About prayer requests...

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Theygaveutheirworst

Theygaveutheirworst

Senior Member
#1
Jun 25, 2010
707
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#1
I'm just going to post this here, since I couldn't decide what forum I would place this topic in.

I've been teaching a Sunday school class for the past 3 years now and I've come to find this one thing to be difficult to do: Prayer Requests. My church splits( one class for Jr. high boys, Sr. high guys, Jr. high girls, and Sr. high girls) up our youth for Sunday school, and before we split up, we always take up prayer requests from everyone. It usually starts off pretty well until someone becames disinterested in what's going on and starts having a conversation with someone next to them, which causes others to join in on their own conversations with someone next to them, and it normally just takes a couple of minutes before everyone seems to do there own thing and just become distractions to the whole class. We always tell our students to be respectful to those who are speaking during this time, but it just seems to fall on deaf ears every week. So my question is, how do I make them take this time more serious? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is there more of a creative way of taking prayer requests out there? I was thinking about splitting up people into small groups and have an adult/ teacher lead them in sharing their PR's within the group, but it's only one option I could think of. In a room filled with so many teens and distractions, how can I make this time seem more important to them? Maybe you and your class does something different during PR's? If so, don't be afraid to say!
 
S

sportygirl

Guest
#2
#2
Well, one thing you could do would be maybe to pair them off or groups and have them pray for the other person or maybe have everyone write down one thing they want to have prayed for and then put all the requests in a hat and then take the hat around and have everyone pick a request from inside the hat at random and ask everyone to pray for what is on their slip of paper over the next week. Wiht this it could also be annoyomous so if someone is nervous to say their prayer request out loud it might be easier if they wrote it. Oh and if not everyone has one you could pass out the ones that do and then maybe have another pile from other people in the church or that you write for members of the group so that everyone could have a request for the week but not everyone is pressured to write one.

The group thing is good to because smaller groups are easily to manage and you could also break them up into pairs and do prayer requests that way and have them pray for each other.

Also you could make a prayer request board to have with you wherever it is you are meeting, and have people write down there requests on there when they first get there and then either you could read them out loud to the group or you could just pray over them, and that would save the time of having everyone saying them and might keep peoples interest longer.

No matter what though your going to get the kids who don't take it seriously. Everyone is at different stages in their walk and I've noticed with high school and middle schooles especially (i was included in this too at this age) that sometimes they arent at church for the right reasons wether its because their friends go and thats why or because their parents make them go. BUt the good thing is that no matter the reason they are at church the good thing is that they are there and that they are receiving God's message and his heart for them. Pray for them a nd maybe sit down and talk with a few that seem to be getting distracted the most, not necessarily about the importance but just about them I guess...

Hope that was helpful at all, lol! I'm leading my first group this upcoming fall in my college youth group and hope to eventually help out with younger kids at a local church (not sure which one though). And am a bit nervous about that but I love thinking of new ideas and fun stuff to do. :)
 
Theygaveutheirworst

Theygaveutheirworst

Senior Member
#3
Jun 25, 2010
707
9
18
37
#3
I'm liking your first idea, sportygirl. I think I might try that out one Sunday. Thanks for the info, and I hope you do well with the group you will be leading this fall- the nervous feeling will hopefully be gone by then!
 
T

Tinker

Guest
#4
#4
Write the prayer down about what you want to pray about. After you do that a while, you will get used to it and won't have any problems. That's what I did and my Youth Group teacher
 
N

ness

Guest
#5
#5
4 prayers at our church smtimes they let us talk 2 other students/fwends (in like lil groups 2/3 people) and we talk about our problems and we talk more openly becouse the people in our groups are people were cofterpal around (we pick our own groups)and then the people in our group will have all the attention on whos speaking cuz thats there fwend. (It also works good with new mebers of the church cuz they can see that they can open up like the other students in da class)
 
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