudes to make hurt go away, or judge people’s choices and behaviors. And if we’ve been in a similar situation ourselves, we deliver unsolicited advice on what medicines or strategies worked for us.

The best practice in a prayer group is to be aware of our own tendencies to fix things. Begin by acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers. All problems are too unique and complex for us to solve without God’s help. This clears the way for God to work.

As you pray, wait, listen and see what God brings to light. Then ask God if this is something that should be voiced during prayer.

Know and use the spiritual gifts of the members to power prayer

Every person in your prayer group has been given one or more specialized spiritual gifts when they accepted Christ into their life. These spiritual gifts are called the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are supernatural God-given abilities used for Christ’s work here on earth. In prayer groups, they function most effectively in combination with the spiritual gifts of others to add power, purpose and direction.

It’s important to know and understand what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are, what gifts you’ve been given and how to use them. It’s also important to know what spiritual gifts others in your prayer group have so you can gauge how God is directing the group to pray and where your gift fits in.

Here’s a list of the gifts of the spirit listed in the Bible:

helps/serving

giving

mercy

teaching

encouragement/exhortation

apostleship

leadership

administration

shepherding/pastoring

evangelism

prophecy

tongues/interpretation of tongues

intercession

faith

discernment of spirits

words of wisdom/knowledge

healing

miracles

As an example of how different spiritual gifts might work together in a prayer group, a member with the gift of discernment might pray about a decision that someone is considering that they are finding troubling or somehow off base. Knowing that the member praying has the gift of discernment, group members would be alerted to pick up on this prayer thread because there may be something below the surface that needs attention.

Next a member with the gift of mercy might pray for the hurt they foresee this decision could cause. Someone else with the gift of knowledge/wisdom might get a specific thought about how to handle the matter. And a member with the gift of faith might pray words of hope and encouragement that God’s got this and things will work out.

Handle disruptive people with prayerful firmness

An overlooked prayer group best practice is to know how to firmly handle disruptive people. Occasionally you may get a visitor or member in your prayer group who hijacks the prayer meeting by their neediness, their fervor, their mental health struggles, their spiritual lostness/darkness/anger or their desire for the spotlight.

Please note that we’re not talking about those times when a prayer meeting will be led by the Holy Spirit to pray at length for a person in imminent need such as facing a serious operation or a life crisis. And sometimes the whole prayer meeting time might be needed for something like a church or world crisis.

Here we’re specifically talking about someone who tries to take charge of a prayer meeting to serve their own personal agenda. Such disruptions are not conducive to having a productive prayer meeting and should be firmly handled by the prayer group leader.

Try politely interrupting them by stating that you need to cut them a bit short for the sake of time. Pause and briefly pray for their concern and then move forward with the prayer group agenda.

If the disruption continues to happen, pray privately with several group members about the matter. You may also seek further help in handling the person from the clergy or staff.

Be equipped to stand in prayer against evil

In addition to praying about human problems, prayer groups also stand against evil forces that cannot be dealt with through human understanding or strength. This is commonly called spiritual warfare which means fighting unseen forces of evil through the power and protection of God’s Holy Spirit.

It’s crucial for prayer groups to study what the Bible says about Satan, his tactics and how to use God’s power against them in prayer. It’s vital that prayer groups know how to pray and apply Scripture, how to stay under God’s protection by preparing themselves through prayer and fasting and by using the graces known as the Armor of God.

Pray expectantly and don’t limit God

There’s a preacher joke about a person who was sitting on the roof of their house during a flood, praying for God to save them. A boat comes by and the person refuses to get in because they’re expecting God to save them, not a boat. Next a helicopter comes and the person again refuses rescue for the same reason. Finally, the flood gets so high that the person drowns. They meet St. Peter at the pearly gates and complain that God let them down by not saving them. St. Peter says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. God sent you a boat and a helicopter!”

God invites us to pray specifically for what we need. But once we’ve prayed, the answers are up to him to choose. As an example, someone might get the impression that a chronic illness didn’t go away because they didn’t have enough faith or didn’t pray enough or use the right words. Unfortunately, this misapplies human logic to both God and prayer, exerting undue pressure on the act of prayer, the worthiness of the person praying and ultimately, on their faith.

Praying expectantly doesn’t mean expecting God to do exactly what we request. Instead, it means praying with the expectation that God will be at work in some way that helps, heals, comforts, strengthens or directs.

We often don’t know what God will do, but we always know that He has heard us and is at work. And that’s the most divine expectation of prayer.

My Personal Experience Learning Best Prayer Group Practices

This list of best practices for prayer groups is the result of things I’ve observed and learned over a 40 year period as a visitor, participant and leader of countless prayer groups of all kinds.

The Different Types of Prayer Groups I’ve Experienced

A short-term prayer groups that met weekly for about 6 months to pray over a world concerns.

A phone prayer chain (including leading the group for a number of years.)

Prayer partners who I prayed with in person or on the phone.

Healing prayer groups.

Christian meditation groups such as centering prayer, silent retreats

Prayer walks

A weekly clergy-led guided prayer group at our church to pray for our mission and community.

Prayer breakfasts

Intercessory prayer group where you pray for the needs and problems of those in or outside your group

National Day of Prayer services

Prayer conferences and workshops.

I’m currently in an intercessory prayer group at my church that started 25 years ago. In the beginning, I was a member. Later, when the leader moved, I was asked to take over the leadership role.

My Learning Curve as a Prayer Group Leader

In my role as the leader of an intercessory prayer group, I learned by trial and error what to do and what not to do.

The mission of the group I lead is to pray for the needs of our church and each other. Our format is to meet together for half an hour to share prayer requests and then we go to the prayer chapel for the next half hour to pray for those needs.

During our prayer time we do conversational prayers to God that aren’t preplanned but are spoken out loud spontaneously one at a time in no particular order. As the leader, I’m the time keeper and begin and end the prayer time.

The Covid Learning Curve

During Covid our group had to pivot to an online zoom meeting format. At first it seemed awkward praying online, but we quickly adapted because even when you pray in person together, you close your eyes and only hear each other’s voices.

I soon learned that not all of us agreed on the politics of Covid restrictions. I opened prayer meetings by saying that we needed to remember that not all of us had the same views on Covid restrictions and that we could pray together for the general wellbeing of us all without telling God how we felt it should be done.

Sometimes something you think is a detriment to your group may turn out to be beneficial. Covid actually turned out to be a great benefit to our prayer group because previously we had been meeting monthly. During Covid, we were meeting virtually weekly because we craved the interaction. When Covid restrictions were lifted, we continued meeting weekly because we were so thankful to be back together. We’ve been meeting weekly ever since, and there’s always plenty to pray about.

Praying through changes at our Church

We soon went through intense prayer times when our church went through a period of discernment on a going in a new independent denominational direction. During this period of our prayer group, we learned how to lament together in prayer. We also prayed for people we knew and loved who chose to leave our church and for our ministers and leaders. Although it was a difficult time, I often look back to that time as a period when we grew exponentially in our prayer times by depending on God to help us pray honestly, well and in total dependence on Him.

Learning how to use Our Spiritual Gifts

During the next phase of our prayer group growth, I attended a seminar on using the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Although I was familiar with what the gifts of the spirit were, this was the first time I paid attention to how they might be used to add the power of the Holy Spirit to our prayer group.

We did a 6-week study based on the book Convergence by Jon Thompson. All of our group members were enthusiastic to find out what their spiritual gifts are and how to use them to amplify our prayers for others.

Once each of us realized that we were uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit we brought our gifts to group prayer. We saw the Holy Spirit leading us in newly interactive ways as we prayed. We experienced what St. Paul calls “the Body of Christ.” In prayer, we’re not simply inter-related. Rather we are inter-dependent because each has a part to play and a part to pray.

The amazing bonds we have formed

The most amazing part of being in a prayer group is the bonds we have formed with each other over time. I have found the following saying to be true of my experiences with prayer groups: “the closer we are to God, the closer we are to one another. The closer we are to one another, the closer we are to God.” (Dorotheos of Gaza)

As we grow closer to God in prayer, we grow closer to the other prayer group members. We know each other more deeply as we pray through our life problems together, encourage each other, depend on each other’s spiritual gifts and learn from our unique outlooks on life. And it gives us a taste of the mysterious joy, peace and power that God designed in prayer groups.

Prayer Group Best Practices