How do we start? How do we keep prayer from becoming boring? How do I learn how to lead a prayer meeting that isn’t boring? It’s just being like a little child when you’re faced with this huge, impossible task. It’s okay just to launch into it, but even before you announce it, I actually encourage pastors not to preach a sermon on prayer.

Just Start Praying

How can pastors help their church become a praying church? I have a really brilliant suggestion that works every time. Pastors should start praying for that. It is sort of counterintuitive. We instinctively think—particularly in a Reformed world—that we have to have a plan. There is nothing wrong with having a plan, but I think it’s actually good to put planning in the backseat. You don’t want to kick it out, but in order to get the Spirit of Jesus in the front seat of the car and actually driving you, you need to slow down and be attentive to him.

So I just encourage pastors to get a prayer card—I use three-by-five cards as prayer cards—and just ask questions like, Show us, Lord, what it means to become a praying community.

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