Praying for others - 10 creative ways to help young people pray

10 creative prayer ideas to help your young people engage in praying for friends, family, community, nation and the whole world. The ideas use visual or activity prompts to encourage individual and group prayer.

Several can be used together to develop extended times of creative prayer with your group.

‘I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.’ 1 Timothy 2: 1-4

BIRTHDAY PRAYER BOARD

Put up a wall calendar and ask the young people and leaders to write their names beside their date of birth. Include other members from the church if you wish and any significant dates from the church and youth group calendar. Each week use this visual prompt to stimulate small group prayer for individuals and activities.

PRAYERS IN A HAT

Ask everyone in the group to put their name on a piece of paper. Place the pieces of paper into a hat or another convenient container. Then pass the hat around the group and ask each young person to take out a piece of paper. Encourage them to pray for that person during the coming week.

THE PEOPLE CROSS

Ask each young person and leader to write the name of a friend, work colleague or family member they wish to pray for, on a piece of paper or card. The young people then place the papers on the floor in the shape of a large cross. The group then stands in a circle around the cross and pray for the person they named. Invite them to softly speak out their individual prayers together. Encourage them to pray,

• For any needs that each friend may have
• That each friend will become more open to God
• That each friend will become a follower of Jesus
• That God would use you to reach your friends.

NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST

Ask the group to face each of these directions in turn and then pray together in silence, or out loud, for any specific needs, personal, individual, local, national, global in that direction. Find out where the missionaries from your church, or those you support, are working and pray for them as you face the direction of their mission field. Bring a compass to the meeting!

COMMUNITY PRAYERS

Invite someone from your church or local community i.e. police officer, health worker, businessman, educator, local politician, to talk a little about their role and share prayer requests for the needs of the community related to their work and role. These can be developed for personal or group prayer.

PRAYER WALK

Invite the young people to go for a walk around your neighbourhood or town. If you have a large youth group divide into smaller groups, each accompanied by a leader. As you walk make notes of the things you see i.e. particular homes, schools, shops, people. Consider and discuss possible prayer needs for each of these situations, and make a note. You could pray right there and then, or perhaps go away and write up your list of locations and prayer topics.

NEWS PRAYER

Collect together some of the TV news headlines (local, national, global) from the previous week as a short video or PowerPoint presentation. Alternatively, select 3-4 headlines from newspapers and stick them to a piece of card. Ask the members of the group to write a prayer about one of the subjects, and then in turn, to read them out. Or, give out copies of the day’s newspapers and ask the young people to cut out or highlight stories they wish to pray for.

PRAYER MAPS (1)

Place a large map of your nation at the centre of the room. Read 1 Timothy 2: 1-4 and invite the young people to get into small groups of 3 or 4 and encourage them to pray for those in authority. Pray for your government and leaders. Pray for wisdom as they govern. Pray that peace and justice might rule in their lives.

Ask the young people to quietly form new small groups to pray for the church in your nation. Pray for the church to be bold in ‘speaking the truth in love’ and pray for revival. Pray for your church to have a greater impact and witness in your community.

PRAYER MAPS (2)

Place a large map or globe of the world in the centre of the room. Around the map place photographs and newspaper articles of situations around the world which need prayer and intercession. Highlight nations where you know missionaries and Christian ministries working to reach people with the Gospel. If you wish, ask members of the group to research certain nations and bring prayer requests from the information they have gathered.

CANDLE IN THE DARK

Ask the group to sit cross-legged in a circle on the floor. Darken the room and place a single lighted candle in the centre of the circle. Use a contemporary illustration to highlight what it means to suffer and be persecuted for your Christian faith.

Then in the silence, encourage the young people to pray for the suffering church. For isolated and persecuted believers, for God’s grace and strength to fill their lives, for justice, and for the person or family highlighted in your illustration.

MORE ON PRAYER AND YOUNG PEOPLE

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Comments

[Cathian]

Praise God for this forum. Your ideas are insightful. God bless your minisrty. Amen.

[mandela ncube]

lovely ideas, hope they make a difference in peoples life as we await the lords coming soon

[PASTOR GBENGA KOLAWOLE]

thanks for the write up

[Andrew McBay]

Great article. I'm dealing with some of these issues as well..

[RAPHAEL BHEMBE]

I am a religious brother working in a Catholic youth centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Various schools bring their students to us for a week-long course on human sexuality and behavioural change in the light of Christian faith

These prayer ideas score high points on the evaluation sheet. I sincerely appreciate.

[Joelle]

Thanks, have been looking for a while online for fun prayer ideas for our ladies soccer team and your website has been one of the most helpful!!

[Brian Kirk]

Great ideas, as usual! Very creative. Thanks for continuing to share excellent resources.