The 100 Year Prayer Meeting
B.B. Warfield
www.PrayerMeetings.org
Supplying resource material for praying believers and their leaders on:
Prayer and The Prayer Meeting
Other Subjects:  The Attributes of God, The Death of Christ.
Whatever Happened to
the Prayer Meeting?


A congregation without a prayer meeting is essentially defective in its organization,
and so must be limited in its efficiency.
The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston

Whatever Happened to the Prayer Meeting?

By
George Verwer

Samuel Chadwick, one of God's great men of past years, taught that
Satan's greatest aim is to destroy our prayer lives. Satan is not afraid of
prayerless study, prayerless work or prayerless religion - but he will tremble
when we pray. If Chadwick was correct (and many other great men of God
have said similar things), then we have a problem. If there is any part of our
church life that seems to be in trouble, it is the prayer meeting. IN fact, in an
increasing number of churches, for all practical purposes, there is no such
meeting at all.
There is no lack of books on prayer, and most pastors preach on prayer
every now and again. But if there is any doctrine to which we pay only lip
service in our churches, it has to be the doctrine of prayer. I have ministered
in thousands of churches over the past twenty-two years in Europe, North
America and around the world and I have never ceased to be amazed at the
neglect of true, heart-felt, corporate prayer. There are some beautiful
exceptions, of course, but they are few by comparison. I sometimes wonder
whether another challenge or message on prayer will do any good. The hour
has come for us to pray. Let us put the prayer meeting back into the life of
our churches.
Part of my motivation for writing this article came after a weekend of
ministry in a church where the mid-week prayer meeting had been dropped,
due manly to lack of interest and attendance. The Holy Spirit worked during
that weekend, and in the final meeting on Sunday evening the pastor
announced that they would start the prayer meeting again on the following
Wednesday evening. Later, I heard that some fifty people had attended and
that they had a great time of prayer. The fact that some churches do have
good, lively, powerful prayer meetings even in this activistic, leisure-loving,
television age is proof that your church can do so as well. But it will take
action, discipline and perseverance, combined with large amounts of love,
patience and spiritual reality.
Some Christians tell me that they have stopped going to dead, badly
organized prayer meetings, while others continue only from a sense of duty
or guilt. Should we not be drawn into the presence of the living God with
higher motivation than this? Why are we attracted only by special speakers
and programs, rather than to the Lord himself? What real authority does the
Lord Jesus have in our churches today? What authority does he have in your
life and mine if we do not give top priority to meeting regularly with his
people to pray?

The Need for Change
To see things change will take both a spiritual and practical revolution. We
need a divine combination of practical change and deeper commitment.
Pastors spend hours preparing for a sermon, but how much time is put into
preparing for the prayer meeting? Linked with this is the great compromise
of changing the prayer meeting to a mid-week service or 'prayer and Bible
study' that involves only ten to twenty minutes of actual intercession after the
bible study and prayer requests. I suppose some feel this is better than
nothing, but many decide that 'nothing' is better and so they just don't attend.
Some really lively churches with which I have contact, have prayer and Bible
study on separate nights in order to give enough time for both. Others have
them together, but make the meeting long enough to include at least one
hour of prayer. Some hold prayer meetings in various homes, which is good,
although often on these occasions there is a tendency for there to be more
fellowship than prayer. And when these groups do pray, they often seem to
lack reality in the area of intercession.
These functions should not take the place of at least one good church
prayer meeting each week at which a large part of the congregation meets.
We should follow the example we find in Acts 1:14, 'They all joined together
constantly in prayer.'
The lack and neglect of such meetings is, I believe, one of the greatest
mistakes in our Bible-believing churches, and such deception by Satan
represents a far greater enemy than liberal theology or the cults. In fact, a
clear study of 2 Corinthians 10:4-7 would show us that prayer is the
principal means through which we are going to stand against the enemy
whatever way he might attack us. We seem to be blind to the nature of
spiritual warfare and feel that as long as we have a full Sunday school and
good numbers on Sunday morning then all is well. Could it be true that if the
Holy Spirit left us, very few changes would be made? Would everything go
on as usual?
We should be willing to do almost anything to keep from such a deadly
state. It seems to be almost too late in some places, where spiritual
schizophrenia has set in such a deep level. This will be changed only by
radical, deep-rooted repentance. Surely the prayer meeting, and our
personal prayer lives, must be of vital importance if anything lasting and real
is to take place at the centre of church life. Let us put Christ back into his
rightful place as, Lord of our own lives and of our church programmes.

Church Leaders Must Act
The responsibility for action rests with pastors and church leaders, with a
need for the co-operation of every church member. It is vital that church
leaders meet together for discussion and prayer on specific action they
should take to make the prayer meeting a main event in their churches.
Pastors need to realize the importance of firm preaching and teaching on the
biblical basis for prayer. They also need to point out some of the things to
avoid in prayer meetings; praying too long at one time, preaching at others
in our prayers, praying only for the needs of our own church, not changing
anything from week to week, judging and looking down on people who pray
differently or who lack ability in English or theology, and not really believing
or expecting any answers. A lot of good books on prayer are now available
and should be widely distributed among the congregation, along with other
informative books such as Operation World. Church leaders should wait on
God and prepare in a serious way so that each prayer meeting is carefully
planned and fully used.

Conducting the Prayer Meeting
As far as the prayer meeting itself is concerned, how can we actively get
out of the rut which often makes this the most boring, unpopular meeting of
the week? I'd like to pass on a few suggestions used effectively for more
than twenty years in our work. We have discovered that to vary the format
of the meeting is extremely important, as the more accustomed we become
to routines, the less vital it is to us. It can be varied by sometimes beginning
with worship, intercession and thanksgiving; other times with a brief
challenge to prayer. If ministry from the Word is given it should be short and
yet powerful; individuals could also share specific answers to prayer.
Prayer must involve the mind as well as the heart, and long periods that do
not require personal involvement allow the mind to drift. Therefore, it is good
to break into groups so that each person is given the opportunity to
participate. Each group could, for example, be given information about one
area of need and be asked to concentrate their prayers on that.
We use films, videos and filmstrips whenever possible and applicable. Many
mission groups have produced some very effective ones that are a good
stimulus to prayer. When showing slides, you could even stop for a time of
prayer after each half dozen or so.
When prayer requests are presented, it is best to kept them short. Long
detailed accounts for prayer not only kill the spirit of the meeting, but they
also often leave very little time for prayer. Items for prayer and praise could
be written in advance and given out to people as they arrive, or they could
be written on a blackboard. One of the best helps is an overhead projector,
especially as outline maps of various countries could also be shown.
Delegate individuals in advance to give a brief update on a particular
country. This could include statistics (for example, the population of the
region, its religion, etc. –– all easily obtained from the book Operation
World), something of the missionary work being done there, as well as any
current news regarding different situations within that country. If the church
has several missionaries, then play short tapes containing up-to-date
information about their present circumstances. It may also be a good idea
for pastors to encourage people to 'adopt' a missionary family; to write to
them regularly, and then to present briefly the needs of that family at the
prayer meeting from time to time. It would be encouraging for both church
members and the missionaries if mission fields could be visited now and
again.
Urge different people to pray. Help them to feel relaxed in terms of
grammar, theological content or length. Especially encourage those who
don't pray very often or not at all - but don't embarrass anyone. There must
be a balance between the Holy Spirit's spontaneous work and each person's
helping to make the prayer meeting what it should be. Be patient and reject
discouragement –– people will not learn reality in prayer overnight. In order
to encourage people to become more world-wide in their vision, it is good to
make use of a world map and other helpful items (like the set of prayer
cards available from the address below).

Where and When
Where and how often should group prayer meetings be held? In addition to
the weekly prayer meeting at the church, I strongly advise that the meeting
be held periodically in homes. This opens doors of ministry through
hospitality and avoids the pitfalls of isolating prayer from fellowship and
basic spiritual growth. Around the world God is working in home meetings,
and a church is foolish if it totally fails to make use of this opportunity in
some way. How sad, on the other hand, to see many home groups having
no real interest in praying for anything outside their own particular needs.
I believe there should be spontaneous early morning prayer meetings and
days set aside for prayer, often far into the night. I believe this is one of the
main factors in the victories we see around the world, both on our two
ocean-going ships, and through our teams operating in more than twenty-
five countries. During such extended times of prayer people must be made
to feel free to leave when they want to. They must realize that they are not
in a spiritual marathon. However, the more information they have about the
world's needs, the more responsibility they will feel to pray for those needs
to be met. And prayer takes times!
Remember we are in a spiritual warfare. Prayer is one of our main weapons
and faith is closely linked with it. We must not expect it to be easy. Satan
will counter-attack any efforts made towards effective prayer. We must
refuse any form of discouragement and press forward whatever the cost.
Half the world has still not heard or read the gospel and what we do in
prayer, in God's sovereignty and mercy, will be a deciding factor as to
whether or not they will. Let us ask God for new ideas and initiatives in
order to be creative in the task that he has given us. And let us be
disciplined in playing our personal part.

Source: Joel News International
Whatever Happened to the Prayer Meeting
by George Verwer
Whatever Happened to Prayer Meeting
by Ben Patterson