Insight

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.

Helping young people to pray

How can we help young people to pray? We all know that sometimes when we pray distractions come and it’s hard to stay on track. At other times we just end up with ‘shopping list’ prayers.

Here are four simple ideas or guides which I’ve used with young people who have wanted to be more effective in their prayers.

The first two examples are acrostics. Acrostics have been devised throughout history from the ancient Greek and Latin writers, through renaissance poets and medieval monks, right up to modern times. An acrostic poem is where the first letter of the line in the poem works together to spell a word.

In these examples each letter of the four letter word, forms the initial letter of another word or phrase to guide the direction and focus of the prayer.

Sin and forgiveness - a youth group discussion starter

A youth group discussion starter helping your group to understand the way sin operates in our lives and God’s solution.


THE S WORD

Ask the young people to call out the first word that they think of when the word sin is mentioned. Write the answers on a whiteboard. Usually they will come up with a list of actions: stealing, adultery, murder etc. Make the point that these are just some of the results of sin, but the Bible reminds us that the cause of these actions lies deep within the nature of everyone (Mark 7: 21-23).


THE GRAVITY GAME

Stand a volunteer on a chair, holding one end of a broom or pole. Another volunteer stands on the ground, behind a line drawn a metre in front of the chair, holding the other end of the pole.

Explain to the volunteers that they must not let go of the stick, but by pulling and twisting, the first volunteer is to try and pull the second over the line. At the same time the second volunteer has to try and pull the first off the chair. Try this couple of times with different volunteers of similar height and weight.

The person on the chair will usually lose. This is because the volunteer on the floor has the extra benefit of gravity, a powerful force pulling downwards. The Bible also describes sin as a powerful force, pulling us down, and separating us from a relationship with God.