THE PRAYER BANNER for June 25, 2023

WHAT IF

What if there was something easy you could do to encourage the church to pray more? What if a slight nudge might make your church more the “House of Prayer” that Jesus said it should be? (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46) What if something fresh was available to inspire your prayer team each week? What if you could put something in people’s hands each week to remind them to pray daily and guide them in that prayer?

AND WHAT IF

What if people began to pray for the church every day? What if people started to pray kingdom prayers more than the temporal daily bread prayers? What if people prayed for the lost as much as they prayed for houses, jobs, and marital happiness?

THE PRAYER BANNER WEEKLY BULLETIN

THE PRAYER BANNER is a tool to help you. It‘s a weekly handout you can give the church to inspire and coach their prayer. It is perfect for a prayer season or an ongoing prayer culture.

THE PRAYER BANNER intentionally looks like a church bulletin. It is a single sheet double-sided printable that you simply bifold.

It has four main sections:

• Prompts to inspire prayer for the Sunday service.
• Prompts for the church to pray during the week.
• Prompts to target prayer for the lost.
• An area for taking notes or recording prayer requests.

Additional features are:

• A weekly scripture on prayer.
• Powerful quotes on prayer by prominent Christians.
• Two opportunities to commit to praying for a specific amount of time; for the church and prayer for the lost.
• A “pray beyond the church” section to inspire vision outside the immediate and focus on kingdom needs and mission.

New issues will be available weekly with fresh prayer points, scriptures, and quotes.

OF COURSE, THERE ARE LIMITS

We are all commanded to pray. Some people have a calling to pray. Maybe, in your church, only two, three, or five are called to the prayer ministry. Those few are the essential laborers in your church. They are the ones who are fighting the battles of the Lord. They are the ones who are praying for the pastor, the ministry of the church, and for the lost. That small number will utilize tools like this. They will appreciate that leadership offers a prayer structure like the PRAYER BANNER. They will feel that their desire for earnest kingdom prayer is respected. For the sake of the two, three, or five, you want something like the PRAYER BANNER available.

Many people will say it is a great idea but will only use tools like this half-heartedly, if at all. In our culture, we have the “The majority rules” view. And leadership may be tempted to say, “Well, very few people are using this, so why waste good paper on it?” But the rule of God’s culture is “My ways are not your ways…” (Isaiah 55:8-9). God blesses the little, the broken, the small, the disabled, and so should we. If you offer this only for the benefit of the two or five who will use it, it is worth it.

SECONDARY BENEFITS

If you offer a tool such as the PRAYER BANNER, you will begin to identify your prayer warriors. They will be the ones who are faithfully using it each week. Then you will know whom to tailor teaching, training, and encouragement. Identifying your prayer team is the beginning of building a powerful prayer ministry.

The presence of a tool like the PRAYER BANNER is a statement to the church that prayer is valued. It says prayer is more than grace at mealtimes or desperate pleas during a crisis. But it is essential for the church’s growth and the growth in the lives of its members.

MANY WAYS TO USE THIS

• Distribution before the Sunday service would work fine.
• It can be part of a season of prayer.
• It is not meeting-specific so it can be used during midweek meetings, Sunday night meetings, youth meetings, or traditional Sunday worship.

OK, I CAN HEAR YOU WONDERING

Why the name THE PRAYER BANNER? Were all the good names taken? Well, yes, kind of. But prayer has an element of warfare. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:1.2 ESV) In ancient warfare, each unit would have a standard. The standard was like a flag or banner to identify them. You could see it over the heads of fighters during battle. Battles are confusing, so a warrior needed to see where his unit’s banner was because it revealed where his unit was fighting. It was where he belonged. As Christians, we fight our battles through prayer. Therefore, the name THE PRAYER BANNER recognizes that we, as soldiers of the cross, must rally to the place of prayer.

Come back to BaptisLIFE online every week to get the refreshed weekly version of THE PRAYER BANNER.

Adron Dozat serves as BCM/D prayer ministry missionary and facilities specialist

Feature Image: Drobot Dean, Licensed Adobe Stock Images