P.O.P. = Power Of Prayer

We’ve started a “P.O.P. Power of Prayer” group. We meet the second Wednesday of the month during all church committee meeting night. The objective is to have a time to get together to pray for the church, the committees and committee members, the activities of the church, the concerns of the church, etc.
Periodically we will take about five minutes to visit the committee’s to see what they might need prayer for. We also take time to pray for the youth groups and time for individual personal prayer requests. Each month has a slightly different theme/approach. We’ve had prayer based on scripture, responsive readings, prayer partners, many different ideas. I usually open with a short devotion and explain the process for the evening.
It’s been a great way to demonstrate to the youth that there are many sides, moods, aspects, etc of prayer. It’s also been great for the church to see the youth involved in this aspect. The youth feel some ownership to what is going on. We’ve been doing this for about 6 months (so only six meeting times). My hope is that they truly begin to see the power they can have through prayer. We’ve also started to keep a prayer journal to better see our results. One immediate result I’ve seen is their openness to participate in “public” prayer — those youth who never pray out loud at youth group have begun to do so during our POP meetings.