It is a fairly well known story that Charles Spurgeon had many people praying for him each time he preached. He referred to this as his “furnace room.” He attributed the success of his preaching to these pray-ers. One way to communicate the value of prayer in a congregation is to encourage prayer during the service. Even a casual reference to “those who are praying right now for this message” speaks volumes to the people in the congregation. There are several ways this can happen.
The most common approach that works especially well with multiple services is to ask people to gather together in a room to pray. If the pastor gives them some points to pray based upon the emphasis of his message, this can help them pray more specifically. If the pray-ers are able to watch a screen and/or hear the audio of what is happening in the service, they can add prayer for each part of the service, including the announcements, welcoming people, worship, as well as specific points of the worship and any type of call to respond to the message.
I know of a congregation whose pastor assigns regular attenders to be pray-ers once or twice per year. They are stealth pray-ers who attend the service, but pray based upon a specific outline the pastor sends them beforehand. At times they pray for people around them, for people on the platform, for people who are not at the service, as well as for specific parts of the announcements and his message.
*Blessed by Doing – Ask the Lord if there are ways you should encourage prayer to take place during the service(s). If you have responsibility to help shape the weekend service, consider how this may look.
Taken from “United and Ignited”. Click here for more information.