How Does Your Church Share Prayer Requests?

We use a google group. We have a note in our bulletin and newsletter to email the secretary if you want to be added. The group sends the request to the group, when it comes from whatever email address has been added. You can add people in a mass group or one at a time. We've been using it for quite a few years and it works quite well. The secretary also includes each prayer request from the emails in the bulletin under a heading for our church family.

We will be evaluating The Bridge app pretty soon (right now only available in Canada, but coming to US), and we'll see if it makes sense to change to that.

In our congregation we do a bit of both ; i.e. there is a time during the service, just before the congregational prayer where prayers are requested for specific needs, or in the Welcome and Announcements part, and we also share these in the church bulletin, so people will remember to pray for those needing prayers during the week.

Montreal CRC

In our congregation we use a mass email program called Constant Contact to send out Care and Prayer emails to the congregation. These can be emails about deaths, births, medical issues, milestone birthdays or anniversaries, really any cause for joy or sorrow that we can invite our congregation to pray about. People can ask to be added to the contact list and are welcome to remove themselves (unsubscribe) from the list at any time they choose. We do have parameters around what types of prayer requests we do send out (otherwise the recipients can get overwhelmed with emails in their inbox) although there are exceptions for every rule and we remain flexible. We never send out an email without the subjects permission, it is after all their story to tell in the way that they want, and we try to link the subjects email (with permission) so that recipients can directly send them a note of support and encouragement. We have several people on staff that have access to the program so a Care and Prayer email can be sent out virtually any time, although in cases of death I sometimes ask if we an wait a day so we can link the published obituary for all the details of visitation and service. It is a system that works quite well and appreciated by our congregation. 

At Faith Presbyterian CRC (Guam) we have a time in almost all services where we have an open mic, people are invited to come forward to share praises and prayer requests.  A designated person, often an elder or deacon, then leads everyone in prayer for those things we heard.  Sometimes people share a lot and it takes our service into 15-20 minutes longer than our normal hour and a half service, but no one complains.  During the week emails are occasionally sent to the whole congregation, occasionally prayer requests are shared on our church FaceBook page

The CRC churches in Canada are using The Bridge App . This app is designed to have "Prayers" as one of its features. Various church staff have the ability to post prayers on the app. Depending on the type of prayer and the urgency status given to the prayer when it is posted, app users will receive a push notification on their phone and can read the prayer announcement immediately. Other less timely prayers can be assigned a less urgent status in which case app users will read the prayer when they access the app on their mobile device.

In my home church our Pastor, Director of Care, Prayer Chain Organizer and Director of Community Development all have access to publishing rights in the app. Members have expressed a great appreciation for this feature of the app. For some of our snowbirds, they no longer experience the challenge of distance from their church community.

One of our churches had this to say, "This past Spring our congregation lost three members, all to cancer, and all in a short time frame.  Our elders were able to reach our congregation (for prayer support) through The Bridge directory to relay the initial news, and we were so thankful to be able to then use The Bridge to pass along other information regarding the funerals, such as the date and time.  What a wonderful tool to have at our fingertips."

If you have any questions regarding The Bridge App, email [email protected].

At Faith Presbyterian CRC in Guam we usually have an 'open mic' for people to share prayer requests during the service (when we're able to meet) and then an Elder or Deacon leads public prayers including the requests made.  This has it's risks, and we have occasionally had some startling honest requests along with occasional humorous requests, but the risk seems to be worth it because we are a caring church family.  We also send church-wide emails as needed during the week.  We praise God that we have seen many many prayers answered by our great almighty God.  Pastor Tom