Why Few People Attend Prayer Meetings

Phil Miglioratti recently posted on his blog site, The Prayer Leader Blog the following...

Question: Every time we plan a prayer meeting at our church there are very few people who attend. This gets discouraging. Any suggestions?

Answer: Unfortunately, this is something we hear from just about every church we come into contact with. First of all, it is important not to become discouraged because of the small turnouts. Be excited about the people who DO show up and continue to ask the Lord to show you how to plan prayer meetings that will engage the rest. Prayer meetings frighten most people because they are uncomfortable praying out loud and/or corporately.

Prayer has largely been taught as an individual spiritual discipline, so the majority of the people in your church have little experience praying with one another. Another reason people don't attend prayer meetings is that they are often very dull (we've all been there). It seems that either prayer requests take up most of the prayer time with very little actual prayer; or, participants pray for random requests with no focus.

When individuals leave a prayer meeting, they should feel confident that their prayers accomplished the plans and purposes of God. Two very good resources on how to plan the kind of prayer meetings that excite people and touch heaven are:

And the Place was Shaken (How to Lead a Powerful Prayer Meeting) by John Franklin

Fresh Encounters (Experiencing Transformation through United Worship-Based Prayer) by Daniel Henderson

(http://prayerleader.blogspot.com/2007/09/why-so-few-prayer-meeting.html)

I just ordered the first book and look forward in reading it.

Praying for Revival!

Bryan