One helpful practical in running your prayer meeting is to assign people to pray. Yup. You heard me right. Actually assign people to pray BEFORE you start your meeting. There are a few reasons why this is helpful.  To begin, this gets you thinking about what the prayer focus of the meeting will be. Secondly, it provides a great platform in discipling people in your prayer model, praying biblical prayers, and learning to lead the room. You can hand pick people who either have a 'burden' for your prayer focus, and/or people who you want to disciple as prayer leaders. Thirdly, your meeting will simply run much smoother when there is a chosen sequence of people who know they are on the roster. You eliminate the chance of having to search the room for someone to pray spontaneously, or figure out during the meeting who prays and in what order. This relays to the room that you know what you're doing (because you do), and eliminates distractions people have from actually engaging in prayer, which is our goal.

"All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

If there is one thing we can agree on it's this, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. If you don't believe this there are bigger things to worry about than leading a prayer meeting. Irrespective of your church background, age, or history in prayer, we can agree that the words in the Bible are true for us all. This gives us common ground and a place of foundational unity when coming together to pray. We can conclude that the prayers set forth by Jesus and the apostles are reflective of God's highest desires and are worthy of repetitive agreement with Him (and one another) there. When we pray the prayers of the New Testament we are praying guaranteed 'will of God' prayers. The Holy Spirit gave us these prayers to equip us in the place of unified prayer with God. 

As you begin to lead and build you prayer meeting. Chose several (maybe five) Apostolic Prayers in the Bible and use them as your framework that you build your intercession on. Have every intercessor leverage these verses to give them the 'what' to pray for. This will help to bring unity and agreement to all who are there.

The primary role of a prayer leader is…? You guessed it—to lead the prayer meeting. It's important to remember that praying from the microphone is a position of leadership over the room. Now when I speak of 'prayer leader' I use it in the general sense of someone leading the room in a prayer, rather than someone governing the entire meeting as a whole. Your role as the prayer leader is to lead a corporate and enjoyable time of prayer. We must keep in mind that praying from the 'platform' isn't primarily about serving ourselves and getting our 'burden' out. Though it may begin with a burden, leading prayer is about getting the room to engage and bringing their agreement into what is being prayed.

This is why practical things like volume and length are important. Prayers that are screamed tend to be less inviting in corporate meetings than ones that are clearly spoken. I find it hard to agree with a prayer when I can't make out what is being prayed. If anything, it leaves me strained and brings the attention of the room to myself as the leader, rather than the words of my prayer. Likewise, lengthy and longwinded prayers tend to drown out focus and often times lose the engagement of the room, and therefore the agreement of the room. It’s wise to dial things down when leading a prayer meeting, being clear (but with conviction) on what we are praying, while controlling our volume and length to better serve those we lead.

In the end, your meetings will be more enjoyable for everyone. People will begin to connect the dots, and you can begin to corporately move forward in changing your campus or city for Christ.

Worship music during your prayer meeting? As simple as it sounds, it has been the wisdom of God in helping to sustain night and day prayer at IHOP-KC for ten years.  We all love music. We may have different tastes, but there is something about music that touches the soul. So to begin, music makes prayer meetings more enjoyable. Worship music also creates a God-centered culture in prayer meetings. It helps to place our focus on God—and not ourselves. It carries us out of our daily struggles, our classes, and our work, and sets our "minds on things of above." As we stand in His counsel, we find both the strength to pray and specific burdens to pray. We must remember that prayer is a place of partnership with God, and His nearness gives us context to hear His voice. Worship music partnered with prayer transforms prayer meetings from the 'duty' of prayer into the 'journey' of prayer. 'Presence' prayer meetings are far more powerful and enjoyable.

"the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’..." Revelation 22:17

The discovery of our personal story lies in the bigger storyline of God. God is calling His Bride into a deeper place of worship and prayer because it is a place of intimacy and partnership. He is returning to the earth to receive a praying church who is walking in intimacy with Him. Be it simple or complex, large or small, prayer meetings should have one primary motive in common—fellowship with God. My motivation to pray stems from my desire to share in what God has in His heart and to partner with Him in praying it on earth as it is in heaven. My motivation to host or start a prayer meeting should not come from a desire to do something ‘cool', make a name for myself, or grow a ministry. These do not validate success. I pray and call others to prayer, primarily because I want to connect others and myself to the reason for which we have been born. That is, to stand before Him as a redeemed lover and to share and partner with what is on His heart as a friend does with a friend.

Big vision and hype fade quickly in contrast to burning hearts that long to connect with their Bridegroom King—Jesus Christ. Before starting your prayer meeting, present yourself to the Lord and check to see that your motives are pure. This isn't just for your sake, but also for those you hope to lead. Things are more often caught than taught.  Our hidden motives will tend to bleed out in our meetings, or behind the scenes with those we lead. We don't want to send mixed signals on what we are doing and why we are doing it.  This is all for securing pure devotion to Christ and the glory of His name—not ours. It is out of our bridal identity that we say, "Come". We must secure that place of wanting God above all else—even ministry—to fulfill our calling before His return.  May it always be said of us that our primary desire and motivation for all initiatives come from love. Let us work towards this together.