During events week, it’s important to have a time each day when everyone can unite to pray. Many CUs run their prayer meeting before lectures start. It means an early start, but attendance tends to be better than if you hold it later in the daytime. Many students end the week with these prayer meetings having been one of the highlights of their week!
Here are some components you could include in your meetings:
- Breakfast! It can encourage people to get out of bed and come and it’s great to eat together as a team.
- A brief Bible devotion and prayer response.
- Some informal evangelism training from the speaker or Staff Worker (e.g. how to continue conversation after an event has finished).
- A time of story-sharing. Where has God been at work? Where has he answered our prayers?
- Hear from the speaker about what they’re speaking about in the day ahead. Hear about the plan for first-contact evangelism.
- Practical Notices.
- Worship.
- Prayer! Make sure you spend lots of time in prayer. It’s easy to plan a meeting where you don’t actually pray that much!
Here’s an example rundown for events week prayer meeting:
08:00
Chat, coffee, pastries
08:05
Welcome and 2x songs.
08:15
Story sharing from yesterday
What did we see God do? Ask people to stand up and share.
Host to pray a prayer of thanksgiving to close.
08:25
Bible thought and prayer
Pray for 5 minutes for the day ahead in response to what we’ve seen of God in scripture.
08:35
Speakers share a 60 second preview they’re speaking on today.
Students share 60 seconds on what first-contact evangelism is going on today.
Time in small groups to pray in response to what has been shared.
08:45
Stand as a big group and ask a few people to pray big prayers for campus.
08:50
Notices
Brief rundown of the day.
Any practical help still needed for the day ahead?
Any other things that people need to be aware of?
08:53
Turn in pairs and pray a prayer of blessing over each other.
08:55
Close for people to go to lectures.
Things to do:
- Vision. Discuss with your team — how could we make these meetings feel joyful, focused and exciting?
- Responsibility. Decide who will take overall responsibility for coordinating these prayer meetings. Ask them to propose a plan for prayer meetings that you can review as a team.
- Venue. Decide when and where you will host your prayer meetings. If a central space is difficult to find, are you better off hosting several meetings around the city? Book any spaces you need to book.
- People. Ask different people to host, lead worship, and share a short thought from the Bible each day. Make a note of who is leading on what day. Write a brief to give them an idea of how you’d like them to lead/what you’d like them to share.
- Decide what food you want to serve, how much you’ll need, and how you’ll source it.