Ideas for celebrating the Season of Prayer

Individual ideas and actions

• Develop a personal prayer map using the resource provided in order to more effectively pray for people you know who don’t yet know Jesus.
• Engage in personal prayer and fasting during the Season of Prayer.
• Pray for the persecuted church (prayer suggestions can be found at opendoors.org.au).

Resources for prayer with others

• Run a three-week Bible study on prayer using one of the Bible study outlines provided (Discovery Bible Study or Jacob Traeger’s study).
• Start a small prayer group within your church – some groups meet before worship on a Sunday, and others meet over breakfast or coffee on another morning of the week.
• Organise a prayer walk around your neighbourhood. As you walk, ask, ‘Holy Spirit, what are you up to here? Heavenly Father, how do you want to bless this neighbourhood? How might we be part of that?’
• Pray the Blessing Prayer with others for your town, suburb or region.

Congregational ideas and actions

• Use the sermons on prayer and worship resources provided at the LCANZ Worship Planning Page in your public worship for the three Sundays of the Season of Prayer.
• Pray for God to send out harvest workers.
• Regularly incorporate prayer for church plants and mission situations in the Prayer of the Church.
• Organise a ‘call to prayer’ for your congregation – pick a particular time during or after the Season of Prayer, such as a Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, and gather with others for several hours of prayer.
• Facilitate a congregational prayer group – for example, before Sunday service or over breakfast.

Wider ideas and actions

• New and Renewing Churches runs a fortnightly prayer meeting on Zoom every Thursday night to pray for renewal and mission across Australia and New Zealand. Email darren.kupke@staging.lca.org.au for information on when it is running and how to join.
• Organise a call to prayer in a regional way in your locality. Publicise and invite other congregations to take part on a particular day.
• Join the Epaphras Project (prayer for the maturity, discipleship and mission of your local congregation). Email newandrenewing@staging.lca.org.au to learn more about the Epaphras Project. Check out the page on the LCA website.
• New and Renewing Churches facilitates a national intercessors’ network and district intercessors’ networks. Contact Beverley Heidenreich at heidenreichs@internode.on.net to learn more about the national and district intercession networks.