Prayer & Worship Ideas for Your Life Group
Prayer and worship can set the tone for your Story Life Group, as well as create a space for life group members to meet with God. Many individuals (and leaders) come to group with a lot of burdens and distractions from the week, but worship allows us to be still before God, to be quiet and to prepare our hearts for the Life Group meeting.
When leading moments of worship, keep in mind the following ideas:
- Try to create an atmosphere that is conducive to worship and being still before God (whether that includes silence, music, candles, turning down the lighting, etc.).
- Try different things. Don’t be afraid to worship in new ways, even if that means you might try something that doesn’t work a few times.
- Give specific instructions, recognizing that not everyone in your group will understand what to do in silence or even how to pray. Guide people; think of yourself as their tour guide and you are leading them through a worship time with the goal of leading them to God.
- Be creative.
Three Ideas for Prayer & Worship
Here are some ideas to create an environment for prayer and worship in your weekly Life Group meetings. Many of these can be done in 5-15 minutes at the start of group and then followed by the Story discussion.
Prayer
–Ask the group to prepare and quiet their hearts before God. Allow them to pray as they feel led.
–Ask the group to share what’s on their hearts, and then allow time for silence and prayer.
–Check out this website and play one of the 10-minute recordings at Life Group: www.pray-as-you-go.org.
–Share prayer requests and pray for one another. Do this as a big group or break into prayer partners.
Bible Reading
–Ask the group to close their eyes or get in a posture of worship to God. Read aloud a Psalm, a short passage from your weekly Story reading, or another passage of Scripture. Read it over the group 2-3 times and then invite them to respond by praying aloud or silently.
–Read a passage from the Bible about gratitude and then invite people to share what they are grateful for.
Music
–If a group member plays a musical instrument, lead in a time of praise. Or if music is unavailable, lead a time of acapella singing.
–Play a CD worship song and allow the group to respond in prayer.
Click here to download instructions for a worship exercise you can consider leading at the start of your Story Life Group. The exercise is called Lectio Divina, meaning “divine reading”, and it’s the practice of reading the Bible slowly and intentionally as a way of inviting God to speak to you through his Word.