Stand in the gap

In my church people regularly express that they feel intimidated when they think about prayer. They are unsure what to do, fear they might get it wrong or find it difficult to concentrate. If we have extended times of spontaneous prayer some people are able to engage but others feel too insecure to speak out, worried that they might make a mess of it. That’s why I have found this prayer resource from Jubilee+ so helpful.

Stand In The Gap is a collection of ideas to help individuals and churches pray about poverty in the U.K. It’s been developed by Jubilee+ in partnership with a number of different organisations including CAP, Safe Families and 24-7 Prayer. Each organisation offers a different idea to help people pray about issues of poverty. These ideas are adaptable and are able to be used individually, during a service or as part of a week of prayer.

In a recent service, we used the activity in the resource that has been developed by Home For Good to pray for the 36,000 children who entered the care system in 2023. A couple in our church are foster parents and we see it as part of our ministry as a church family to support them in this. To be able to pray for them, their foster child and for children in the care system felt like a really powerful thing to do.

I also love that each prayer idea includes a way to engage children in the time of prayer. We often have quite a few kids at our service and try our best to tailor our service so they can engage with what’s going on. To have a resource that offers ideas that include all ages really helps make it easy to get the children involved.