Prayer Requests: Hot or Not

Jon Acuff's post on Stuff Christians Like this week about turning prayer requests into gossip sessions got me thinking about a "presentation" that my friend Amy & I did a few months ago. (Lest you think we're more important than we truly are, it was a presentation to 7 people. At our church. In the basement.)

Anyways, we've co-lead the prayer portion of our weekly Bible Study for a while now and were asked to share some of our ideas/thoughts on group prayer time with the other leaders.

Since we must always act like we're in middle school and can't just do what we're asked to do, we made up a little game to play instead. We called it "Prayer in Small Groups: Hot or Not". We gave the group (yes, all 7 of them) little signs to hold up that said "Hot" and "Not." You get the picture. We would read off an idea about how to do prayer during Bible Study and they'd hold up the "hot" or "not" sign.

Here's your chance to play along. No, there will not be prizes. (I'm not drawing any income on the blog just yet, though I do have two followers now. )

HOT OR NOT:
1. Sharing confidential prayer requests from your group with others (like your best friend or your husband).
2. Prayer Request Prompt: In light of the scriptures we’ve studied this week, how do you need the Lord to change your heart?
3. “I have an unspoken prayer request.”
4. “I feel like this is a close enough group to share this: We need to pray for Betty Jo. Her husband has left her for a younger woman and he left her with a pile of bills to pay and her son was caught smoking at school….and…..and…”
5. Prompt: How can we pray for you this week, specifically? What is coming up in which you need to see Jesus work in your life?
6. “I just need to go off on my co-worker for a minute. She is always listening in on my phone calls and reading my emails over my shoulder and telling me how to do my job and....and.....and......and....."
7. “My hairdresser’s 2nd cousin’s UPS delivery man's dog had puppies and I don’t think one of them is going to make it….”
8. “60 second cleanse”: If the ladies are extra chatty and you think they’ll have a hard time settling into the lesson, give each person 60 seconds (use a stopwatch) to ramble or vent about whatever is on their mind.
9. PYOP: Pray your own prayer request. Instead of going around the circle and giving prayer requests, then praying, just go around the circle and pray for yourself.
10. Pray until you pray.


OK. Tally your score. You should have 5 HOTs and 5 NOTs.

Here's the answer key:
1. NOT: the last thing we want is somebody’s husband approaching a woman at church to ask how her mammogram was.
2. HOT: specific is good
3. NOT: Come on! We're all big girls! We have kleenex. We can handle what's really going on. And, like Jon @ SCL says, if you say "unspoken" we're going to assume the worst....laundering money in the basement coupled with a drug problem!
4. NOT: Get out the gossip goo for this one.
5. HOT: yes, specific is good once again.
6. NOT: This is venting, not a prayer request.
7. NOT: We call this one the "far fetched" prayer request. Deflecting attention off yourself.
8. HOT: Helps us all get the chattiness out of the way.
9. HOT: This made people uncomfortable at first, but it really provided some true encounters with Jesus and also made for a more succinct prayer time.
10. HOT: Don’t be afraid of the “awkward silence.” Keep praying until you feel the Lord’s presence! This has been really helpful in our group’s corporate and individual prayer times.