Here are some ideas - tried and true - for transforming your congregational life through prayer:

• Have the staff meetings move from brief devotions and mostly business to longer periods of time set aside to share faith and discussing what God is calling you to do in your ministry area.
   
• Move the treasurer's and secretary's reports to the end of the council meeting and spend more of the meeting in prayer, study and faith sharing.
   
• Encourage musicians who lead worship to move from a "gig" mentality into leading the congregation in the worship of our Lord. As they begin to be more open to worship God themselves, the congregation follows suit. Prayer at rehearsal and before worship is important. If you have a contemporary service, change the name from being a "band" to being a worship team. This reflects more than just a title change!
   
• Begin a group of 12 people to spend six months in a study on prayer. Out of this can come a real prayer team who commit themselves to pray for the ministry of the church and its community.
   
• Assist worship leaders to change from seeing Sunday morning as a time before worship to make appointments and socialize with people in the congregation, to gathering an hour ahead with the prayer team, for 45 wonderful minutes of prayer. This can open hearts and prepare for worship.
   
• Set aside a night each week for intercessory prayer. Invite the congregation to attend.
   
• Invite anyone desiring prayer to stay after worship and come to the front of the church where the pastor or one of the prayer team prays with them.
   
• Identify a space - a closet, garden, or intimate place - to be used as a prayer chapel where people can come any time and pray. Prayer requests may be kept there and prayed over by the prayer team at home or in the chapel.

There are hundreds of other ideas that congregations have used to lift up the importance of prayer in individual as well as congregational life. Be encouraged to be creative! Wrestle with the question of what you are doing to grow in your prayer life and how is your congregation advancing the call of Christ to make followers for Jesus.

(Adapted from "Growing Your Congregation's Prayer Ministries: A Key to Strengthening Evangelism and Discipleship in Your Setting" by Brent Dahlseng)