Building Prayer Teams

© 2005 Betsy Lee/www.prayerventures.org for Alpha USA/Twin Cities

Are you eager to take your Alpha course to the next level?  Try increasing prayer support. One way to do this is to develop an Alpha Prayer Team—a group of people who are called specifically to pray for your course. We have found that prayer lies at the heart of the success of any Alpha course.  Here are some suggestions to help you start a prayer team.

Getting Started

Who is praying in your church already? Solicit prayer support from prayer groups in your church, midweek prayer meetings, the prayer chain or individual intercessors who can be kept informed by e-mail. Once people volunteer to pray, they need to know what to pray for.

Recruit someone with a heart for prayer to provide weekly prayer requests and praises for answered prayer as the course unfolds. This needs to be someone who is part of the course: a leader or helper who is willing to take on this extra assignment or a person called just to this task. The prayer “scribe” records requests and praises during the weekly course debriefing and passes them on to those who are praying for the course.

In addition to praying for specific requests, everyone praying for the Alpha course can pray the Scripture verses used each week, asking God to reveal life-changing truths through His Word to guests and Leaders alike.

Members of your church who are praying for Alpha can pray at home, while driving to work or at family mealtimes.  Evangelism is a call for the whole church. When you celebrate lives transformed by Christ, the whole church will celebrate with you!

On-Site Prayer Teams

Along with church-wide prayer support, you may want to develop an on-site prayer team. This is a team that comes to the church to pray while the Alpha sessions take place. Typically a team consists of 4-6 members. They commit to come every week or they can take turns, coming on assigned weeks. They may be experienced in intercessory prayer or they may be new to it.  Prayer team members are often Alpha Leaders or Helpers who have served on several courses and are excited to learn a new way to support the course.

Prayer team members should all be familiar with the Alpha course. It is also helpful to provide them with some training in intercessory prayer. Prayer teams are usually trained when the Alpha leadership is trained before the course begins. Some prayer teams provide their own training; others ask intercessors to be part of the standard course training for Alpha Leaders and Helpers.  Either way, it is good for prayer team members to forge a bond with Alpha Leaders and Helpers since they will be supporting them.

During course sessions, intercessors typically meet with the leadership team before guests arrive.  Some eat dinner with the Alpha team; others eat later in the evening. Some intercessors choose to fast the meal to increase their effectiveness in prayer.

Prayer Methods

There are various ways that on-site prayer teams pray for the Alpha course. Here are some methods used:There are various ways that on-site prayer teams pray for the Alpha course. Here are some methods used:

Prayer Walking
Many teams choose to prayer walk the meeting spaces where the course will take place before guests arrive. They walk through the sanctuary or chapel, small group meeting rooms and spaces where guests and Leaders congregate, praying as they walk through these spaces. The purpose of prayer walking is to do a “spiritual house cleaning,” praying out any spiritual darkness that may be there and asking the Holy Spirit to cleanse, consecrate and fill the space with God’s presence.  Some intercessors pray over chairs where guests will sit. They might ask God to meet the individuals who will sit there in a personal and powerful way.

This kind of prayer is often called “on site with insight.” Sometimes while walking through an area where ministry will take place, God reveals a need for prayer that can be prayed over specifically.  Intercessors can pray over that insight when they meet together after the walk.

Anointing 
After prayer walking, teams often separate into twos and threes and go to pray personally for the course Leaders and Helpers, Administrators, Worship Leaders, Kitchen Team Helpers and Nursery Helpers. They pray a prayer of blessing over each person, sometimes laying hands on them or using anointing oil. The purpose is to set them apart and fill them with God’s Spirit for their particular service that evening.

Prayer Rooms 
During the Alpha talk and small group discussion time, prayer teams typically meet in a room set apart for them. Their prayer time together might involve praise and worship (using the Bible or praise music on CDs), confession and a time of intercession for the course, Leaders and guests.  Guests are sometimes invited to write prayer requests on note cards. The prayer team prays over these when they meet together.

Prayer Ministry 
The prayer team is “invisible” to the guests though Leaders and Helpers are well aware of their supportive presence. Alpha Leaders work to cultivate trust with the guests in their small group and it is their chief responsibility to pray with or for their guests if a need for prayer arises. Occasionally though a guest may need special attention, e.g. if they become distraught or overwhelmed dealing with a difficult personal issue.  If this happens, the Leader can take the guest to a designated area where a prayer team member can pray one-on-one with the guest.

The prayer team primarily uses prayer ministry (one-on-one prayer for personal needs) when praying for leaders and helpers. They are available to pray for the Alpha leadership at any time.  Since leaders and helpers are there to minister to guests, it is a gift to be able to receive prayer for their own needs as well. At times leaders can feel fearful, inadequate and overwhelmed by life’s circumstances; often they are the ones most grateful for prayer support. Many prayer teams also assign members to pray regularly for leaders by name for the whole 10-week course.