Each summer we spend a whole elders meeting praying for the congregation.  Pastor Ben creates an extensive but not exhaustive prayer list by topics.  Members are listed under each topic and we move consecutively through the list, concentrating on the individuals in each section.  As you can see from the list below, many of the topics lead to supplication, but there are also praise, thanksgiving, and a catch-all “Additional Concerns.”

One of the benefits of having names listed under the categories is it provides the elders with an update.  They may need the information for their elder district work, and it will lead to useful conversations on Sunday mornings.

We have learned that even though we have two hours, we need to move more quickly at the beginning to make sure we cover the topics at the end.  The list of topics we used this past summer:

–          Health Concerns

–          Long-term health / lifestyle concerns

–          Moved or Moving

–          Graduating / Going to College

–          Seminary Students

–          Under Discipline

–          Unsaved Family members

–          Missionary concerns

–          Grieving

–          Looking for Work

–          New Members

–          New Staff Positions

–          Interns

–          New Building Team

–          Building Concerns

–          Church Finances

–          Marriages

–          Newly Married couples (11 in last 12 months)

–          Upcoming Marriages (8 in rest of year)

–          New Babies (10 this year so far)

–          Upcoming babies (9 that we know of)

–          Single Parents

–          Adoptions / Foster Families

–          Not seeing at URC

–          Additional Concerns