Praying Over Your Youth Group

So how many members of your congregation pray each day for a student in your congregation? Have you asked them to? How many students do you lift up in prayer each day?

I believe the one of the most important actions a youth leader can do is to pray for students and offer members of the congregation that same opportunity.

I would encourage you to pray for students by name, ask for individual and personal blessings, and lift up needs (when students share them with you). I found that when I got in the routine of praying for students on a very personal level, I began to care for these students at a far deeper level.  These prayers for students became the best part of my day.  I was blessed by the experience.

I also discovered that there were a significant number of faithful prayer partners in our congregation that were eager to pray for specific students.  Some members would pray for students that were their children or grandchildren.  Others would offer to pray for any student that we assigned to them. I encouraged the students to share prayer needs with their prayer partners and I encouraged the members to follow up regularly with their students.  Some friendships were created that last to this day.

When students learn that they are covered in prayer within their church, it brings a sense of value and it brings an understanding of the power of prayer.

If any folks reading this blog have similar positive experiences with prayer for their students, please share them here. I’m guessing there are some pretty ideas and best practices that could be used in other youth groups as well.