Have you ever been at a prayer meeting when the leader doesn’t show?  It is good to have something in your back pocket, a list of ideas, a set of implements in your tool box that you can pull out at such a time.  Know the times – Jump in quickly to prevent people leaving or dissolving into discussion, but be ready to relinquish control if the leader is tardy rather than absent.

Here’s a couple of simple direction that serve several purposes:  They get people talking, they start with the scriptures, they provide lots of material for prayer, and they can be communicated in less than a minute..

Depending on the size of your prayer service, you may need to break into smaller groups, but for 6-10, this works well.  Ask everyone to tell what they have been reading in the Bible recently and what they have been learning.  Then say that the group will be using all these verses to guide us in our prayers.

One morning recently we heard quick synopses of verses from Deuteronomy, Kings, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Hebrews and the Beatitudes.  The prayer time covered, among other things, Christ –centered, Hebrews-driven praise and worship; confession of sin based on the wickedness of the Kings; beatific peace and comfort for suffering congregational members; and support and Nehemiah-like wisdom for church leaders.