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Helping families engage with prayer
Well, September is here, and whether you find yourself thankful for routine or longing for those summer days, we hope that you’re excited about the new season. This month we want to look at ways we can encourage the families in our churches to be intentional about prayer at home.
There is a great quote from Mother Teresa who says: “Let us love one another as God loves each one of us. And where does this love begin? In our own home. How does it begin? By praying together.”
I’m sure we would all love prayer to be something as natural in our homes as eating together or watching television as a family, but it can be tough sometimes to find a specific time to pray.
"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."
Jeremiah 29:12 (NIV)
It may be that parents feel unqualified to lead in prayer. We wanted to share a couple of quick suggestions that you could pass on to the families in your church, to help them engage with prayer at home.
- Talk about whatever is bothering you, no matter how small (1 Peter 5:7).
- Invite God to reveal his purposes, plans and desires for your life (1 John 5:14–15).
- Make God the head of your home (Deuteronomy 6:5–9).
- Expect God to respond as you humble yourself before him (Mark 11:22–25).
We pray that this month will be filled with fresh vision and encouragement for you and your church!
Gareth and the Kitchen Table Project team
Conversational prayer with Rachel Turner
Sometimes prayer is a challenge for us, let alone our children.
This audio podcast from Parenting for Faith pioneer Rachel Turner looks at how we can learn more about conversational prayer, and in turn help our children connect with God.
Prayer in our services
Have you thought about involving children in your prayer time during the service?
It's great for children to have the opportunity to see how other people talk to God, and will hopefully encourage them to see prayer as a normal, daily activity.
It can also be really encouraging for us as adults to see and hear children engage with God through prayer!
Prayer newsletters for families
We often target our prayer meetings or requests to the adults in our churches, but could we create a monthly prayer newsletter so that families can pray for these things together too?
This could include praying for the children's workers, local school, children around the world etc.
We would love to hear about the different ways churches are encouraging parents in this journey so that we can share these ideas with other churches. If you would like to share your ideas please contact us.
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