The following remarks are directed especially to prayer group leaders. These are some of the nuts and bolts of leading a good prayer meeting. Just as the other members must come prepared, so too the leaders must prepare for the meeting.

1). START AND END ON TIME. This is especially true if new people are coming to your meeting. It is important to respect their expectation of the meeting time. This is not to be interpreted rigorously, but with some flexibility according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Starting and ending on time gives a sense of consistency and order to the prayer meeting.

2). LENGTH OF MEETING. A prayer meeting will generally last from 1 to 2 hours. This depends on the size and maturity of the group. A small group, for example, may have a hard time sustaining 1 1/2 hours. If there are new people coming, you can�t go on forever. On the other hand, a mature group flowing in the gifts may go longer. If you have regular teaching, you will need extra time to fit it in.

3). LEADERS MUST MEET AND PRAY BEFORE THE MEETING. There needs to be a core team of leaders who meet together before the prayer meeting to pray for the prayer meeting and plan things such as teachings. The core team should listen in prayer to see if the Lord is giving a specific focus to the prayer meeting. It is better for a team of two people lead the meeting together. One serves as the presider of the meeting and the other serves as a partner who especially helps discern what is going on.

4). GROW INTO LEADERSHIP. It is a mistake to rise to leadership too quickly. When people are put into a leadership position without growing into it, they tend to feel overly responsible, which leads to burnout. It is hard to remember that the Lord Jesus is in charge and let go. Be who you are. Don�t try to take more authority than you have. We need to be prayerfully humble about this, asking the Lord, �What is my authority in this group?� This will depend on our background, our maturity, and how well people know and accept us. Don�t try to be more than you are. Let God raise you to the kind of leadership and authority you should have.

5). LEADER NEEDS TO LISTEN MORE THAN TO SPEAK. A good leader will listen well to what is being said. He will ask, �What is the Lord saying in this?� The leader must exhort the people to be open to God�s word, to ponder it and treasure it. He will lead the group in responding to the Word in an appropriate way; perhaps by a song, or by kneeling down, or by a time of silence. He may direct the group to focus on a particular image and allow it to move their hearts. The leader needs to use wisdom and prudence to pace the meeting, allowing enough time to ponder God�s word, not jumping from one thing to another too quickly. But when one prophecy or word builds on another, it is important to allow this to happen, too. But, in general, we want to avoid the �charismatic smorgasbord� where we get a wide variety of things without really digesting them. Then we come away with no idea what the Lord has said.

Again, the leader must use the wisdom that comes from the Holy Sprit to regulate the flow of the meeting. But a rule of thumb is the following: early in the meeting, the focus is on the praise and worship of God. So if there is a prophecy, etc. at this time, you would normally go right back into praise. But if prophecy, etc. is received later in the meeting, it would be more appropriate to invite people to be quiet and let the Word of God soak in.

6). REMIND ALL OF THE ABC�s. We need to regularly remind each other of the ABC�s in speaking at a prayer meeting:

A�Anointed and Audible.

Be aware of your tendencies. If a lot keeps coming to your mind and you tend to have quite a bit to share with the group, be slower to speak and longer to discern. Is this really for the whole group? If, on the other hand, you dread speaking up, you should be quicker to decide that it is the Lord calling you to speak. Everyone must be discerning and not just shoot from the hip.

What do we mean when we say the word is anointed? It could be a sense that the word comes from God. It could be a thought that comes into our mind and persists and we sense that the Lord is present to us in that thought. A sense that it fits. For someone who is new to prophecy, there could be a very powerful urge to share the word, even physical manifestations such as a pounding heart, etc. Usually the �anointing� becomes more subtle with maturity. This is a very subjective area and you can never be 100% sure that a word is from God, but usually a word is �more certain� or �less certain.� If a word is �less certain,� we usually don�t share it with the group.

B�Brief.

At times someone may be led by the Holy Spirit to lead the people in a longer meditation, etc., but normally we should be brief and to the point. This gives everybody a chance to speak. Again, there is need for wisdom here. For instance, if a new person goes on and on, let them go, but say something to them after the meeting.

C�Christ-centered

The focus should be on Jesus. We�re not just sharing our story; we�re giving glory to God and Jesus Christ. This does not mean we suppress our personality and sound like clones of one another; it means we unite our personality to Jesus Christ. We allow Jesus to shine out through our personality.

Resources used to prepare this teaching:

1). Bringing Prayer Meetings to Life by Fr. Chris Aridas and John Boucher. Excellent!

2). Prayer Group Leadership Development by Ron Ryan. Excellent! The core group in each prayer group should go through this book at least every two years. Some of the chapter titles: �The Role of Charismatic Renewal�; �Understanding Baptism in the Holy Spirit�; �The Role of Prayer Groups�; �Praise and Worship�; �Leading a Prayer Meeting�; �The Role of Music Ministry�; �Understanding and Fostering the Charismatic Gifts�; �Developing a Core Group�; �Dealing with Problem Situations.�