How
to Start a Prayer Chain
Why Establish a Prayer Chain? |
| Prayer
needs to be at the heart of every personal and women's ministry,
and a prayer chain is a fantastic way to encourage and motivate
personal and corporate prayer. A Prayer Chain helps to develop
body life, to bring prayer needs to mind through out the days
and weeks, and to promote praise in worship as the group of
pray-ers sees answers to their prayers. |
General Instruction |
| Prayer
chains are ideal for urgent requests that are both short-term
and definite in nature. The goal will be to provide immediate
prayer cover - instead of requiring the party to wait for an
official prayer service. |
Types of Prayer Chains |
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1.
Email. By far the easiest to run, an
email chain has many advantages including instant access,
no answering machines or endless rings, no chance of gossip
and ease-of-updates. Requirements: Publicize the prayer
chain and include a sign-up sheet to request prayer and
one to be a pray-er. Enrollment: A sign-up sheet with
spaces for the person's name and email address.
2. Telephone - Structured. The second
easiest to run, a structured telephone chain allows participants
to register for limited service. Each chain (within the
larger whole) operates only on certain days or at certain
times of day. Other rules may also apply, such as, "You
must share the request and then hang up promptly, make
the next call, and then pray on your own." These
highly structured chains increase the flow-through while
reducing the chance of participants missing out on calls.
Requirements: Publicize the prayer chain and include three
sign-up sheets: one to request prayer, a second to be
a pray-er, and a third to be a prayer chain captain (see
description below). Enrollment: There should be spaces
for the person's name, telephone number and days and/or
times of days they would be available. The prayer chain
coordinator would then assemble people with like-scheduling
requirements into one chain and assign a captain. Upon
receiving a request, the coordinator would call the captains
who would in turn start their own chain(s) at the appropriate
times.
3. Telephone - Open. This chain is started
each time a call comes in, morning, noon or night, any
day of the week and provides the pray-ers with the option
of praying together on the phone before calling-on the
requests. It provides instant prayer coverage and increased
interaction among the pray-ers, but has the potential
of burning out its participants as they face longer phone
conversations and the potential of multiple no-answers
or answering machines per request. Requirements: Publicize
the prayer chain and include three sign-up sheets: one
to request prayer, a second to be a pray-er, and a third
to be a prayer chain captain (see description below).
Enrollment: There should be spaces for the person's name
and telephone number. The prayer chain coordinator would
create chains of 10 or less and assign a captain to each.
Upon receiving a request, the coordinator would call the
captains who would in turn start their own chain(s).
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Staffing for ALL Types of Prayer
Chains |
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Could
be organized by one person and empowered by many pray-ers.
1. Coordinator. One person should be selected
to be "in charge" of the program. She may take on
one or more of the other leadership roles or simply oversee
them. This task is handled either by the church secretary or
by any individual who is a) responsible, b) available, c) articulate
and d) willing to post their telephone number and/or email address
to the public for this reason. She would promote the new endeaver,
collect names and contact information of potential pray-ers,
and then keep this data current from year to year.
2 . Chain Captain(s). Required only with phone
chains, the Coordinator calls each captain upon receiving a
new request. Captains then start their own chain or chains.
3 . Pray-ers. There could be countless pray-ers
on a single email chain, but a telephone chain should consist
of no more than 10 pray-ers per chain, each with their own captain.
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Responsibilities of the Coordinator |
1.
Create a notebook that you will use as your prayer-chain journal.
2.
Enter each request including date, time, person calling, their
contact number and the precise request. When answers to prayers
are phoned/emailed in, be sure to add them to your journal --
and then pass them along to the captains.
3.
When receiving a call, remember to be gentle and encouraging.
The caller may be under extreme stress. Ask only questions that
will help you reduce the context of the request to one, clearly
stated sentence which may be passed along to pray-ers.
4.
Before hanging up, request that the caller, "call again"
when they have an update to share.
5.
When writing out requests, before starting the chains, reduce
the information to one sentence. It is not necessary to go into
detail about relations, specific medical terminology and so
on. The goal is to give enough information so they can pray
intelligently.
6.
Other than those who are participating with you in prayer on
the chain, keep all information completely confidential. |
Responsibilities of the Captains
& Pray-ers |
|
1.
Create a notebook that you will use as your prayer-chain journal.
2.
Enter each request including the date and precise request. When
answers to prayers are phoned/emailed in, be sure to add them
to your journal -- and then pass them along to the next prayer
as quickly as possible.
3.
When receiving and passing along a request, remember to repeat
the request word-for-word, making no comment about the request
other than what is being passed through the line. There is a
great potential for gossip and mis-understandings... be careful!
4.
Be content with the details you are given. The goal is to provide
you with enough information to pray intelligently - not to solve,
dissect or discuss the situation with anyone except God.
5.
Other than those who are participating with you in prayer on
the chain, keep all information completely confidential.
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Cautions
with a Prayer Chain |
A
poorly run chain could lead to gossip, hurt feelings or worse!
It is critical that you explain and insist on the privacy and
protection of those who call in requests. Should it ever come
to your attention that someone on a chain is gossipping or in
some other way offending the integrity of the chain, gently
apply Matthew 18:15, "If your brother sins, go and show him
his fault, just between the two of you." |
Prayer Chains Helps, Samples
& Ideas |
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We were able to find the following prayer chain
resources and ideas:
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