Prayer Partners

     Ever thought that being a Christian works better in pairs? I was reading an article in a journal called Ministry about a suggested best way to Minister to people. The author of the article, Robert Carlson, suggested that working in pairs is the best way to work as Christians. I can understand the advice, Jesus recomended that method for His disciples and common sense suggests that working in pairs is a really good way of providing mutual support and encouragement.

     As we aim to be a healthy church we want to develop healthy loving relationships, create passionate spirituality as well as to engage in need-orientated evangelism. An ideal method to do that is by finding a prayer partner, spending time in prayer with your prayer partner and developing a strategy where you can both work together to help people you are praying for.

     The method works like this. You decide that you are going to find yourself a prayer partner. You find someone like you, someone you can both pray and work with. Men working with me is good. A couple of women working together goes well together.

     Once you have decided who you will work with you can figure out times to pray with each other and then sort out a project you can work on together. You might decide that you are going to help 5 people to develop a relationship with Jesus. You could write those names down on the card you can download here.

     Each morning, or whenever you pray, the idea will be that you not only pray for your needs with your partner but you will also work on your strategy to help your 5 people. As you meet, possibly by telephone, you won't only praise God in prayer with your partner, you will also pray for your interests. Of course you will also pray that the Holy Spirit will fill you each day.

     A quick sidestep here. We don't just suggest you pray for 5 people. We are suggesting that you ask the people you are praying for if you can pray for them. This does work, we have found that cross-culturally, people respond to this positively.

     In order to create a relationship with people you actually have to get out and do some relationship activity. You can create a strategy to do this. There are a number of things you can do to help deepen a relationship with a person. Some of those ideas are suggested here

1. Call the people you are praying for - tell them you appreciate a particular skill they have

2. Send them a postcard. God may have given you something to tell them.

3. Call them, pray with them.

4. Invite the person to your house for a meal.

5. Invite them to lunch with you.

6. Give them a magazine you are interested in. I give train magazines to people who are interested in trains and astronomy magazines to those who are interested in the stars.

7. Send a birthday card.

8. Take them something you have baked. Try not to burn it!

9. Invite them to go somewhere with you. It doesn't have to be a place of religious interest.

10. Offer help if they have a need.

Jesus does suggest that the best way to minister to people is in pairs. Why not try the method out? If you have problems you could let me know and we'll see if we can help you. Click here to contact us.