Praying Scripture in Small Groups
Praying Scripture can be a great boost to a small group and will have the added bonus of teaching small group members how to use Scripture to guide their prayers. Most of the individual practices for praying Scripture can easily be converted to group settings. Depending on the nature of your small group, it may be appropriate to pray biblical prayers, other portions of the Bible, or passages around topics of the Bible.
There are a variety of ways you could use Praying Scripture in a small group. A whole small group meeting once every few months or so could be given over to just praying Scripture, perhaps around a specific topic or concern within the group. Using the Praying Scripture Resource page, the leader of the group could come to the group with the passages picked out or invite the members to bring their own passages.
Another option for praying Scripture in a small group is to use the time of prayer as a culmination after a long period of study on a specific passage or a book. After studying for a number of weeks, ask group members to come ready to pray specific passages to complete the study. If your study has included a biblical prayer, pray that prayer as a group.
Sue Skalicky writes about how her life was dramatically changed by praying Scripture for intercessory prayer. She outlines a method of doing this in groups that includes having each member choose a verse that speaks to a specific situation in his or her life, bringing it to the group, and then sharing it with a partner. The partner is then responsible for praying that verse for that person throughout the week. Each week, members bring in new verses. This method lets people see how Scripture relates to their lives and lets them feel loved by their group members, knowing that another is praying specifically for their situations.
Praying Scripture is about responding to rather than just saying the words of Scripture. Small groups are a great tool to both learn how to pray Scripture and to experience the life-changing influence of praying Scripture with other believers.
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© Phil Collins, Ph.D., 2014. This material was created in partnership with the Taylor University Center for Scripture Engagement.