As your church begins to seek out how to establish or re-evaluate a prayer ministry, there are some helpful guidelines that we recommend you should use. These guidelines will help give focus for understanding and developing a prayer strategy that is best-fit for your church.

• Biblically Based – Your church’s prayer ministry should be founded in biblical principles that scripture explains. There are many other religions and belief systems in existence that appear to have great ideas as to how to “connect” with God. Unfortunately, however, these ideas do not always match up with how God has laid out instructions for the church in the areas of personal and corporate prayer. If one’s not careful, any believer can unintentionally become a false prophet because they begin to teach their personal opinion and experience in lieu of the truth we find in the Bible. This will mark your prayer ministry for failure before it even has a chance to begin.
  
• Sensitive to the Environment – Every church has various social, cultural, and spiritual needs unique to that body of believers. Your church’s strategy for prayer should be sensitive to this so that everyone who attends your church will be able to make use of your prayer ministry. Being biblically based to begin with will already foster this sensitivity because it is founded in scripture that is already universally applicable. The more options your ministry can offer in the area of prayer to your members, the more people you will have praying and being prayed for.
  
• Widespread in Range – A good prayer strategy should be sure to encourage the development of a ministry that will reach across the masses. This means every area of the church, and attendees who are believers and non-believers, will be saturated in prayer. This widespread range will include personal elements of prayer, as well as corporate and Kingdom elements. A ministry that develops from a strategy which includes these elements will advance prayer to the point that it will be evident in all areas of the life and ministry of each believer, the church, and surrounding community.
  
• Focused on Evangelism – There are lost people living on every street, in every neighborhood, and in every city in the state of South Carolina and beyond. A good prayer strategy will lead the believers in that church to put their focus on prayer that concerns the redemptive work of Christ. As a believer grows in their relationship with Jesus Christ, compassion develops for those in their influence who do not know Him. This compassion overflows into a desire to pray for those lost family members, friends, co-workers, and even strangers they come into contact with. As believers are praying for the lost in their direct influence, they will begin to seek to evangelize and share the Gospel with those they have been praying for.