Prayer Tree and Prayer Team

[andrwfields]

Since I first started becoming active in my church, I noticed that prayer was not something that was done by most members of the church on a regular basis, except on Sundays. It really worried me too.

I decided to ask around about a prayer tree within the church. The answer I got was less than thrilling. Apparently, the tree was there, but quite a few members of it had passed away, moved away, or didn't want to be on it period. I also found out that there was one little old lady running the thing with about 5-6 people that actually got a call for prayer after she did. Basically, the thing was dead. In fact, a lot of the people in the church thought that it WAS DEAD and didn't even know there was a number to call for prayers.

After going to a couple of conventions with my pastor and friends, it was set in my heart to revive the prayer tree in the church and get an active prayer team as well.

Now, the tree is getting a slow start and I'm not finding all the cooperation that I had hoped for originally, even though I am calling all of our church members in the directory to join and getting quite a few positive responses.

Do you guys have any suggestions on how to get an active prayer tree/team going? What would you expect if you were to come to a prayer meeting? How would you conduct a prayer over the phone?

Help

[ColtsFan76]

As I mentioned to an earlier question on the topic, we basically have experience the same thing. What is working is the email chain. We have one little old lady working it (and the church secretary has a back-up listing for when she is out of town).

The benefits are that it is instanteous - especially if you are already logged on to your mail either at home or work. One person can reach a 100 for less effort than calling 2 people. Their is no corruption in the information. (We have had instances were someone will call at the top of the list with their concern and they themselves are near the bottom of the tree. by the time the message worked it's way down, the request was all screwed up. not that it matters to God, but it was rather disturbing to the people making the request).

the downside is that if you don't check your mail regularly, you may not get the message. It's a lot less personal. But regardless, I found i much prefer the email method. I always knew about prayer requests before my grandma (who lived next door) found out on the phone tree.

I am sure they still serve a purpose, but i think the prayer chain is going the same way as actual hymn books - a dinosaur soon to be replaced by technology.

[andrwfields]

Oh trust me, I would delight in the idea of using email or instant messaging or some sort of message board. Thing is, when you live in backwoods Kentucky, you are lucky to see people using indoor plumbing. Lol.

[andrwfields]

An update here as well:

The prayer chain is up and running. I finally just had to build one almost from scratch. Sadly enough, it is being exercised almost at it's fullest in it's second week as we've had a few church members in the hospital and one to die.

The prayer team is just around the corner as I prepare to collaberate the members' schedules to get something going. I've also found a book called House of Prayer that is all about starting up a church prayer ministry. I really like a lot of the ideas that he has and I think I'll be able to do an excellent job of building off of them.

[chad_ghost]

i meant to post on this earlier. last fall i was on the prayer team at the college ministry i served on.

the thing i found hardest was being diligent. to sum up my feelings, i found this quote:

The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.
-- Samuel Chadwick