Here are a few creative ideas for prayer in your group. You could use several of them for an extended prayer time or use them individually to spice up your regular prayer times.

Use a map or globe to pray for different nations of the world. If you have a globe, give it a spin and see which country your finger lands in when you stop the spin. If you have a flat map, have people close their eyes and point to a spot on the map (or throw a dart at the map!). Pray for the missionaries and the gospel to spread in whichever countries are "chosen".
Pray through the Bible. One really fun way to pray is to read the Bible while you're praying. Take a chunk of the Bible (ex. the Gospels, Gen-Deut, Prophets, Epistles, etc.) and people skim through it. As a passage catches their attention, they pray their thoughts (praise, request, confession...whatever). It works best for folks to take turns praying. Don't worry about trying to cover every verse in your prayers. Take about 5 minutes for each section.
Pray with your taste buds. Gather a few items for people to taste (ex. ketchup packet, lemon slice, sugar cube, cilantro, salt, etc.). As you taste the item, take a moment to silently reflect on how the taste reminds you of God. Then have a time of prayer to express these things to God. Sound crazy? Read Psalm 34:8 before you toss this idea!
Prayer positions. Utilize different physical positions to experience prayer differently. Confession - lay prostrate on the floor or kneel. Praise/Thanksgiving - raise your hands high. Requests - hold your hands out with palms open and facing up.
Meditate on an image of the cross (make one out of sticks, draw one, put one on your computer screen, etc.). After a time of reflection, express whatever thoughts have been on your heart related to the cross and Jesus' death for us.
Listen to a song and reflect on its meaning. When the song is done, pray together about the focus of the song.

These are just a few ideas. I know you have some great ideas of your own, so feel free to add a comment and share it with us!

Dave Irwin 10/6/13 Dave Irwin 10/6/13

Finish Line Series Discussion Guide

Part 3 - October 6

Dave Irwin 10/3/13 Dave Irwin 10/3/13

Sharing Your Leadership

One of the best things you will do to develop and strengthen your group is roping in others to help you lead. Brett Eastman wrote about this in an article I want to share with you:

First Corinthians 12:7 says that God gives every believer spiritual gifts for the common good of the body. But if your small group is like most, it's led by just one person—you. Not that you're probably complaining, but that's a huge burden. And it also keeps everyone else from growing in their gifts.

The load usually falls on one person because many leaders feel like the only way to get things done is to do it themselves. And it doesn't occur to group members to volunteer because they don't know that taking on responsibility is part of being a full member of God's family. This contributes to group members thinking they don't have any spiritual gifts because they've never had a chance to experiment. So how do you motivate people to step up to the plate and discover their gifts?

Talk About the Role of Small Groups

Read through Acts 2 as a group and talk about how that community demonstrated all five purposes of the church (fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and worship). Just as that community brought the purposes into their homes—not just into the temple—so should all five purposes be going on in your group. And this requires sharing the load with your group members.

Meet People Where They Are

Deal with shared ownership in a developmental way. Take into account people's spiritual age. If they're seekers—not even sure if they believe in Christ—don't ask them to do anything. Just welcome them into the group. If they're new believers, give them small roles. Don't overwhelm them. If you've got mature believers, you can dump the truck on them. They can certainly handle it.

Also take into account your small-group stage. If your group is brand new, give people baby-step responsibilities. Perhaps you can have a potluck and let everyone bring something. The key here is that you don't want people to be afraid to show up next week because they feel overwhelmed with responsibility. If your group has been together for a while, you can nudge people to take on something bigger. A good first step would be to pass out a sign-up sheet for helping with the group's prayer time, snacks, or icebreaker question.

Learn to Share

Don't expect people to go it alone. Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs. You can ask a couple of people to team up to host a social evening for your group. Or ask two people to share the job of coordinating the prayer list. Teaming up makes it less scary for people.

Make the Ask

The best time to ask people to take on a role is right after a great group meeting. Most will say yes to a responsibility if you ask them then. Ask them to do it for the next three weeks—not forever. Or ask people to coordinate one project. If you ask members for help and the room goes quiet, don't just drop it. Follow up with people after the meeting. If you're nervous to ask for help, remember the Holy Spirit will be right there with you every step of the way.

CoreCurriculum

DiscussionGuides

Talk About the Role of Small Groups

Meet People Where They Are

Learn to Share

Make the Ask

Core
Curriculum

Discussion
Guides