Youth Prayer

In the year 2012, a group of 6-8 Youth Leaders from few of the GMI Churches sensed the concern of growing in the area of prayer. We figured out that many values had been passed on to the next generation; however there seemed to be a lot of scope to embrace the lifestyle of Prayer.

 

Until now, prayer had been seen as an event, for example: Tuesday evening Intercession, quarterly combined prayer meet, etc. Thus, prayer could have remained an “event” for us.

 

We figured out that there’s got to be more than this. Almost all revivals, in church history were birthed out of someone/people praying. Any large Christ centered movement visible today, had its roots many years back with PRAYER. Even the growing success of BBC and GMI has been a result of much prayer in days gone by. Surely, this was something we dint experience completely.

 

We decided to meet once in 3 months to worship and pray. We did this for about 18 months under the guidance of Santosh.

 

We thought it would be a good idea to learn more about different areas of prayer. The idea that opened up was to have a “TRAINING FOR YOUNG PRAYER LEADERS” for all the churches in GMI nation wide in early 2014 at Mumbai. For starters, we dint know how many would consider themselves as a prayer leader, however many across India caught on to this training.

 

GMI as a church movement has many training programs however; we were conducting something like this for the first time. Around 38 participants attended the first training weekend. People came in from Kolkata, Coonoor, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. We were envisioned to get back to our local setting and initiate something about prayer with our youth/church groups.

 

Youth leaders of most churches did go back and try out something…

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MUMBAI CHURCHES:

  1. Bandra – Conducted a half night prayer opened it out for the whole church. It was well received. They plan to have something consistent in the days to come.
  2. Vasai – Continuing their ongoing prayer, and has now seen some breakthrough, resulting in the fruitfulness of the slum ministry
  3. Chembur – They tried an early morning “Prayer Drive” and also had a prayer walk in the near by areas of the Chembur church
  4. Andheri (East and West) – Initiated weekly intercession, running consistent. Plus a bi monthly (once in 2 months) half night prayer. This too is running consistent.
  5. Colaba – They had a season of prayer and fasting prior to their launch of the Youth Service
  6. Kandivali – Started a girl’s prayer meet. Running consistent
  7. Mira Road – Conducted one Prayer walk, and early morning Prayer drive at a near by beach, praying for the city. They plan to do this consistently.
  8. Naigaon – Youth group initiated fasting and praying, followed by a Sunday service where they individually prayed for the congregation. Was well received.

 

OUTSTATION CHURCHES:

  1. Chennai – Initiated weekly intercession, with monthly half night prayer. Also recently did a 30 Day “Awakening Prayer”
  2. Coonoor – Consistent half night prayer. Creativity in prayer. Increasing attendance especially by youngsters. They plan on doing this consistently.
  3. Hyderabad – Weekly intercession, including planned monthly half night prayer. Weekly prayer is going consistent.
  4. Kolkatta – Tried an all night prayer. Good feedback and well received.

 

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To build on this, we at GMI plan to have the 2nd “TRAINING FOR YOUNG PRAYER LEADERS” in 2015.

Dates: 17 – 19 April 2015 (Friday 5PM to Sunday 2PM)

Resource People: David Selvan (Coonoor) and John Elangovan (Mysore)

More details like Cost, Venue etc to follow asap