How healthy is your mid-week prayer meeting? What proportion of your membership attends? Is there eager participation? Do people pray intelligently? What can church leaders do to improve the prayer life of the church?
Paul Tautges says that ministers must get beyond simply telling their congregations to pray more. He encourages them to engage in teaching their people to think biblically about prayer.
In the first part of this handy little book he shows how prayer had such a prominent place in the early church. He draws attention to the example of the Jerusalem church which ‘prayed constantly’ (Acts 1) and then focuses on the teaching of the apostle Paul who calls upon the church to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thessalonians 5).
The main body of the book comprises seven short sermons that are particularly suitable for preaching at mid-week prayer meetings, but also instructive for a more general readership. These are instructive expositions of New Testament texts and deal with the following aspects: prayer and forgiveness; hindrances to a husband’s prayer; when the Holy Spirit prays for us; asking the elders to pray; praying for our Government; praying for unbelievers; praying in the name of Jesus.
The book concludes with a series of appendices giving practical suggestions for organising different kinds of prayer meetings and developing a climate of prayer in the church.
Everyone involved in leading prayer meetings will find something helpful here. They know how easy it is to slip into mere routine and it must be good to take a look at a different approach.
