Toolbox Part One
Before the event
1. Partnering | 2. Format | 3. Preparation | 4. Planning content
In this section, we introduce the practical tools to employ in the run up to your ENOUGH-style corporate prayer event.
A key principle of ENOUGH is partnering together in corporate prayer at the same time, calling out to God to reach our broken world. Therefore, partnership with other churches is important. This might be just one other church family you have relationship with, or a whole group of churches such as your local churches-together network.
There are 2 aspects to this;
Investing together - to share the effort and costs of coordinating the events and producing the resources. This builds connection and relationship through prayer.
Gathering or connecting with other churches for the event itself – You can meet with churches situated close to you or you can connect via video link.
The ambition of an ENOUGH should be to connect with at least one other church and share the agenda for the evening.
Our heart for your initiative is to see as many people as possible come together and corporately enjoy praying together in thanksgiving and for breakthrough.
We have developed a format that will hopefully help facilitate and encourage prayer, not get in the way. We hope the format is innovative and helps engage as many people in prayer as possible.
Putting on an ENOUGH evening will attract some local costs. Once you have an idea of the format, it is important to liaise with those you are partnering with and perhaps share the costs according to the numbers being brought from each church.
The format will not simply work by itself; it requires excellent facilitation and hosting to envision and take people on a journey through the evening. Hence the need to make sure the right people are leading the evening.
Key components of corporate prayer
Building blocks
Content What are we looking to pray for?
Creativity How we are praying and celebrating?
Five distinct sections
An ENOUGH evening is made up of 5 core component themes:
FAMILY Focusing on unity, relationships, family and being united together as one body by sharing a meal and taking communion together.
THANKSGIVING Focusing on God as ENOUGH by using worship, testimony and prayer to give thanks for all God has done.
CHURCH Focusing on the wellbeing of the local and worldwide church by praying for churches represented in your prayer gathering and global church situations.
BROKEN WORLD Focusing on our broken world and reaching it with the Gospel, by praying that God breaks into specific areas of brokenness and fallenness in the world.
PIONEERING Focusing on breaking new ground and planting churches by praying into current pioneering situations within your church family or network.
Throughout the evening the aim is to pray through each of these component themes. The way you do each section is up to you and depends on the format that works best for you.
The following are 6 things to consider when planning and preparing an ENOUGH event.
1. Planning
“Planning should aid spontaneity not hinder it… Good planning means having an agenda that guides the meeting.” - Mike Betts
“Good corporate prayer in a large group also requires planning, at least as much as would go into any other well planned service of worship. Many prayer meetings fail precisely at this point. For some reason the idea is out there that a prayer meeting should simply ‘flow’ spontaneously in the Spirit, meaning that there should be no planning, since planning would somehow stifle the flow.”
Aim for about 4 - 5 hours of time. With 5 areas, this gives you between 45 mins and 1 hour for each component. How you arrange the components throughout the night is up to you. You can mix and match. Here are some options:
Option 1
15 minute slots
Pros: Fast moving / If you only come for an hour you will get a bit of everything
Cons: Might feel disjointed?
Option 2
30 minute slots
Pros: Good Pace
Cons: Anyone who comes for a short time can miss areas
Option 3
1 hour slots
Pros: Big blocks of time dedicated to one area
Cons: Slow moving / Anyone who comes for a short time can miss a lot
Option 4
15/30 minute slots
Pros: Mixed pace / Best of both worlds?
Cons: Can be more difficult to manage
2. Room set up
When organising a face to face event, why not avoid rows of chairs.
“It is difficult enough to pray without trying to pray into the back of someone's head. The church is a family coming together, not strangers sitting on a bus." - Mike Betts
Consider the following options:
Family section
A long table and chairs for the meal, or smaller semi-circles of chairs for groups to eat and take communion together
Several tables with communion set out for groups to gather round and take together
Thanksgiving section
Placing chairs along the outer walls of the room, encouraging people to fill the space in the middle to sing and worship
Smaller circles of chairs for groups to share testimonies with one another
Further ideas
Have visual stimuli (posters, prayer points, maps, statistics , etc) for each section placed around the room- you could encourage people to move from one to the next as the event moves through each section
Have refreshments (hot/cold drinks, snacks) available to one side
When praying for a geographical place, consider using tape to mark out a map of it on the floor
Children and families
Have tables and chairs placed to one side for children’s prayer crafts or activities - consider having a church member look after that area throughout the evening
Have a space/separate room for young children to sleep if your event runs late into the evening
3. Publicity
Communicating your ENOUGH event is vital. Here's some points to think about:
Give people plenty of notice!
Use different methods of advertising - leaflets, social media, in-person notices, emails… remember that not everyone uses social media, and if they do may still miss your post.
Excite people - share what you are planning to pray for and what they can expect.
Use bible verses, stories, testimonies and answers to prayer to inspire.
4. Prayer Agendas
“Building a prayer agenda for a corporate prayer meeting can be aided by looking at the components of the Lord's Prayer and following the flow of this. Worship, thanksgiving, God, His nature, His promises, requests for intervention and guidance, personal collective needs, appeal for deliverance from evil etc." - excerpt from The Prayers of Many
See above for the 5 distinct sections of prayer we suggest that can help aid your prayer agenda.
5. Engage families
Help families plan their participation before the event. This may be as simple as emailing a programme or schedule to parents beforehand so they can plan children's meals or bed times around the event.
Plan prayer activities that engage children ahead of the event. Consider a craft that children can start before the event and bring along to share/use during the event itself.
Ask your children and youth team to talk about the event in the weeks leading up to the event? Generate some excitement, anticipation and faith!
6. Teach on prayer
Why not preach or teach on prayer in the weeks leading up to the event?
This is a great opportunity to teach people how Jesus prayed, or how the early church saw prayer as a key to their success or to remind people of the privilege of being able to freely come to God our father in prayer. Use your corporate prayer event as an opportunity to build appetite and faith for prayer.
When considering the content for each area, here are some ideas:
Family
How will you include communion into your evening? Having a meal and family time is so important - even if you're online, could you incorporate an evening meal?
Part of the vision of ENOUGH, is for the whole family to join in. Whatever you decide to pray for, think about how children and young people can be engaged.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving and worship can take make forms. Whether you are physically meeting or online, think about how you will give thanks. The key is to make the focus God. Here’s a few ideas:
Ask a musician to record a video, or play an existing worship video
Read Scripture to each other
Share stories of answered prayer and encouragement
“Elisha focuses on God and as the musician plays, “The hand of the Lord came upon him”, it is so important that our focus is not on those urgent matters but on God.”
Church
The Church section is a great opportunity to pray for ministries in your church, such as kids or youth work. What are your churches/streams goals or aims? Why not pray into these. Some topics that we have covered over the years include:
Regularly praying for the salvation of friends and family.
Praying for social action projects in your local church and area.
Praying for God to break through in signs and wonders.
Broken World
What areas are you passionate about? What areas is your church or family of churches involved in? Some topics that we have covered over the years include:
Modern day slavery
Young people and youth culture
Issues around families and family life
Consider linking up with organisations and charities who you can support in prayer. In 2019, ENOUGH linked up with IJM, International Justice Mission, and we were able to pray through some real-life challenges around modern-day slavery. We saw tangible answers to prayer, which we were able to report back following the prayer event.
Pioneer
Are there church plants, pioneering teams or individuals who are pioneering from your church or family of churches, who you can pray for? Don't forget to follow up with the pioneers, once you have prayed for them! Answers to prayer will fuel our faith for future meetings!
Have you got a strategy for church planting and growth that you can pray into?
Is there a nation your church is passionate about, or has links with?
It can be helpful to have pioneers share their story via video, to inspire and give specific prayer points.
Foundations 1 | Foundations 2 | Foundations 3 | Toolbox 1 | Toolbox 2